The Work Yet to Come
March 26 - 29, 2026
The Hourglass (1101 Yates St, Victoria BC)
Vernissage: Thursday, March 26, 7:00-9:00pm Music, food and drinks
An exhibition of contemporary art by early career Indigenous artists based in and around Victoira
Featured artists include: Dahlila Charlie, Jeannie Chipps, Neve Correne, Coulee, Napik N Kolola, Mary-Jane Laronde, Mishelle Lavoie, and Cosiniye Paul.
The Work Yet to Come takes inspiration from the teaching, Left šxw hela Pa ca makw sče?i sa?S,HOL EI MEQ EN ENÁ SE SCA, "Be prepared for the work to come," one of the guiding principles of the University of Victoria's Indigenous Plan. It reminds us all to be respectful to our ancestors, future generations, and each other, and to be prepared for the future.
In this exhibition, the artists consider our shared responsibilities to land, water, and all its inhabitants, future generations, and each other. The Work Yet to Come features emerging Indigenous artists who are from or currently reside on the traditional lands of the Lək̓ ʷəŋən-speaking Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt Nations as well as W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples. The artists in the exhibition think through and expand on this theme, in terms of caring and protecting family and non-human kinship ties, honouring the past, and nurturing the future.
The Work Yet to Come is an exhibition curated by a collective of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Victoria.
Curated by the 351 Collective: Chris Mockford, Clare Jorgensen, Sarah Nishida, Izze Perrella, Ashley de Kroon, Stephen von Schulmann, and Lia Candler.
Featured Artists:
Dahlila Charlie
Dahlila Charlie is a Coast Salish visual artist from the SĆIȺNEW Nation, currently residing in Victoria, BC. Through her breathtaking acrylic paintings and murals, Dahlila utilizes Coast Salish art style and realism to narrate the stories of her Nation. She has trained under the guidance of more experienced Indigenous artists and has crafted her own unique style to embody cultural teachings and assert her presence in contemporary art. In her artistic practice, Dahlila encourages audiences to appreciate the beauty of the Coast Salish peoples and their deep connection to the land and ocean. As her career flourishes, she eagerly shares her skills and knowledge within community and in local school district #62 as an artist in residence while dedicating herself to creating artwork.
Jeannie Chipps
Growing up in on the traditional lands of my ancestors known as Sc'ianew (Beecher Bay) First Nations within the more rural areas of East Sooke, my life experience has caused me to see the beauty of the small moments around me, pushing me to create these moments or capture them through my artwork. Learning traditional Coast Salish formline from my Father to painting and even digital art such as graphic design as well as photography, my goal is to be able to express myself and learn as many ways as I can to express my ideas and visions.
Learning will always be part of my practice whether that is within the places I’ve studied such as Camosun College and The University of Victoria or just hands on self taught work. My goal as an artist will forever be to learn from people and experiences around me to further the ways that I can bring my art into the world.
Neva Correne
Neva Nowazek explores themes of Métis culture, disability, gender, sex, and the intersectional qualities of identity through their interdisciplinary practice. Exploring relationships between nature, identities, and material culture, they reconcile personal and societal struggles. Nowazek creates both two and three-dimensional works using watercolour, acrylic paints, plasticine, fabric, string, and beads. Nowazek's colour palette draws from the beauty of their queerness, childhood wonder, the natural world, and Indigeneity. Nowazek juxtaposes the social and systemic struggles of oppressed minorities and natural processes like death and decay with their lively saturated colours. A common thread in their work is navigating the joy and community that comes from identity alongside the discrimination and difficulty of surviving in a world not built for them.
Coulee
Coulee (Peepeekisis Cree Nation) is an Indigenous futurist working across textile and sound. Her practice engages Indigenous futurity, unstorying, and relational responsibility to land and community. Through large-scale buffalo skull forms and the ongoing audio work Something Else, she treats story as infrastructure-an active site of preparation, memory, and future tending. Her work holds love, loss, fire, and continuance as living forces rather than symbols. Coulee lives and creates on Lekwungen territory.
Napik N Kolola
Mary-Jane Laronde
Mary-Jane Laronde is a Bonnechere Algonquin emerging Indigenous artist who grew up on the unceded territory of the Secwepemc peoples. Mary-Jane is currently practicing on the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋən people during her BFA study. Mary-Jane has had the opportunity to explore her practice in Atotonilco, Mexico. The works created in Mexico were shown at the University of Victoria Audain gallery for Mary-Jane’s first solo show Between Now and Then. Both of these experiences were able to happen with the Alan Steven John award in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria.
Mishelle Lavoie
Cosiniye Paul
ÍY SȻÁĆEL,
My name is Ȼosiniye Paul. I'm a Coast Salish artist. I live, work, and study on my traditional territories of W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip reservation). I grew up immersed in Coast Salish art, and it is one of my greatest passions, along with language revitalization. I am a 2-spirit individual and as part of my work I depict queer love to create the representation that I always craved myself. As someone who lives with chronic illness, my art has always been an outlet for me. A way to be connected to the world when my body doesn't allow it.
