Walter Phillips Gallery is pleased to present an artist talk by Karen Zalamea, recipient of the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography 2025. Taking place during the artist’s awarded residency, Zalamea will discuss her broader practice as well as the series Herbarium (after Flora de Filipinas) (2024-ongoing) that she will continue at Banff Centre. Reflecting on the history of Spanish colonial botany in the Philippines, Zalamea’s work considers plant life, its significance in the establishment of historical empire, and its entanglement with place and identity.

The Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography supports one mid-career Canadian artist working in photography annually to undertake a fully funded residency at Banff Centre. Most recently offered as a bi-annual award to artists who have previously been enrolled in a Visual Arts residency program at Banff Centre, the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography will now take place yearly and is open for application to all mid-career Canadian artists working in photography.

Created by the friends and family of the late artist Barbara Spohr, this award is intended to encourage the development of Canadian contemporary photography by providing financial and creative assistance to an artist whose work has made a significant contribution to the field.

This event is presented in partnership with Exposure Photography Festival and is made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Government of Canada and Government of Alberta. Banff Centre would also like to acknowledge the friends and family of the late artist Barbara Spohr whose contributions supported the creation of the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography.
 

The Visual Arts Lecture Series presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Sean Lee (he/they), artist, curator, and faculty for the Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR): Early Career 2025, explores how Disability Arts propels us towards the "crip horizon"—where artistic practice becomes a powerful tool for world-building and reimagining disability futurity. Drawing on Yinka Shonibare's characterization of Disability Arts as the last avant-garde, Lee examines how this arts movement harnesses the political potential at the intersection of access and disability to create new gateways to disability culture.

Sean is currently the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. He holds a B.A. in Arts Management and Studio from UTSC. Sean is also an independent curator, lecturer, and advisor, adding his insights and perspectives to conversations across Canada, the US, and internationally. He has taught “Accessibility in Curating: A Framework” at NODE Curatorial Studies Online and the Hidden Project with Goethe Institut Shanghai. Sean serves on the board of the Toronto Arts Council and CARFAC Ontario, is Chair of TAC’s Visual and Media Arts Committee, and is a member of the External Advisory Panel supporting the City of Toronto in the development of its next ten-year culture plan, the Action Plan for Toronto’s Culture Sector.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

The Visual Arts Lecture Series presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Join Althea Thauberger (she/they), artist, filmmaker, educator, and faculty for the Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR): Early Career 2025 program for an engaging afternoon talk.

Althea Thauberger is known for place-based experimental documentary projects that emerge from collaborative research and production processes. Her work—spanning film, video, audio recordings, and photographs—examines community histories, geopolitical events, and sociopolitical power dynamics, including ones involved in the production process itself

Thauberger’s recent exhibitions include the Kaunas Biennial in Lithuania, the Toronto Biennial of Art, La Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and The Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. Of settler Scandinavian and Black Sea German descent, Thauberger is based on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples and teaches Visual Art and Cultural Theory at The University of British Columbia.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.
 

Join us for an insightful conversation with Michelle Thrush as part of the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series.

Michelle will share reflections from her over thirty-year career as an actress and director in film, television, and theatre. She will explore the power of "transformation" and her evolving role as a director and conveyor of Indigenous storytelling. Growing up in Calgary and moving to Vancouver at a young age to pursue acting without formal training, Michelle absorbed teachings from legendary actors she worked with throughout her career. These experiences helped her become a multi-award-winning artist. She will also discuss how a conversation with an Elder at a young age shaped her ability to create safe spaces for Indigenous stories to be told and empowered her to change the narrative as a director.

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Michelle Thrush, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be recorded and shared following the event, but the Q&A portion will remain unrecorded. Sessions may share experiences and ask difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

Visit the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series page to access recordings of previous talks and learn more about upcoming sessions.