Vancouver Now! at the Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery has announced Vancouver Now!, a new rotating exhibition series celebrating the artists shaping the city. Dedicated to emerging and mid-career artists with timely, distinctive practices, the series reflects the Gallery’s commitment to championing local voices. The first five exhibitions showcase the diversity and ambition of Vancouver’s contemporary artists. Launching August 7, 2026, the inaugural exhibition features Emily Hermant, whose intricate weavings transform recycled electrical wires and data cables into richly textured compositions. The exhibition coincides with the Gallery’s acquisition of her suspended sculpture Talk Through Me (2024). Following Hermant, the series continues through 2028 with Lauren Crazybull, whose portrait-based paintings consider Indigenous presence, self-representation and multiplicity while asserting the humanity and resilience of Indigenous peoples, followed by Karice Mitchell, who transforms found images through analogue and digital processes to explore Black femme visibility, protection and alternative ways of being.
“The first five Vancouver Now! exhibitions speak to the incredible depth of artistic talent in Vancouver,” said Eva Respini, interim co-CEO and curator at large. “Across painting, drawing, sculpture and installation, these artists are producing some of the most exciting work in Canada today. This series is our commitment to making local artists’ work a regular and visible part of the Gallery experience.”
Zoometry at the Mouvement Modernes Gallery
Presented by Toronto-based Creative Matters and Paris-based architectural practice RDAI during Paris Design Week, Zoometry explores this question through five exclusive rugs conceived using computational design and brought to life by master artisans in Nepal. Zoometry is defined as the geometry of the living world, revealed through the organic micro-structures found in nature. In this collection, it becomes a design approach that translates intricate organic structures into visual expressions.
The collection brings together algorithmic precision and human craftsmanship. Digital design provides the framework, while the skill, intuition and sensitivity of the master weavers transform each piece into a tactile work of art where technology and savoir-faire are woven into one. Alongside finished rugs, the Zoometry exhibition invites visitors behind the scenes through a series of specially commissioned photographs and film by Nepalese photojournalist Narendra Shrestha. From architectural research and digital modelling to weaving workshops and the landscapes of Nepal, Shrestha’s work reveals the journey behind each rug and offers a deeper insight into the craftsmanship, cultural context and human stories behind the collection. The exhibition is complemented by a curated selection of collectible artworks and design objects, curated by the Mouvement Moderne gallery, creating a visual dialogue with the rugs and extending the exhibition’s exploration of materiality, form and nature.
The Zoometry exhibition will be on view from September 9 to 23, 2026.
The Nue Black Aesthetic at the Design Museum
This autumn, the Design Museum in London will open an exhibition guest curated by author and journalist Charlene Prempeh that charts the work of some of the most innovative contemporary Black designers working right now. The Nue Black Aesthetic, which runs from November 2026 until August 2027, will feature 16 designers who are reshaping the design industry and will be one of the most extensive exhibitions on contemporary Black design ever held in the UK. With over 100 objects on display, visitors will see innovative practices that span from fashion and furniture to architecture, product design, and sculpture.
At the core of the exhibition will be the question: “What does it mean to be a Black designer working today?” Across six sections, the show will demonstrate that Black design is “not a monolith,” and that there is “no single way to be a Black designer.” By spotlighting diverse practices and voices, the exhibition invites visitors to rethink assumptions about what Black design looks like and who gets to shape design culture. The designers featured in the show are: Tejumola Adenuga, Taiba Akhuetie, Ini Archibong, Simone Brewster, Mac Collins, Phoebe Collings-James, Foday Dumbuya, Feben, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Andu Masebo, Saul Nash, Tosin Oshinowo, Bianca Saunders, Rachel Scott, Samuel Ross and Giles Tettey Nartey. Additional works and graphics by over 20 designers, from Althea McNish to Yinka Ilori, will also be featured in the exhibition’s introduction to contextualise Black design from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Many of the designers featured belong to diasporic communities, balancing shared experiences with the distinct traditions of their specific heritage. Their varied approaches to identity, culture, and community reflect the myriad nuances of the Black experience. The title of the show references the cultural movements of the “Black Aesthetic” of the 1960s and the “New Black Aesthetic” of the 1980s. But this exhibition proposes a “Nue” era; one defined by nuance, where there is no single way to be a Black designer.
