Where is the Beach?, 2019. Found object sculpture. Published in Levitate Magazine, issue 4, Chicago, IL, October 2020.
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Matchboxes that feature an image of the Grand Canyon, bought at a gas station in northern Finland. I was wondering why people seek out things that are familiar while traveling.
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Leah McInnis
You Have the Moon, I Have the Internet
The title of this gallery speaks to the themes of reciprocity, give and take, and collaboration in art. Different knowledge bases and skill sets can be a great gift when working alongside another person. LM
Short Stories, 2021. Installation. Ministry of Casual Living, Victoria, BC. An installation of sculpture, painting, video and poetry looking at the effect of petroculture/resource extraction and childhood.
Working collectively is a major part of Leah McInnis’s work. Given her collaborative approach, her passion for making books, and her attraction to the democratic aspect of sharing work, it seems almost inevitable that printmaking would become part of her interdisciplinary practice.
Leah discovered printmaking when she took an etching class during her undergraduate degree at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Drawn to the community aspect of learning and sharing with others, Leah spent much of her time as an undergrad in the print studio. She then joined Dundarave Print Workshop as a member and shop technician, where she had the opportunity to learn from experienced printmakers.
Working collectively is a major part of Leah McInnis’s work. Given her collaborative approach, her passion for making books, and her attraction to the democratic aspect of sharing work, it seems almost inevitable that printmaking would become part of her interdisciplinary practice.
Leah discovered printmaking when she took an etching class during her undergraduate degree at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Drawn to the community aspect of learning and sharing with others, Leah spent much of her time as an undergrad in the print studio. She then joined Dundarave Print Workshop as a member and shop technician, where she had the opportunity to learn from experienced printmakers.
Poem from Leah’s artist talk, Aug 20th during The 1st Seven PRINTgallery retrospective exhibit at arc.hive ARC, Victoria, BC What does it mean to be an artist who takes? Gathering scraps of paper and tucking them in desk drawers. Always wanting more. What does it mean to conduct ongoing research as an artist? To quantify a feeling, evaluate and glean, extrapolate a meaning? What does it mean to be an artist who keeps notes of the names of boats in the inner harbor for ten years? To sketch the dead grass of August and pretend it’s all quite modest. To fill a mason jar with tar and shelf it. Being an artist who takes sounds selfish. Give a round of applause. Give yourself a break. Giving up as a political statement. I’m trying to make or formulate an idea of an artist who gives. Staying up all night to get the install right in a gallery with mice. Helping to rewrite a proposal that’s due in 20 minutes. Zooming in on tiny pictures of paintings on screens and then typing up a long response. Promising to watch, to listen, to visit. |
Work in process during Leah's one month residency at PRINT in April, 2022.
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ARTIST BIO:
Leah McInnis is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist who creates installation based exhibitions that incorporate sculpture, video, painting and printed matter. She is originally from Fort McMurray, Alberta, and has been living and working in Victoria, BC since 2016. Her work has been exhibited locally and nationally. Leah holds an MFA from the University of Victoria in addition to a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and a BA from the University of Alberta. She maintains multiple collaborative art practices, including MOPE Collective (located between Brooklyn, NY and Victoria). Her work has been generously funded through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. |
Printmaking Studio, 2013. Edition of stone lithographs in the print studio, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, 2013.
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Cake , 2022. Video. Part of the Club Assembly, exhibited at ARTSPLACE Gallery, Annapolis Royal, NS, 18 June - 30 July 2022. Collaboration with David Peters. This video was made on location in Nova Scotia, by placing a generic sheet cake in the ocean on Leah's birthday.
See more of Leah's videos here |
Working Collectively
Leah often makes a book, as an anchor, to go with an exhibit. Printed matter with a larger exhibition allows for the ideas and energy to live on after the temporary installation. With MOPE and hand photo #10 Laugh Laugh Cry, (cover design) 2018. Artist book, edition of 10. Exhibited with MOPE Collective (Danielle Roberts, Kai Choufour, Leah McInnis) at the Vancouver Art Book Fair, through Number 3 Gallery, Vancouver, BC. Fall 2018. Link to MOPE Collective |
When I do work collaboratively, that space of creating work together is about having fun. It feels like getting away with something when you’re working with people you really love and care about, and celebrating each other’s own talents and ideas. LM
Give/Take, Hanging to dry at PRINT.
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ARTIST Statement:
Give/Take is a three colour woodblock print made in an edition of 25 with 4 APs. It features the words “give” and “take,” created in a way that it can be rotated to feature either word. There is an invitation for the viewer to collaborate with the reading of this image. I’m not interested in value judgments associated with giving or taking; rather, I wish to explore economies of exchange as they relate to interpersonal relationships and the act of being an artist. Giving and taking connote themes of balance, symbiosis and awareness. Perhaps the act of creativity requires an open system of exchange between one’s self and the world, one that is susceptible to blockages and requires attention and care. An element of speed was integral to the carving and printing processes, thereby embedding the print with a sense of urgency. |
Club Assembly, 2022. Installation. Exhibited at ARTSPLACE Gallery, Annapolis Royal, NS, 18 June - 30 July 2022. Collaboration with David Peters.
Site specific installation utilizing found materials, following the narrative of “the first person to live forever before they know it.” |
In A Book , Installation. Arc.Hive Artist Run Centre, Victoria, BC, 8 - 23 January 2022.
A multi-disciplinary exhibition examining the cultural role of the Romance Novel. |
Leah McInnis, Give/Take, Woodblock, BFK, 16"x 20", edition of 25, 2022
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The woodblock for Give/Take in three parts.
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We acknowledge the generous support of the CRD arts commission for this project. |