Art at Council
Each Port Moody Regular Council meeting begins with a featured art presentation. Local performers and artists can request to showcase their art through the Art at Council program. This gives artists an opportunity to share their work with the public and educates Council on the cultural projects taking place throughout our city. Previous presentations have included paintings, sculptures, photography, film, music, sketches, artifacts, dance, and a variety of other forms of artistic expression.
Schedule
January 12, 2025Valerie Pugh | House Red Line |
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We are pleased to have Valerie Pugh with us this evening for Art at Council. Valerie, an artist and arts educator, resides in the Tri-Cities. She has exhibited her artwork in group and solo exhibitions at The Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and POMO Arts Centre.
The artwork in her exhibition explores themes of memory, home, imagination and dreams. Inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s (pronounced BA-SCHE-LARD’S) book, The Poetics of Space, Valerie negotiates the distortion and formation of memory and explores how a lived experience is pieced back through the imagination. Memories, which are often abstract in form, are represented as gestural swaths of vivid colour and generous layers of mark making. These abstractions are then constructed into recognizable architectural forms. The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 4 minute 25 second mark.
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January 28, 2025Yasuo Araki | Peace in Port MoodyMarin Charlton | Honeysuckle |
| Tonight’s Art at Council is a celebration of our StreetArts Banner Program. Thirty community banners were painted two weekends ago and are currently on display in the Galleria until tomorrow, Wednesday, January 29.
This year’s design theme is Planting our Garden. Gardens are a wonderful metaphor for growing a community and we care for gardens in much the same way that we care for each other. We plant seeds, tend to young shoots, feed them, nurture them while enjoying their flourishing blossoms. This year we are showcasing two banners created by Port Moody residents. The first one is by Yasuo Araki, who will be turning 86 in April. Yasuo has had a long career supporting the arts and artists as he owned the Araki Gallery International at the Pan Pacific Hotel for over 30 years. The second design is by Marin Charlton who is nine years old. She has waited patiently for the banner program to come back and was excited that she is old enough to paint a banner by herself. Her inspiration was the visiting hummingbirds in her garden that love the planted honeysuckle. In addition to the thirty banners, fourteen duplicate short banners were painted by community volunteers and this past fall sixty banners were painted by Port Moody Secondary and Heritage Woods students. We look forward to seeing the banners adorning Port Moody streets in April. The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 17 minute 50 second mark. |
February 11, 2025Amy Wiebe Lau | Magellanic Pink |
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Amy Wiebe Lau has been a resident of Port Moody for the last 12 years. She is an abstract expressionist artist who captures the vibrant and fluid nature of the cosmos using layers of resin, acrylic and alcohol inks. Currently, Amy is a doctoral candidate in Arts Education and her research interests lie at the intersection of art and social justice, with a focus on the role of contemporary art in decolonization and reconciliation. Tonight, we are delighted to share Magellanic Pink one of her mixed media paintings which beautifully captures the vibrant fluidity of the tumultuous cosmos, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the mesmerizing dance of colours, layers and textures. Magellanic Pink is the heartbeat of a universe in bloom, where the celestial and the cellular intertwine. Ethereal swirls of rose and gold unfold like the first breath of a newborn star or perhaps the final exhale of a dying sun dissolving into the void. The pigments stretch and coil, whispering secrets of stellar nurseries and the quiet poetry of nebulae, where light and dust conspire to create something greater than themselves. There is a tender urgency in the way in which the hues collide, a reminder that existence is not static—it is an ever-changing tide, an ebb and flow of energy, love, and transformation. Amy’s captivating paintings are part of PoMoArts’ current exhibition, Interwoven Realms, which continues until March 2, 2025. The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 6 minute 45 second mark. |
February 25, 2025Alex Lecce | Port Moody, Inlet Centre Fire Hall |
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We are pleased to have Alexander Lecce with us this evening for Art at Council. Alex is a self-taught artist who currently lives in Port Coquitlam but grew up in Port Moody with his family. Alex has exhibited his artwork in the annual Inclusion Art Show at the Roundhouse, Project EveryBODY in Vancouver, as well as locally in Grit Café, PoMoArts, and the Port Moody Art Shuffle. Alex has a studio in his home where he sketches, draws, sculpts figurines using modelling clay and crafts boats, trains and steam trucks out of wood. Alex says he feels happy when he makes art and wants to be a famous artist. Tonight, we are viewing Port Moody, Inlet Centre Fire Hall, an acrylic painting on canvas. Port Moody Fire Chief Darcy O’Riordon commissioned Alex to create a painting of the fire hall. Alex was able to tour the fire hall and took many pictures for inspiration. Port Moody, Inlet Centre Fire Hall now has a prominent spot in the communal kitchen and can be seen by all the Firefighters and administration staff everyday. The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 5 minute 44 second mark. |
March 11, 2025Parvaneh Roudgar | Dreams of Starlight |
| Parvaneh Roudgar, is an internationally recognized sculptor with over 38 years of experience creating impactful and thought-provoking public artworks. Her sculptures have been exhibited across North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, exploring themes of movement, identity, nature, and human connection.
Parvaneh began her artistic journey in 1986 in Florence, Italy, where she developed a strong foundation in sculptural techniques. Now based in Port Moody, where she has lived and worked for the past 26 years, Parvaneh seamlessly integrates her Persian heritage and multicultural influences of her Canadian surroundings with traditional Italian sculptural techniques. If you have taken the SkyTrain at Inlet Skytrain Station, you will have inevitably encountered Parvaneh’s sculpture, Mother and Child on Bicycle, a sculpture that celebrates the bond between family while embracing sustainable transportation. We are delighted that Parvaneh is joining us tonight, to talk about her most recent sculpture titled Dreams of Starlight, a sculpture that evokes a sense of wonder and contemplation. Welcome Parvaneh, we look forward to hearing more about your process of how you created Dreams of Starlight. The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 5 minute 45 second mark. |
Tuesday, March 25, 2025Kathryn Gibson | In the Garden |
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Kathryn Gibson is a Port Moody Artist who graduated with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2011. She has had numerous exhibitions throughout British Columbia and the United States. In 2003, Kathryn was awarded a BC Arts Grant for Education and Travel which enabled her to travel to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. This opportunity arose shortly after her work was featured on the cover of the international magazine, Australian Arts and Perception. Kathryn’s artwork explores the ideas of place or objects. She describes herself as a maker of marks, inspired by the challenge to create alternative ways to speak with others. Each painting is created with an intent to evoke an emotion in the viewer, through a skilled use of light, atmosphere, colour and form. The light in her work may remind you of a time spent lying on a forest floor watching daylight filtering through autumn leaves. It may be the recognition of harmony in a painting that can exist between people within their natural and cultural surroundings. We are delighted that Kathryn is joining us tonight, to present In the Garden, a watercolour that received an honourable mention at recent exhibition with the Federation of Canadian Artists. Welcome Kathryn, we look forward to hearing more about your artistic practice. The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 7 minute 4 second mark. |
April 8, 2025Jordanna George | Seasons of Growth |
| Tonight’s Art at Council is a celebration of the Artist design banner which is part of our StreetArts Banner Program. This year’s design theme was the same as our Community Banner’s theme Planting our Garden. Both sets of banners are currently being installed in our city streets this week.
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April 22, 2025Nina Koba | The Watchers |
| Nina Koba, originally from Ukraine, has lived in Mexico and currently calls Port Moody home. Nina has exhibited in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Tonight, we are thrilled to share an oil painting titled, The Watchers, that is a reflection on presence, memory, and quiet resilience. Nina painted the tree as if it was a living figure—shaped by time, weather, and the human hand. Its bare branches stretch upward like nerves or ancient writings, each line carrying a story. The Watchers reveals the artist’s attempt to preserve a moment, to translate feeling into form, and to invite the viewer into a world where time slows down and evokes an emotional response that words can barely express. Nina’s paintings express the dialogue between nature, emotion, and the passage of time. For her, painting is both an act of introspection and an offering to the viewer. She depicts the raw energy of storms, the fleeting beauty of flowers, mysterious trees, and the quiet stories hidden in landscapes. Inspired by the ever-changing sky and the delicate balance of light and shadow, her work explores themes of impermanence, resilience, and memory. To see more of Nina’s alluring paintings, you can visit PoMoArts and view the current exhibition, Art 4 Life, which continues until May 4, 2025. The council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 4 minute 4 second mark. |
Past Schedule
In 2024 there were a total of 21 Art at Council presentations an d can be viewed here.
In 2023, there were a total of 21 Art at Council presentations and can be viewed here.
In 2022, there were a total of 17 Art at Council presentations and can be viewed here.
In 2021, there were a total of 18 Art at Council presentations and can be viewed here.
In 2020, there were a total of 17 Art at Council presentations and can be viewed here.
