The University of British Columbia
Robson Square
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2023 International Comic Arts Forum: Artist Keynote Talk featuring Haida Graphic Artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
April 21, 2023
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
at UBC Robson Square (map)
About the Event
The International Comic Arts Forum was founded in 1995 and is an academic conference dedicated to promoting the scholarly study and appreciation of comic art, including comic strips, comic books, comics albums and graphic novels, magazine and newspaper cartooning, caricature, and comics in electronic media.
As part of its three days of programming, ICAF is hosting its Artist Keynote featuring Haida Manga graphic artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, with the support of Connects at Robson Square. The talk is titled “Just Making Up Stuff” and will address one of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’s longstanding concerns of how to set up a comic book practice. This talk is about his approach to processing and technique, specifically about the choices about how to extend a story across a violent cultural cleavage using art and narrative.
This event will be catered by the Musqueam catering company Salishan Catering and also highlight the work of local and Indigenous cartoonists in an Artists’ Alley that will run alongside it. Be sure to RSVP to save your spot!
Event Schedule
6:30 PM – Reception and artist’s alley
7:30-9:00 PM – Keynote with Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Speaker
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a contemporary artist whose wide-ranging artistic practice explores themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition. Influenced by both Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, he has created an artistic practice that crosses diverse cultures, generations, and disciplines in search of accessibility and engagement as a counterpoint to stratification and isolation. Institutional collections include the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, and Vancouver Art Gallery.
Moderator
Nicola Levell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, with expertise in critical museology and curatorial practice; the history of museums and museum anthropology, visual and performative arts and storytelling. Prof. Levell’s research and publications focus on exhibitions, collections history, public and performing arts and storytelling. She has curated exhibitions and art installations in the United Kingdom, Portugal, the United States and Canada. Her recent books include the edited volume Bodies of Enchantment: Puppets from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas (2021) and the monograph Mischief Making: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play (2021) which explores the intersections of oral narratives and graphic practice in the work of Yahgulanaas, the celebrated Haida manga artist.
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