Staff

Eric Lesage – membership and facilities

Eric Lesage is an interdisciplinary artist, occasional writer and constant factotum. Lesage was Artistic Director of the artist-run center La Maison des artistes in Winnipeg. Lesage’s practice is interested in the intersection of craft and conceptual art. Ideas of labour and handmade objects have led Lesage to engage in process based installations, performance, assemblage and site specific interventions. He has exhibited at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Raw: Gallery of Architecture and Design, and most recently in Make: Alter:Repeat at the Comox Valley Art Gallery. He also collaborated with the ITWÉ Collective on their site specific installation MANIFESTIPI. He has written reviews for aceart inc’s Paperwait and for Liaison. He has also served on the Board of Directors of l’AGAVF and of CARFAC BC and CARFAC National.

volunteer@gachet.org

Eileen Stephens – operations and finance

Eileen is Gallery Gachet’s operations manager. Eileen has worked with non-profit boards of directors as support staff, as a director, and as an officer. She is a former director of the Vancouver Poetry House, was a founding member of the Toronto chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change, and was a community consultant for designing the Arbutus Greenway. Eileen’s education in media studies and visual arts informs her practice in bookmaking, printmaking, and text art.

operations@gachet.org

Kendra Place – programming

Kendra Place is a writer and artist. She has written essays, reviews, and parallel texts for C Magazine, Fuse, Artspeak, and Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts. Her artwork, based in photography, video, performance, and writing, has been presented at NGTVSPC, Plug In ICA, Gallery 111, aceartinc, La Maison Rouge, Le Musée international des arts modestes, and the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. Her research has been supported by arts residencies with Public Preparation and Est-Nord-Est, as well as grants from the arts councils of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Canada. Kendra studied histories of art and architecture and critical theory in formal and informal contexts. As one-third of the Free Associates collective, she completed a two-year curatorial mentorship program with MAWA, a feminist art centre in Winnipeg, Treaty 1. She has worked with artist-run centres, community groups, and collectives as a coordinator, volunteer, organizer, curator, editor, and assistant.

programming@gachet.org

 Manuel Axel Strain – program associate

Manuel Axel Strain is a 2-spirit interdisciplinary artist with Musqueam/Simpcw/Syilx heritage based in the unceded territory of the Katzie/Kwantlen peoples. Although they have attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they are more appreciative of the knowledge they have gained from their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and ancestors. Strain uses their lived experience as a source of agency to investigate different ways of healing and knowing. Invested with personal and political histories, their practice includes painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and installation, through which mental and spiritual well-being take paramount significance. They have contributed work to Capture Photography Festival through Richmond Public Art, the Vancouver International Airport, and The Musqueam Cultural Centre, and have exhibited work in many places in the land that is now called Canada. They are a guest lecturer at Vancouver Community College, where they curated the Indigenous Art Symposium “Indigenizing Higher Education.” Some of their most meaningful curatorial and community projects include “My Blood Can’t Feel the Land” with Gallery Gachet and The Talking Stick Festival, “Resistance and Resurgence,” a 2-Spirit exhibition at Interurban Art Gallery, “Destigmatization and Harm Reduction” at the Musqueam Cultural Pavilion, “Transcendence” at the Rising Sun Gallery, “The Land Can’t Hear Your Voices,” created during a residency as the Maple Ridge Artist in Residence, as well as open studio events at Lookout Housing and the Phoenix Society.

programassociate@gachet.org

Sylwia Kisynska – communications and design

Sylwia is a graphic designer with a passion for photography and fine art. She developed her knowledge of art in Fine Art High School through to completing her Masters in Art History. Sylwia moved to Canada from Poland in 2006. She graduated from Design Essential program offered by British Columbia Institute of Technology and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2011. This program taught her how to use her background in Fine Arts to create various design solutions. Sylwia has been working at Gallery Gachet as a communications and design coordinator since 2011.

communications@gachet.org