Hands That Hold: Family Archives Transformed Through Collage and Ceramics
Curated by Claudia Goulet-Blais
January 10 - 11, 2026
Opening Reception: January 9th, 2026
Developed through a series of workshops led by artist-in-residence Claudia Goulet-Blais, this exhibition emerged in collaboration with students at Carson Graham Secondary School during Griffin Art Projects YouthHUB program. Following a studio visit in which students were introduced to her work, Goulet-Blais invited them to explore how care and support can be expressed through gesture and body language. Alongside the unique opportunity to present work in a formal gallery setting, the project also offered students insight into a professional artists’ creative process, the stages involved in developing an exhibition, and the broader realities of an emerging artistic practice.
Through conversation, collaborative drawing and writing, collage, and the transfer of images onto ceramics, the students transformed their own family photographs into new material forms. The works presented reflect their personal interpretations of care and support within family archives, revealing how gestures of care are carried, remembered, and transferred across generations.
Participating Student Artists: Parnian Afzal Nia, Marin Barraclough, Sage Bennett, Samantha Boylan, Ghazal Dashti, Naomi Embley, Alix Fouchereau, Leoncine Fossourier, Arnoosh Hajmehdi, Medalea Hanley, Madison Horgan, Lina Kang, Abin Kashaneh, Daniel Kim, Kas Kinney, Kaitlyn McIlroy, Bruno Salazar, Vida Salehifard, Celine Seyedi, Mimi Shimono, Sophie St-Laurent, Victoria Rendon Natalia Titus, Naira Virabyan, Kai Wai-Gunnarsson, Sigrun Wai-Gunnarsson
Claudia Goulet-Blais (b. 1996, Montréal) is a Vancouver-based photo installation artist whose practice centres on intergenerational kinship and performing for the camera with those close to her. Working with analog photography, ceramics, and archival imagery, she creates photographs and sculptural works reflecting relational dynamics through body language, and gesture. Her work investigates aging, shared memory, and the labour of care, engaging photography as image and object. She holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and has exhibited at FOFA Gallery, Unit_302, and Gallery 881, with residencies at NES (Skagastrond), Similkameen (Okanagan), and Griffin Art Projects (Vancouver).
YouthHUB is an educational program designed to foster critical and creative engagement in the arts. Educators can work with Griffin's Artist-in-Residence and Public Programming Coordinator to develop a program offering tailored to your students’ needs.
YouthHUB engages youth with artists and cultural producers working in their studios, providing valuable insights into the day-to-day flow and process of creative professionals. Griffin is able to provide youth with a wide spectrum of engagement opportunities, from art making, to research, critical thinking and community outreach.
Our goal is to work with school educators to create a welcoming space where youth feel at home to gather for informative sessions, debates, and intimate chats with Griffin’s artists in residence and program staff. In this way, Griffin aims to create a sense of autonomy and independence, fostering young patrons for the visual arts, who will potentially go on to cultivate artistic careers of their own.
Images (Header and Above) Courtesy of Claudia Goulet-Blais.