Arrows
Brian Jungen, Janice Kerbel, Jeremy Borsos, Liz Magor, Steven Cottingham
January 30–March 14, 2026
The opening is Thursday, January 29, 6–8pm
The arrow of time is a concept describing the entropic duration from a known past to an unknown future. In physics, this process is irreversible, leaving us to experience time either through memory (we remember the past but not the future) or volition (we feel we can influence the future but not the past). But beyond the realm of thermodynamics, the arrow of time charts a crooked course. Memory is malleable and history is unsettled, constantly being rewritten across ongoing conflicts of understanding.
Accordingly, Arrows features artists who are attuned to the looping paths of human time. Many of the works may have the appearance of historical documentation or factual recordings, but all are in fact staged constructions that question the linearity of time and the impulse to narrativize. Together, artists Brian Jungen, Janice Kerbel, Jeremy Borsos, Liz Magor, and Steven Cottingham portray the conditions and causalities that guide the arrows of time—contesting how descriptions of the past become volitions of the future.
For much of human history, the arrow has served as an extension of force—no longer limited by arm’s reach but instead projected as far as the eye can see. In The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night (2024), Brian Jungen repeatedly pierces an 18th century French colonial table with arrows. All shafts run parallel to one another, as if rained straight down, forming a dense thicket of wooden vanes sprouting multicoloured feather fletchings, with carbon steel points buried within the tabletop like roots beneath the surface. In this way, these arrows may signify seeds planted long ago now coming into bloom, a figurative reversal of centuries of systemic violence inflicted upon Indigenous peoples, or an arrow of time launched forward only to arc back upon itself. Complicating this entanglement is the status of the arrows’ fletchings: plucked from exotic birds whose movement, both as living creatures and as cultural materials, are highly regulated by governments internationally. Such protections, while oriented toward conservation, also preclude Indigenous practices that rely on the cultural, spiritual, and legal significance of feathers. Jungen’s deployment of them here evokes the unequal application of conservation, underscoring what is preserved and what is buried.
Similar frictions between historical events and modern-day retellings are central to the work of Liz Magor. In WW I Portfolio (1996), the artist documents historical reenactors who restage battles from the eponymous war. These performances are known for a level of accuracy that borders on fetishism, and it is difficult to surmise the eighty-year difference between the event and its photographic recreation by studying the actors’ fastidiously assembled costumes and weaponry. Rather, it is the image itself that gives away the illusion. Although black and white, the resolution seems too sharp, the frame too composed. Yet, it is precisely this illusory quality that reveals the truth of the image. History does not resemble the photograph, except in half-seen flashes; there is more verisimilitude in portraying the endurance of its myths than in pictorializing their subjects.
‘Lest we forget’ may be the adage of this conflict which has now passed from living memory, but how does the imperative to remember align with the impulse to rehearse and recreate? In Magor’s photographs—which also includes the series A Pair (1994), featuring coupled reenactors of various other wars—the arrows of time become homophonic eros of time. This can be understood as a libidinal attraction to live vicariously, especially in relationship to the wars that shape historical narratives. For Steven Cottingham, whose work draws on the recursive dynamics between military simulations and video games, the eros of time is present both in military training that relies upon consumer-grade software to rehearse conflict scenarios, as well as the hobbyist wargamers who seek exhilaration by imitating battlefield action. In Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire (2024), Cottingham explores the back-and-forth crossovers of entertainment and defense industries—filmed within a manipulated video game where a virtual journalist reports on the wargame unfolding around her—while photomontages depict the virtual environments and hallucinatory practices found within a Canadian Armed Forces base. By emphasizing the role of simulation within contemporary military operations, these works ask whether a culture of pre-emption and preparedness does not end up painting the target around the arrow.
History may be written by the victors, but it is destined to be reinterpreted by its spectators. What remains are fragmented narratives—which circulate by way of school curricula, personal testimonies, and conspiratorial forums alike. Janice Kerbel’s Rants (2025) comprise numerous one-liners and non-sequiturs agglomerated into literal walls of text. The pronouncements use the language of authority, an aggressive tone that captures attention through performative soliloquies. Certain phrases flare up amid the attenuated idioms: ‘Time teaches nothing.’ ‘You cannot step in the same river twice.’ ‘There never was a universal truth.’ But the dense and ragged typeface reads less like what would be carved in stone or stamped in press, and more like what would be pasted upon a billboard. The result is a sense of time propelled not toward resolution but toward accumulation: a temporal arrow shaped by consumerist society and oriented toward absence, urgency, and desire.
In contrast to the accelerated rhetorics of authority and rehearsal elsewhere in the exhibition, Jeremy Borsos’ work dwells in temporal slack—where history persists as atmosphere rather than narrative. 9/39 (2024) depicts an inky black beetle crawling atop a brittle newspaper, slowly circumambulating a glass of wine and still-lit cigarette. The titular report on Nazi Germany’s incursion into Poland is printed in Greek, forming an abstract and arid landscape for the wandering insect. A similar framing characterizes both The Bootblack (2025), where a mundane act of maintenance unfolds against a backdrop of political tensions, and Europe’s Unity Secures Your Freedom / Europa’s Einheit Sichert Dein Freiheit (2025), in which a penknife acts on a pencil until one begins to resemble the other. At the sharpened point of this utensil, time’s arrow appears to narrow toward order and volition, momentarily warding off the forces of entropy. Yet, as in Magor’s work, the image ultimately gives way to illusion, revealing the distance between historical events, their mediation, and the reconditioned forms through which they persist.
Across these works, history emerges not as a stable record but as an ongoing field of contested projections. While appeals to the past often seek a kind of moral clarity, the artists in Arrows explore how historical narratives are continually produced from the conditions of the present. By adopting tactics of documentation, reenactment, and indexicality, the works in this exhibition expose how such accounts are constructed, rehearsed, and weaponized in advance of their outcomes. The arrows of time are irreversible but not immutable: change begins in entropy.
Closed for installation
The gallery is currently closed for installation. On Thursday, January 29, 6–8pm, we will open the exhibition Arrows—featuring Brian Jungen, Janice Kerbel, Jeremy Borsos, Liz Magor, and Steven Cottingham—continuing until March 14, 2026.
Rochelle Goldberg
*RESIDENCY*
September 15, 2025–March 26, 2026
Callie’s, Berlin, Germany
*ARTIST TALK*
December 9, 2025
Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, Germany
Janice Kerbel
VANCOUVER
Arrows
January 30–March 14, 2026
Catriona Jeffries
Liz Magor
CANADA
a matter of time
July 17, 2025–July 5, 2026
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Edge Effects
September 20, 2025–February 15, 2026
Gibson Art Museum, Burnaby
Arrows
January 30–March 14, 2026
Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver
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CHINA
15th Shanghai Biennial: Does the flower hear the bee?
November 8, 2025–March 31, 2026
Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
Brian Jungen
USA
Where I Learned to Look: Art from the Yard
March 6–July 26, 2026
Fine Arts Centre at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, USA
Into the Time Horizon
November 15, 2025–January 3, 2027
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
—
CANADA
From Sea to Sky: The Art of British Columbia
November 13, 2025–May 18, 2026
Audain Art Museum, Whistler, Canada
—
CHINA
15th Shanghai Biennial: Does the flower hear the bee?
November 8, 2025–March 31, 2026
Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
—
VANCOUVER
The Structure of Smoke
January 9–April 12, 2026
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Arrows
January 30–March 14, 2026
Catriona Jeffries
*AWARD*
The Audain Prize for the Visual Arts
*PRESS*
The Creative Independent
The Globe and Mail
Vancouver Sun
Nation Talk
Artforum
The Art Newspaper
Raymond Boisjoly
CANADA
We who have known tides
November 7, 2025–April 12, 2026
Vancouver Art Gallery
*PRESS*
IndigiNews
Duane Linklater
USA
Duane Linklater: 12 + 2
September 12, 2025–January 24, 2026
Dia Chelsea, New York
Where I Learned to Look: Art from the Yard
March 6–July 26, 2026
Fine Arts Centre at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, USA
—
AUSTRIA
mâcistan
November 29, 2025–February 15, 2026
Secession, Vienna
—
CANADA
Winter Count: Embracing the Cold
November 21, 2025–March 22, 2026
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
*PRESS*
Something Curated
Flash Art
Hyperallergic
Arts.Columbia.edu
Forbes
Windspeaker
Screen Slate
Tanya Lukin Linklater
CANADA
We who have known tides
November 7, 2025–April 12, 2026
Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
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USA
Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969
June 5–September 21, 2026
SITE Santa Fe
*PRESS*
Something Curated
Flash Art
Arts.Columbia.edu
IndigiNews
Abbas Akhavan
CANADA
Omay, Djamal, Albert. hiver 1982; Lights In The City 1999
May 18, 2023–2026
Dazibao Satellite, Montreal
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CHINA
15th Shanghai Biennial: Does the flower hear the bee?
November 8, 2025–March 31, 2026
Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
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ITALY
61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia 2026
May 9–November 22, 2026
Venice Biennale, Venice
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USA
Variations on a Garden
November 12, 2026–April 18, 2027
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Exhibition History
Eli Bornowsky, Jessica Stockholder
is a knot helpful
October 31–December 13, 2025
Ceal Floyer, Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw, Ron Terada, Ian Wallace
Still
September 6–October 18, 2025
Rebecca Brewer and Veit Laurent Kurz
Locus Amoenus: Extinct Flame
July 9–30, 2025
Ron Terada
You Have Left the American Sector
May 1–June 14, 2025
Liz Magor
Arrange Your Face
April 26–June 28, 2025
Nairy Baghramian, Matt Browning, James Carl, Devon Knowles, Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Liz Larner, Christina Mackie, Liz Magor, Ellen Neel, Jessica Stockholder
Slow Looking
February 15–April 5, 2025
Abbas Akhavan, Rochelle Goldberg
Disembody
November 30, 2024–January 25, 2025
Valérie Blass
When I feel shy
September 19–November 16, 2024
Sonya Kelliher-Combs
remnant
September 19–November 16, 2024
Brian Jungen
Flagpole
April 17, 2024–2025
Duane Linklater
cache
April 6–June 28, 2024
Andrea Carlson, Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, Eli Bornowsky
No Exit
February 1–March 16, 2024
Elizabeth McIntosh
Real Relationships
December 1, 2023–January 20, 2024
Ron Terada
BBQ Beer Freedom
September 28–November 18, 2023
Judy Radul, Andrew Yong Hoon Lee, Steven Cottingham
Where the echoes cannot end
September 15, 2023
Steven Cottingham
Chain–link
July 21, 2023
Brenda Draney
Unfinished Business
May 26–July 8, 2023
Damian Moppett
Half Life
March 24–May 6, 2023
Rebecca Brewer
Eidetic Cloud
January 27–March 11, 2023
Tanya Lukin Linklater
breath ,’ echo
November 12, 2022–January 7, 2023
Jerry Pethick
‘How specialized are our interpretations of the world?’
September 16–October 29, 2022
Janice Kerbel
Speech! Fight!
Speech! Fight!
May 28–June 25, 2022
Valérie Blass, Laurie Kang, Christina Mackie, Liz Magor
Do Redo Repeat
March 19–May 7, 2022
Brenda Draney, Tanya Lukin Linklater
The best stories I know come from late night car rides or kitchen tables.
January 29–March 5, 2022
Raymond Boisjoly
🕸Some Number of Things🕸
November 6–December 18, 2021
Abbas Akhavan, Geoffrey Farmer, Rochelle Goldberg, Kapwani Kiwanga, Duane Linklater
Unseeable
Sept 18–Oct 23, 2021
Charmian Johnson
May 29–July 3, 2021
Ian Wallace
In the Museum
April 10–May 22, 2021
Damian Moppett
Vignettes
February 13–March 27, 2021
Liz Magor
Downer
December 5, 2020–January 30, 2021
Duane Linklater
primaryuse
October 24–November 21, 2020
Elizabeth McIntosh
Mom or Mother
September 12–October 10, 2020
Valérie Blass
La poudre aux yeux: Of smoke in mirrors
May 23–June 27, 2020
Ashes Withyman
Some kind of doctor receiving thunder
February 8–March 14, 2020
Abbas Akhavan
They asked the fox, “Who is your witness?”
He said, “My tail.”
November 23, 2019–January 18, 2020
Christina Mackie
September 21–November 2, 2019
Rochelle Goldberg
May 25–July 20, 2019
gatekeepers
Abbas Akhavan, Valérie Blass, Raymond Boisjoly, Rebecca Brewer, Trisha Brown and Trisha Brown Dance Company, Chris Burden, Raven Chacon, Geoffrey Farmer, Hanne Darboven, Marcel Duchamp, Kasper Feyrer, Alex Frost, Cynthia Girard-Renard, Rochelle Goldberg, Dan Graham, Brian Jungen, On Kawara, Janice Kerbel, Christine Sun Kim, Duane Linklater, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Christina Mackie, Myfanwy MacLeod, Liz Magor, Elizabeth McIntosh, Damian Moppett, Stephen Murray, Kate Newby, Jerry Pethick, Eileen Quinlan, Judy Radul, Aurie Ramirez, Rob Renpenning, Marina Roy, Kevin Schmidt, Nick Sikkuark, Michael Snow, Ron Terada, Calder Tsuyuki Tomlinson, Ian Wallace, Nicole Wermers, and Ashes Withyman
Unexplained Parade
February 9–May 11, 2019
Judy Radul
Words No Pictures Pictures No Words
May 11–June 16, 2018
Kasper Feyrer
Background Actors
March 16–April 21, 2018
Rebecca Brewer, Rochelle Goldberg, Charmian Johnson, Christina Mackie
Nature
January 26–March 3, 2018
Elizabeth McIntosh
ISLANDS
November 17–December 22, 2017
Ron Terada
TL; DR
September 15–October 28, 2017
Elizabeth McIntosh, Monique Mouton, Silke Otto-Knapp
May 26–July 8, 2017
Ian Wallace
Street Floor Table Page Wall Canvas, 1969–2017
March 31–May 13, 2017
Ashes Withyman
Bullae
March 10–18, 2017
Geoffrey Farmer
The Big Kitchen
January 14–February 25, 2017
Rebecca Brewer
The Holding Sky
November 12–December 17, 2016
Raymond Boisjoly
September 16–October 29, 2016
Damian Moppett
May 6–June 25, 2016
Liz Magor
March 5–April 23, 2016
Brian Jungen
January 22–February 27, 2016
Valérie Blass
To only ever say one thing forever the same thing
November 21, 2015–January 9, 2016
Janice Kerbel
Score
September 12–October 24, 2015
Liz Magor, Jerry Pethick, Ron Tran
A view believed to be yours
May 15–June 27, 2015
Myfanwy MacLeod
TELL HER NOTHING SHE TELLS ALL
March 21–May 2, 2015
Ian Wallace
The Construction Site
January 17–February 28, 2015
Duane Linklater
But the sun is up and you're going?
November 15–December 20, 2014
Ron Terada
Jack
September 19–October 25, 2014
Jerry Pethick
Where sidewalks leap upon the table: works on paper 1966–2000
May 24–June 28, 2014
Rebecca Brewer
The Written Face
March 29–May 10, 2014
Geoffrey Farmer
The Grass and the Banana go for a walk
February 8-March 15, 2014
Ashes Withyman
Household Temple Yard
November 26, 2013–January 11, 2014
Damian Moppett
Salute
September 20–November 2, 2013
Brian Jungen, Duane Linklater
Modest Livelihood
June 7–July 20, 2013
Andrea Büttner, Joëlle de La Casinière, Ashes Withyman
April 26–June 1, 2013
Raymond Boisjoly
March 1–April 13, 2013
Liz Magor
I is being This
November 16–December 22, 2012
Christina Mackie, Jerry Pethick
Bigger than a book, wilder than a tree
September 14–October 27, 2012
Judy Radul
April 27–June 9, 2012
Kasper Feyrer
Alternatives and Opportunities
March 2–April 14, 2012
Ian Wallace
Masculin/Féminin
January 13–February 18, 2012
Ulla von Brandenburg, Guy de Cointet, Geoffrey Farmer, Janice Kerbel, Daria Martin, Judy Radul
People Things Enter Exit
October 28–December 10, 2011
Ron Terada
Jack
September 3–October 8, 2011
Robert Kleyn
Works 1969–1983
May 20–June 25, 2011
Arabella Campbell
March 25–April 30, 2011
Alex Morrison
February 3–March 12, 2011
Brian Jungen
November 19, 2010–January 15, 2011
Kevin Schmidt
September 17–October 23, 2010
Damian Moppett
The Sculptor’s Studio is a Painting
May 21–June 26, 2010
Geoffrey Farmer
The Surgeon and the Photographer
January 29-March 6, 2010
Myfanwy MacLeod
Gold
November 6–December 12, 2009
Ian Wallace
Works 1970–1979
September 18–October 24, 2009
Brian Jungen, Rebecca Belmore, Myfanwy MacLeod, Kevin Schmidt, Alex Morrison, Sam Durant, Ron Terada, Geoffrey Farmer, Jin-me Yoon
Loaded
May 15–June 20, 2009
Christos Dikeakos
March 26–April 25, 2009
Ashes Withyman
Uncertain Pilgrimage
January 15–February 14, 2009
Jin-me Yoon
October 30–November 29, 2008
Jerry Pethick
September 12–October 11, 2008
Ron Terada
May 23–June 28, 2008
Germaine Koh
April 11–May 10, 2008
Roy Kiyooka, Damian Moppett, Jerry Pethick, Ian Wallace
Process as Work
February 29–March 29, 2008
Kelly Wood, Monika Grzymala
January 18–February 16, 2008
Alex Morrison
November 23–December 22, 2007
Ian Wallace
October 18–November 17, 2007
Judy Radul
September 7–October 6, 2007
Arabella Campbell
June 8–July 7, 2007
Brian Jungen
April 27–May 26, 2007
Sam Durant
Scenes from the Pilgrim Story: Natural History
March 16–April 14, 2007
Damian Moppett
Progress in Advance of the Fall
January 19–February 24, 2007
Isabelle Pauwels
November 25–December 22, 2006
Geoffrey Farmer
Airliner Open Studio
October 21–November 18, 2006
Kevin Schmidt
September 9–October 7, 2006
Ashes Withyman, Jacob Gleeson
St. George Marsh
August 24–September 1, 2006
Christos Dikeakos, Geoffrey Farmer, Arni Haraldsson, Brian Jungen, Roy Kiyooka, Germaine Koh, Myfanwy MacLeod, Damian Moppett, Isabelle Pauwels, Jerry Pethick, Judy Radul, Kevin Schmidt, Ron Terada, Ian Wallace, Jin-me Yoon
274 East 1st
June 3–July 8, 2006
Christos Dikeakos
November 25, 2005–January 16, 2006
Alex Morrison, Isabelle Pauwels, Frances Stark, Johannes Wohnseifer
And to stop you interfering, I shall have to dematerialize you again
October 13–November 19, 2005
Geoffrey Farmer, Brian Jungen, Germaine Koh, Myfanwy MacLeod, Damian Moppett, Alex Morrison, Ron Terada, Ian Wallace, Kelly Wood
Mix with care
July 5–September 24, 2005
Ron Terada
May 20–June 25, 2005
Arabella Campbell, Neil Campbell, Ron Terada, Ian Wallace
Painting After Poverty
April 8–May 14, 2005
Sam Durant
Color Pictures
February 25–March 2, 2005
Germaine Koh
Shell
January 14–February 19, 2005
Roy Kiyooka
Open Window on a Slow Train
December 2004
Jin-me Yoon
Fugitive
October 22–November 27, 2004
Myfanwy MacLeod
Don’t Stop Dreaming
September 10–October 16, 2004
Artist Curating Artists:
Damian Moppett curates Allison Hrabluik and Zin Taylor
May 28–June 26, 2004
Geoffrey Farmer
Every Surface In Some Way Decorated, Altered or Changed Forever (Except the Float)
April 7–May 15, 2004
Artist Curating Artists:
Myfanwy MacLeod curates Kyla Mallett
February 11–March 13, 2004
Damian Moppett
1815/1962
October 30–December 6, 2003
Carsten Höller, Cameron Jamie, Jakob Kolding, Myfanwy MacLeod, Kyla Mallett, Valérie Mréjen, Isabelle Pauwels, Raymond Pettibon, Ron Terada, Lawrence Weiner, Erwin Wurm
Seethe
September 10–October 25, 2003
Iain Baxter, Geoffrey Farmer, Roy Kiyooka, Germaine Koh, Myfanwy MacLeod, Ron Terada
I Sell Security
May 29–August 16, 2003
Kelly Wood
Black Plastic
April 11–May 17, 2003
Ian Wallace
February 28–April 5, 2003
Alex Morrison
Housewrecker
January 17–February 22, 2003
Allyson Clay
November 29–December 21, 2002
Ron Terada
September 6–October 12, 2002
Germaine Koh, Alex Morrison, N.E. Thing Co., Ron Terada, Ian Wallace
Signage
June 8–August 31, 2002
Christos Dikeakos
March 21–April 20, 2002
Germaine Koh
March 8–April 13, 2002
Brian Jungen
February 1–March 2, 2002
Geoffrey Farmer
Catriona Jeffries Catriona
September 9–October 9, 2001
Myfanwy MacLeod
Miss Moonshine
September 7–October 6, 2001
Geoffrey Farmer, Germaine Koh, Myfanwy MacLeod, Damian Moppett, Ron Terada, Jin-me Yoon, Kelly Wood
Supernatural Fairytales (Pink Island)
June 8–August 25, 2001
Ian Wallace
My Heroes in the Street
March 9–April 14, 2001
Jerry Pethick
Traverse
February 19–March 3, 2001
Roy Kiyooka
Filmic Works 1978–1980
November 30–December 21, 2000
Arni Haraldsson
Jerusalem
September 8–October 14, 2000
Iain Baxter
Vacuum Forms
April 27–June 3, 2000
Damian Moppett
Impure Systems
February 4–March 11, 2000
Ron Terada
Jeopardy Paintings
November 1999
Ian Wallace
Street Works 1969–1995
Part I: 1980–1982, March 1999. Part II: 1969–1999, April–May 1999
Ian Wallace
Chopaka
April 1997
Jerry Pethick
Gobi Clone
March 1997
