A Glitched Utopia: Rethinking the Digital Ruin
Mallory Donen, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Nathalie Lawhead, Tingwei Li, Cassia Powell, Noah Pred
June 12–July 10, 2026
Opening reception: Thursday, June 11, 4:00–7:00 p.m.
Public critique with Godfre Leung: Wednesday, July 8, 1:00 p.m.
AHVA Gallery
Audain Art Centre, 6398 University Boulevard, Vancouver
Gallery hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12:00–4:00 p.m.
Closed July 1
Curated by Josie Xu
What is a “digital ruin”? It may be the remnants of failed digital components or abandoned, forgotten virtual spaces, recalling an inaccessible past. However, in a digital world where surveillance, extraction, and alienation are intensifying and increasingly dominated by the rise of artificial intelligence, the term “digital ruin” warrants reexamination. Early visions of the digital space imagined freedom, autonomy, and direct engagement; however, this vision has been replaced by today’s disappointing and overwhelming reality. We are actively living in a “digital ruin.”
A Glitched Utopia: Rethinking the Digital Ruin reflects upon this idea: in the collapse of the techno-optimistic, utopian dream, what does this current ruin look like? And what is our experience living within it? This exhibition features works by Mallory Donen, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Nathalie Lawhead, Tingwei Li, Cassia Powell, and Noah Pred. The artists explore these inquiries via textile works, artist books, a video game, installations, and interactive videos, questioning what kind of future this ruin will allow. They invite us to spend time to play, look, touch, watch, and listen closely, to consider our own experience traversing through the digital ruin with them.
Featuring work by Cassia Powell, current MFA Visual Art student.
Presented with support from the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia.
We acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
Image: Noah Pred, Overcasting, 2026
