Brain Child. An idea or invention that is considered a particular creation.

Featuring Caro Embling, REDRUM, and Gabriel Ostapchuk.

May 3 - 31, 2025

 

Opening Reception / May 3 from 6-8pm / Free & open to the public.

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“In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we are proud to present an insightful new exhibition that celebrates the voices and visions of three extraordinary artists. Unlike previous years, where we showcased work selected through an open call, this year we’ve taken a more intentional and personal approach—curating a show that brings together three artists we’ve never worked with before, each of whom brings a deeply individual perspective shaped by their own experiences with mental health. Their works are as diverse as their journeys, offering an honest exploration of what it means to live, create, and thrive living with mental illness.”

Yuri Arajs / Artistic Director and Curator

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Caro Embling is a Vancouver-based artist and art therapist whose work draws deeply from personal and collective experiences with mental illness. Trained at Cardiff School of Art in Wales, she transitioned from painting to sculpture to explore themes of identity and gender. After immigrating to Canada, Caro dedicated herself to community-based art and later became an art therapist, supporting individuals living with trauma, HIV, addiction, and mental illness.

Her own journey through chronic fatigue syndrome and depression brought her to The Art Studios—a space for creative recovery—where she reconnected with her art practice and began teaching again.

In this exhibition, Caro explores fragility: the rawness of anxiety and depression, the tenderness in vulnerability, and the damage we inflict on the earth. Using materials like thread and tracing paper, she captures both the delicacy and resilience of the human experience, inviting viewers to find strength and beauty in what feels broken.

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Redrum

I work in a variety of mediums from stickers, stencils and spray paints, and wheat-paste posters.

Key themes for my work are me as a child and my love for different fonts.

Although I struggle with medical issues including CPTSD, Anxiety, ADHD, Fibromyalgia and Epilepsy, I hope to keep my sanity and add a layer to Vancouver’s street art scene. I constantly collaborate with my AYS crewmates and we plan to poster bomb the city with stickers and paste-ups.

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Gabriel Ostapchuk is an artist with a deep love and respect for mother earth.

Using a combination of spray paint and brushes, Gabriel creates vibrant and saturated abstract and surreal scenes. Drawing upon local culture and natural surroundings to create impactful and meaningful works of art that add value to the communities and people it touches.