• Memories of the Future III, curated by Katherine Dennis. reviewed in Canadian Art:

  • How Far Do You Travel?

    How Far Do You Travel?

    I'm super excited to be part of How Far Do You Travel?, produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery in partnership with Translink. More information soon!

  • New public art works that engage the senses coming to Vancouver

    Public art works that cannot only be seen but also heard or tasted are coming to Vancouver.

    The six artist-initiated projects reflect the diversity of contemporary artistic practices in Metro Vancouver, according to Eric Fredericksen, City of Vancouver’s public art program manager.

    By Kevin Griffin
    The Vancouver Sun December 20, 2017

    ...
    "Diyan Achjadi: Achjadi will be making a series of handmade prints to contrast with the digital images of advertising posters found on construction hoarding. At the end of the project, she’ll produce a book or portfolio of the series"
    ....

  • At Façade Festival, size matters as projected artworks animate the Vancouver Art Gallery

    Shawn Hunt and Diyan Achjadi are just two of the artists spreading more than pretty colours across the historic building

    By Alexander Varty
    The Georgia Straight August 29, 2017

    ...
    “I always like to think of pictures, in general, as portals to another world,” she adds. “I like making pictures because I like the way that they share the space of fiction, where anything can happen. You can make propositions that might be absolutely impossible, but yet kind of live as a proposition, and maybe spark a thought towards the possibility.…That’s something I always consider in making my work.”

    In creating her piece for the Façade Festival, Achjadi has also considered its site, although not so much its history as its architectural qualities. “Its neoclassical form is deemed to be the epitome of colonial European structures that sort of demonstrate a particular type of power, and so I wanted to work in a visual language that was the opposite of that visual language,” she says. Consequently, she’s working with fanciful images of clouds and islands, influenced by Indonesian textile design and thus evoking “women’s work”, as opposed to the patriarchal justice system.
    ...


  • Cultural Conflation highlighted in The Vancouver Sun and The Georgia Straight as must-see Fall 2016 exhibitions!

    My upcoming exhibition, Cultural Conflation, has been highlighted in the Fall Arts Preview for Vancouver:

    www.straight.com/arts/782786/fall-arts-… The Georgia Straight: Fall arts preview 2016 visual arts critics' picks: Hybrids emerge from spaces in between|

    vancouversun.com/entertainment/local-ar… The Vancouver Sun: Fall Arts Preview: Local art works part of global and historical conversation|

  • Residue: Tracing the Lore at Open Studio Gallery, Toronto

    Residue: Tracing the Lore at Open Studio Gallery, Toronto

    Open Studio Gallery
    401 Richmond Street West
    Suite 104
    Toronto, Ontario

    Opening Reception: September 16th, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
    Exhibition on view September 16 - October 15 2016

    Residue: Tracing the Lore, a collaboration between Brendan Tang and Diyan Achjadi, explores the ways that ornamental motifs can reveal or reflect histories of migration. Through imprinting fragments of images onto their own skin, as well as those of close relatives, this project asks how familial lore and traditions are transmitted, and the residues that they leave upon us.

    The process of the making the imprint is intimate and fleeting: a tile is chosen, then strapped on to the body. When the strap is loosened and the tile removed revealing the image, the body immediately readjusts and the skin begins to regain its original shape. The imprints are ephemeral and in flux, lasting mere minutes. They are documented before the pattern loses its crispness. The resulting photographs focus closely on the embossed skin and its imperfections: hair, pores and moles intermingling ornamental fragments.

    The works in Residue reflect multiple transferences of imagery, from drawing to object to print to photograph. A series of relief tiles are translated from sketches into 3D-printed tiles that are then blind embossed into skin. The resulting impression is documented through photography, and digitally printed onto paper. Through exploration of these processes, Residue: Tracing The Lore is an investigation into the language of printmaking’s material possibilities, as well as its function as a means for the transference of ideas and images.

    Residue: Tracing the Lore at Open Studio Gallery, Toronto

  • Bienal Douro

    Bienal Douro

    Two of my prints included in the Bienal Douro international printmaking exhibition in Douro, Portugal, August 10 - October 31, 2016

    Bienal Douro

  • Upcoming Exhibitions, 2016

    Upcoming Exhibitions, 2016

    photo by Paul Litherland

    Upcoming exhibitions Summer and Fall 2016

    PATTERN MIGRATION: DIYAN ACHJADI, SOHEILA ESFAHANI, SANAZ MAZINANI
    Art Gallery of Mississauga

    July 14, 2016 - September 11, 2016
    Opening Reception: July 14, 6 pm
    Curator: Kendra Ainsworth

    Throughout history ceramic objects decorated with patterns have traveled the world. Moved by mechanisms of trade, colonialism and migration, they serve as portable markers and transmitters of cultural information. Three artists take these objects and their ornamentation as a starting point, creating works that act as emblems of migration, cultural exchange and hybridization.

    RESIDUE: TRACING THE LORE (collaborative project with Brendan Tang)
    Open Studio

    Toronto, Ontario
    September 16 - October 15, 2016
    Opening: Friday September 16, 2016

    More information and images from the Residue series

    CULTURAL CONFLATION: DIYAN ACHJADI AND SHAWN HUNT
    Richmond Art Gallery

    October 15, 2016 - January 3, 2017
    Opening Reception: Friday, October 14, 2016
    Curator: Nan Capogna

    Vancouver artists Diyan Achjadi and Shawn Hunt explore art forms that have been appropriated by other cultures, often resulting in a conflation of both. Achjadi’s prints and multi-media works reference to 18th- and 19th-century porcelain paintings and textile designs, medieval bestiaries, chinoiserie motifs, Javanese batik patterns, and fragments from Dutch maps have been combined to create grisaille prints and colourful collages. Meticulously made and dense with iconographic components, the resulting works bring together a myriad of cultural elements to create a new reality. Shawn Hunt’s sculptural works draw from western art history and combine with traditional Northwest Coast carved forms. The forms, carved by Hunt or procured from his father, Bradley Hunt and brother, Dean, also a carver, include components such as rattles, spoons, model totem poles, canoes and masks. Hunt’s new constructions and Achjadi’s drawings and prints provide a rich fusion of cultures that call forward complex and sometimes contentious histories.

  • Exhibition at Centre MAI, Montreal opening Thursday November 5!

    Exhibition at Centre MAI, Montreal opening Thursday November 5!

    Solo exhibition of drawings, prints and animations opening at Centre Montreal, Arts Interculturel (MAI) this Thursday! It's the first outing for most of these works, and I am excited to see it all together in this space.

    Exhibition is up until December 12, 2015
    Centre MAI

  • Residue: Tracing The Lore at Malaspina Printmakers Gallery

    Residue: Tracing The Lore at Malaspina Printmakers Gallery

    Brendan Lee Satish Tang & Diyan Achjadi
    Residue: Tracing the Lore

    September 11 to October 11, 2015

    Malaspina Printmakers Gallery


  • Collaboration with Glen Lowry in The Capilano Review

    FabPac!, a collaborative piece made in dialogue with Glen Lowry, is in this month's issue of the Capilano Review: Pacific Poetries

    FabPac!
    Glen Lowry

    Both paper and electronic ssues can be purchased here

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  • Bieniale Internationale D'Estampe Contemporaine Trois Rivières

    Prints from the series Venationes, produced at the Frans Masereel Centre in 2014, are included in the Bieniale Internationale D'Estampe Contemporaine.
    Exhibition is up June 21- September 6, 2015

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  • *Recommended Daily Allowance* screened as part of GIV's 40th anniversary

    Faire de Histoire at Centre Vox

    Honored to be included in GIV le 40e curated by Petunia Alves and Anne Golden:

    "We rely upon artists. They are the backbone and foundation of GIV. Artist-producers formed GIV 40 years ago. Artists have always directed the centre. We determined that it was only natural to express our long, complex and varied history through artists/videos that have been or are associated with GIV. The videos in our collection travel the world. They are the reflection of shifting technologies and affinities. We are currently one of a handful of centres worldwide that focus on works created by women artists.

    "Currently, GIV represents 330 artists and 1,260 videos. The works in GIV le 40e represent a snapshot of our collection and history. There are 40 videos organized chronologically by date of production representing specific periods of GIV’s history. These works reflect the diversity of practices, themes and technologies in video art history. A variety of archival material (posters, catalogues, photographs) are added to the selection of videos.

    "In this exhibition are glimmers of a video past, ghostly images generated by obsolete cameras, recorders and editing devices. In this exhibition are echoes of a video present, a heady mix of both old and new technologies at the service of inventive artists. As for a video future, the medium has been declared dead on more than one occasion. And yet here we stand, poised for the next 40 years.

    "GIV le 40e is the first of a series of events scheduled in 2015 celebrating this important anniversary."

    You can see a snippet of the video here

    **********

  • Wonder Women preview on the Twin Cities Daily Planet

    |http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/12/29/zap-pow-snap-wonderwomen-katherine-nash-gallery|Zap! Pow! Snap! "WonderWomen" at the Katherine Nash Gallery By Terri Peterson Smith
    ********

  • Wonder Women preview in the Minnesota Monthly

    "Wonder Women" Shows Off Minnesota Female Artists in Comics and Pop Culture: An exhibition featuring women artists in comics and pop culture who opened up the old boys’ club—for good
    by Quinton Skinner

    "Wonder Women" Shows Off Minnesota Female Artists in Comics and Pop Culture
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  • Sign Off playing as part of WONDER WOMEN: NASH GALLERY SHORTS

    Part of the Wonder Women On Screen series, this collection of short films, curated by the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, showcases some of the most innovative work by women artists and filmmakers.

    Wonder Women: Nash Gallery Shorts
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  • Wonder Women at the Katherine Nash Gallery, UNM, Minneapolis

    I'm excited to be part of Wonder Women, an exhibition at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery of work by women artists inspired or influenced by comics, animation or popular culture, and related screenings of work by women filmmakers presented by the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul.

    List of artists in the exhibition:
    Diyan Achjadi, Alison Bechdel, Dara Birnbaum, Carolina Borja, Nina Braun, Jennifer Camper, Deedee Cheriel, Sally Cruikshank, Jennifer Cruté, Disorientalism (Katherine Behar, Marianne M. Kim), Mary Doodles, Cheri Gaulke, Michela Griffo, Nicole Houff, Anna Hrachovec, Mari Inukai, Maya Kern, Sivan Kidron. Pelin Kirca, Barbara Kruger, Hyein Lee, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Paola Luciani, Lupi McGinty, Stephanie McMillan, Leah Moreno, Jackie Ormes, Rebecca Parham, Sara Pocock, Barbara Porwit, Samantha Rei, Trina Robbins, Betye Saar, Jenny Schmid, Barbara Schulz, Rena Simon-Igra, Ema Smoluchowski, Jen Sorensen, Meni Tzima, Amandine Urruty, The Waitresses (Jerri Allyn, Anne Gauldin)
    *********

  • Merapi on the cover of Wayde Compton's new book, The Outer Harbour

    I'm honoured to have Merapi on the cover of Wayde Compton's new collection of short stories, The Outer Harbour.

    More information on the book here.

    The Outer Harbour will be launched at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch on October 19th
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  • CRAM biennial, 2013

    Honored to be included in the CRAM International - CT-International Print Biennale at Galeria Luz y oficios in Havana, Cuba, February 15 - March 15, 2013
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  • Overflow included in Animation Automation at the Centre For Art Tapes, Halifax, 2012

    Overflow included in Animation Automation, curated by Liz MacDougall, at the Centre for Art Tapes in Halifax, NS
    *********

  • Camouflagehead plays at the Edgy Women Festival, 2012

    Camouflagehead included in the J'Act / I Act programme at the Edgy Women Festival, curated by Eugénie Cliche
    *********

  • Me Love You Long Time at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, 2012

    Sign Off and Fanfare included in Me Love You Long Time at Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ. Curated by Edwin Ramoran.
    February 16 - April 14, 2012
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  • The Further Adventures of Girl at AGGVA, 2011

    The Further Adventures of Girl goes to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
    July 15, 2011 - October 16, 2011
    Curated by Nicole Stanbridge
    The LAB Gallery

    Opening on July 14th 2011; Artist talk and animation screening on September 15, 2011

    Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
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  • Here is There is Here, Aberdeen Canada Line Station, 2011

    Here is There is Here, a series of four prints, is up at the Aberdeen Canada Line Station
    A public art project for the City of Richmond

    No 3 Road Columns Press Release
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  • New Public Art Project at Aberdeen Station!

    Here is There is Here is a series of four drawings currently on display at Aberdeen Canada Line Station as part of the No. 3 Road Columns /Richmond Public Art. It will be up until October 2011.

    No. 3 Road Columns

    New Art Columns at Canada Line Stations

  • Girl in the City Premiers at the Granville / Robson screen!

    Girl in the City, my first public art project, is now screening at the video screens on the North East corner of Granville and Robson.

    The four short animations, featuring Girl as she traverses Vancouver and interacts with various city landmarks, are interspersed with the regular programming of the screen, and will be shown throughout the day.

    The project was commissioned by the City of Vancouver Public Art with the support of Vancouver 125 and the participation of the Government of Canada.
    *********

  • The Further Adventures of Girl at the Definitely Superior Gallery, Thunder Bay

    February 12 - March 12, 2011
    The Further Adventures of Girl

    at the Definitely Superior Gallery. Artist talk and opening tonight, February 12 2011 at 7pm.
    *********

  • Merapi and Stadium:Warming Up included in Construction Sites: Identity and Place

    Kamloops Art Gallery
    October 18 to December 31, 2010
    Co-curators, Craig Willms and Annette Hurtig

    The Construction Sites: Identity and Place exhibition presents works by contemporary artists who investigate and reflect on the social construction of identity and the production of social space. Made over the past several decades, the works in the exhibition respond to developments in feminist, gender, queer and postcolonial theories. The exhibition concept takes a cue from Henri Lefebvre’s thinking about alienation and modernity, the nature of society, and social revolution as a revolution in everyday life. In his writing Lefebrve speaks about producing one’s life as one would a work. Might we likewise produce our own identity? Or is identity determined by society? And, with the dramatic mobility of information, goods and people aimed for by corporate globalization strategies, what is the relationship between our identity and the places we inhabit?

    Construction Sites Exhibition Tours
    Conducted by co-curators Annette Hurtig and Craig Willms
    Thursday, October 28
    7:00 to 8:30 pm
    Saturday, November 6
    1:00 to 2:30 pm

    Join Annette Hurtig and Craig Willms for a guided tour of the Construction Sites exhibition. The treatment of identity and place in works by artists such as Diyan Achjadi, Rebecca Belmore, Allyson Clay, Andy Fabo, Jim Logan, Ken Lum, Al McWilliams, Nan Duc Nguyen, Sharon Yuen, Jin-me Yoon and Tania Willard will be analyzed and discussed.

    Kamloops Art Gallery
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  • The Dig / Let's Twist Again

    Centre A's exhibition, The Dig, includes the banner See Girl Look (digital print on silk, 2004). See it before it's put in storage again, eth show ends on September 25, 2010.


    |http://www.centrea.org/|Centre A
    2 West Hastings St.
    Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6B 1G6

    Check out the e-catalog here
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  • Kamloops Art Gallery acquires some prints!

    Honored that the Kamloops Art Gallery now has my work in their permanent collection!

    Kamloops Art Gallery
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  • *Daniel Cooney Emerging Artist Auction!*

    only 24 hours left to bid... A small version of Duck and Cover is included in this auction. Lots of great prints, photos, and other works available, with only a 200$ reserve.

    Auction website

    Daniel Cooney Gallery

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  • Sugar Bombs reviewed by Bart Gazzola

    Sweet and Sexy Sugar Bombs
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  • Interview on CKUT / XX Files Wednesday, March 3

    In conversation with Valerie Walker on the XXFiles at CKUT Montreal - 90.3 FM -

    mp3 of the interview
    CKUT
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  • Short interview in VerbNews (Saskatoon)

    A brief mention of the work in Sugar Bombs in Verb News
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  • The Further Adventures of Girl / Les nouvelles aventures de Girl opens at Oboro in Montreal, March 6

    March 6 – April 10, 2010
    Opening Saturday, March 6, 2010, at 5 pm,
    preceded by a guided visit and discussion with the artist at 4:30 pm

    Under the veil of a candy aesthetic, The Further Adventures of Girl by Diyan Achjadi
    conceals a tacit violence. The artist questions the role of popular culture in the
    construction of national identities, and releases a worrisome program from a cauldron
    of acidulated colors.

    Oboro
    *************

  • Profiled podcast on Mendel Gallery Blog

    Listen to me talk about printmaking, being an artist, teaching, and not making money from my work

    Mendelog Podcast
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  • Sugar Bombs at the Mendel Art Gallery

    Sugar Bombs: Diyan Achjadi and Brendan Tang is on view at the Mendel Gallery in Saskatoon, SK until April 5, 2010

    Mendel Art Gallery
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  • Front Magazine cover and interview

    Check out Front Magazine's Winter 2009 Issue -- Merapi on the cover and an interview with me inside
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