GRIFFIN–SIMILKAMEEN RESIDENCY EXCHANGE

ANNOUNCING A NEW COLLABORATION WITH SIMILKAMEEN ARTIST RESIDENCY (SAR)

Log House Exterior; Image Courtesy of SAR, PC. Reiko Inouye

The Emily Carr University MFA Graduate Award, North Shore Studio Award, and BIPOC Award will provide artists based in the Lower Mainland with a one month retreat at the Similkameen Artist Residency in Keremeos, BC in 2026. Awardees will be provided with access to a large and well-maintained semi-private studio space, a private bedroom, and shared communal spaces on a rural property nestled in the Similkameen Valley.

The Okanagan Curator Award will provide an Okanagan-based curator with a one month residency at Griffin Art Projects in North Vancouver in 2026. Along with private accommodations, Griffin will also provide the awardee with meaningful introductions to artists and curators within the Metro Vancouver area to advance their professional curatorial practice.

2026 Award Winners

Griffin Art Projects (Griffin) and the Similkameen Artist Residency (SAR) are thrilled to announce the Griffin–Similkameen Residency Exchange Initiative which will take place in 2026. This Griffin–SAR Awards series provides professional development opportunities for Lower Mainland and Okanagan-based artists and curators. Built on awards which Griffin has been providing Lower Mainland artists since 2016, three visual arts residency opportunities in the Similkameen Valley and one curatorial residency in North Vancouver will be awarded in 2026.

Outside of Log Cabin;Image Courtesy of SAR

BIPOC Award: Wei Cheng

Photo: Roy Hoh

Wei Cheng is a Vancouver-based artist whose practice centers on ceramics and the integration of found objects. She studied at Langara College and Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where she developed a refined technical foundation and a deep appreciation for the expressive potential of clay.

At the heart of Wei’s work is her thoughtful observation of the nuance within fleeting moments of everyday life. Her works exemplify her pondering through deliberate unions of fired clay and found materials. She approaches material as both archive and language, exploring how form and surface can retain memory and meaning.

Taihu Dream-002, 2025; 7.5*7*6 in.

Photo: Wei Cheng

North Shore Studio Award: Rachel Crane

Photo: Adolfo Bermudez

Rachel Crane is a mixed media sculptor based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, BC). Her practice investigates how space is understood through objects, exploring how distance, framing, and geometry function as a language that mediates the relationship between architecture and the human body. She also engages themes of text and humor, and reflections of her Guatemalan and mixed cultural identity, expressed through 3D forms.

¿Es Chapina?, 2025; 5.2ft x 3ft

Photo: Rachel Crane

Emily Carr University MFA Graduate Award: Jennifer Wood

Jennifer Wood (b. 1993, Calgary) is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist who examines the home as a space suspended between public idealization and private fracture. Working with structural and decorative building materials, she creates immersive environments that heighten sensory perception and unsettle familiar interior forms. Her practice considers how trauma is carried in the body rather than resolved through narrative, attending to the tensions between visibility and concealment. Through a sustained critique of gendered labour, she examines the invisible work of maintenance, care, and concealment that sustains the private sphere. She is currently completing her MFA at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and holds a BFA from the University of Lethbridge. Her work has been presented at Casa, The Penny Building, and The Helen Christou Gallery.

How Can I Leave When You’re Always Listening?, 2026, 8’x8’x8’

Photo: Jennifer Wood

Okanagan Curator Award: Victoria Verge

Photo: Zev Tiefenbach

Victoria Verge is a Canadian curator and artist based in Kelowna, B.C., where she serves as Curator at the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Her curatorial practice focuses on contemporary art in relation to place, shaped by feminist and decolonial approaches, with a commitment to accessibility and artist-centred presentation.

She holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and a BFA from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Verge has exhibited nationally and was the recipient of the Audain Travel Award in 2023. In 2025, she was selected for the Canadian Forces Artists Program, advancing her research in the intersections of domestic life, mobility, and militarized experience.

Alongside her curatorial work, Verge maintains a studio practice shaped by her upbringing in a military family and her roots in Newfoundland. Working through sculptural and installation-based practices, her work draws on domestic and folk traditions to examine how militarized and patriarchal structures shape experiences of home, memory, and childhood from within.