Richmond Art Gallery explores Japan-Canada cultural exchange

A seven-year cultural exchange between Richmond and Tokyo is coming to Richmond Art Gallery this summer.

Opening July 25, Ongoing / Pacific Crossings brings together artists from Japan and Canada in an exhibition that explores migration, identity, memory, and cultural connection through installation, sculpture, video, painting, drawing, and performance. The exhibition is the culmination of a collaboration between Richmond Art Gallery, independent curator Makiko Hara, and Tokyo's Art Center Ongoing, an independent gallery, library, and café known for championing experimental contemporary art.

The project grew out of Pacific Crossings, a B.C.-based curatorial initiative that aims to build relationships between artists, curators, and cultural organizations across Asia and Canada. Richmond, with its deep ties to Japanese-Canadian history and culture, provides a fitting backdrop.

Japanese artist Yusuke Shibata travelled to Vancouver and Richmond this year to interview recent Japanese visitors, international students, temporary residents, and postwar Japanese immigrants about their experiences in Canada. He also researched Japanese-Canadian history, including Steveston's longstanding connections to the community. Those conversations and discoveries form the basis of a new site-specific multimedia installation examining the gap between expectations and reality—in Japan, Vancouver is often viewed as an ideal destination for work, study, and travel; his work explores what people encounter once they arrive.

Artist Mineki Murata presents an installation featuring 100 white dress shirts covered in colourful drawings, stemming from his long-running performance series My Back Talk, inspired by the Japanese expression of "speaking with your back"—communicating through one's actions rather than words. Murata will perform the piece during the opening reception.

Vancouver-based artist Karilynn Ming Ho contributes a new video work examining the increasingly complicated relationship between humans and technology, following a senior citizen who enters an online romance with an astronaut, only to discover the relationship is being facilitated through artificial intelligence.

Other works include Marico Aoki's video performance Nurture Feeling of Love, Shiho Kagabu's new installation inspired by Richmond's rivers and bridges, and Haruka Saito's paintings, drawings, and ceramic sculptures that blend multiple timelines and realities.

Throughout the exhibition's run through October 4, Richmond Art Gallery will host artist talks, workshops, community events, and curator-led tours in English, Japanese, and Mandarin. Admission is free.