Seema shah, let sleeping dogs lie
New Multimedia Installation Opens April 21 at Beaumont Studios
Debut Solo Exhibition of 2022 Artist To Watch Award Winner
Unthought Known, a haunting new installation of art and text by Seema Shah, opens at The Beaumont Studios’ B1 Gallery in Vancouver, BC on April 21, 2023.
Exhibition Dates: April 21 - May 12, 2023
Gallery Location: 2109 Alberta St., Vancouver, BC
Opening Reception: Friday, April 21, 6-10 pm at B1 Gallery.
Free & open to the public. There will be a brief reading by the artist during the reception.
Seema Shah is a self-taught collage artist and writer. She was a recipient of The Beaumont Studio’s 2022 Artist To Watch Award and a highly commended artist in the 2022 Contemporary Collage Magazine Awards. Working intuitively, Seema pieces together narratives that are dark and questioning.
“Seema Shah’s artwork takes time to absorb and digest the small and intricate details. She has a great ability to balance the use of vintage materials, collage, paint, and text to draw the viewer in to her dark and contemplative spaces." - Yuri Arajs, Gallery Director and Curator, Outsiders and Others
Seema’s creative process is one of self-discovery, a process guided by the subconscious that helps give form to the ‘unthought known’. A term coined by psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas, ‘unthought known’ refers to experiences that reside within us, and that we in some way “know,” but which we have never “thought” or been able to put into words.
“Seema’s art conveys a sense of struggle, even a wrestling with forces that are familiar yet often unexamined." - Betsy Warland, author & founder of The Writers’ Studio at SFU
Hinting at something deeper, meaning is expressed obliquely in Seema’s work through the use of metaphor - and, at times, even humour - creating distance and allowing the viewer to find their own connection to it.
Unthought Known will include collages on surfaces such as vintage book covers and matchboxes. It will also feature several text-based works, including collages with cut-up poetry and an excerpt from a book Seema is currently working on that combines her writing with collage drawings. Opportunities to interact with “invented objects” will offer a more intimate viewer experience. Though dark and intense, the exhibition is also surprisingly playful at times.
Seema’s writing has been published in literary journals and anthologies, and shortlisted in writing contests. Since 2017, her art has been exhibited in galleries in Canada, the US, and the UK. She works out of her home studio in Vancouver, BC.