Paul Wong
1982 International Women’s Day March
work-in-progress April 2025
44 x 58 in.
inkjet print
Paul Wong Pop-Up!
Presented as part of the AHVA Artist in Residence Program
Four days only!
Tuesday, April 1, 1–4 pm
Wednesday and Thursday, April 2 and 3, 12–4 pm
Friday, April 4, 12–3 pm
April 1–4, 2025
AHVA Gallery
Audain Art Centre, 6398 University Boulevard, Vancouver
The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory (AHVA) and AHVA Artist in Residence, Paul Wong invites you to view projects and research Wong has been working on during his time as the 2024–2025 Artist in Residence.
This work-in-progress consists of three prints based on a series of photographs documenting the Video Inn collective (now known as the VIVO Media Arts Centre) marching in the 2nd International Women’s Day March down Georgia Street, Vancouver, in 1982 and photographed by Paul Wong. Wong is a co-founding director of Video Inn, established in 1973 as a collective of media artists and activists. They also marched in the 1st International Women’s Day March in 1981 as well at many other rallies and protest gatherings.
During Wong’s residency, he has been diving into his black and white photography from the 1970s and 1980s. Produced from 35mm negatives, these and other images have never been printed before. Over one hundred photographs have been developed in the AHVA Darkroom at BC Binning Studios.
Paul Wong’s career spans over five decades in visual and media art. Wong has continuously pushed the boundaries of storytelling, working outside mainstream conventions making art for site-specific spaces and screens of all sizes.
Parallel to his art practice is his equally prolific groundbreaking curatorial exhibitions, the producing, facilitating, and mentoring of other local, national, and international artists. He has been at the forefront of artist-run culture in Canada as a founding director of Vivo Media Art Center (Satellite Video Exchange Society, 1973), a member of the Mainstreeters (1972), and the founding artistic director of On Main (On the Cutting Edge Productions Society, 1986). Central to his D.I.Y. philosophy is that artists have creative freedom of expression by ensuring that they have control over their own means of production, exhibition, and distribution. Wong is a self-taught artist who considers himself mentored by “community.” In 2023, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from ECUAD, Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
The Artist in Residence Program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory is made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor. Past AHVA Artists in Residence have been Beau Dick, Stan Douglas, Germaine Koh, Marianne Nicolson, and Diamond Point.
We acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated within the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
