Exhibition Tours – Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Between the Pages
Friday, December 11 & Saturday, January 9 at 1 PM
Free. Drop-in
Join gallery staff for a free, drop-in tour of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Between the Pages.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’s art practice, which spans five decades, moves between literary, performing and visual arts. In all these forms, his work tells challenging stories that expand understandings of Haida culture, relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and how people impact their environment. Between the Pages explores how Haida Manga works in the space between cultures, and how the tension and innovation in this intersection generates cross-cultural understanding.
At the centre of the exhibition is a reading space for visitors of all ages. Settle into the gallery and discover the coloured worlds Yahgulanaas has created. The library features many of the artist’s acclaimed graphic novels, such as The Lost Haida Manga: A Compendium (2026), JAJ: A Haida Manga (2023), The Little Hummingbird (2010), and Red: A Haida Manga (2009). Diving deeper into Yahgulanaas’s expansive process, the exhibition also reveals never-before-seen studio materials that trace the development of the mural RED (2009) on loan from Museum of Anthropology and Clan Hat (2025) on loan from the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Yahgulanaas’s unique art form, Haida Manga, blends North Pacific Indigenous visual language with the graphic dynamism of Asian comics. Spurred by the desire to unite oppositional forces and rooted in the artist’s history of activism, Yahgulanaas developed his distinct visual language of Haida Manga. With this fusion art form, he also celebrates the historical relationship between Coastal Indigenous Peoples on the Pacific Rim and the peoples of Asia. His work bridges cultures and storytelling traditions, engaging audiences across generations.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an award-winning artist and author. His visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms, including large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures, painting, ink drawings, ceramics, and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of cultural identity, ecology, and the barriers and openings in the human condition, he uses art and speaking opportunities to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii—his ancestral North Pacific archipelago—is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience. Influenced by both the tradition of Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, Yahgulanaas has created a practice that is celebrated for its vitality, relevancy, and originality.
Yahgulanaas’s work has appeared in public spaces, museums, galleries and private collections around the globe. Institutional collections include the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris; British Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Seattle Art Museum; and Humboldt Forum, Berlin. Most recently, the Vancouver Art Gallery acquired Yahgulanaas’s 2025 Clan Hat mural, on view as part of this exhibition at The Gallery at Evergreen Arts. Yahgulanaas is represented by Gallery Jones, Vancouver and Madrona Gallery, Victoria. www.mny.ca @yahgulanaas
Supported by Vancity
