RICHARD BOULET: If I May Digress, Part 1

RICHARD BOULET
If I May Digress, Part 1
curated by WAYNE BAERWALDT, MATILDE NUZZO and LAM WONG

Opening reception: Fri, Sept 5, 2025, 6-8 PM
Exhibition: Sept 5 – Oct 25, 2025
Hours: Tues – Sat, 12-5; by appointment only Sun and Mon

Wil Aballe
Mezzanine Space
1375 Railspur Alley
Vancouver, BC V6H 4G9

For inquiries, contact wil@waapart.com

Richard Boulet: If I May Digress, Part 2, opens Saturday, September 6th, 2-5 PM, at Canton-Sardine at 071-268 Keefer St., Vancouver, BC.

This pair of exhibitions casts a spotlight on the extraordinary studio practice of Edmonton-based artist RICHARD BOULET. Boulet’s visually arresting fine craft textile works feature a characteristic mix of figurative and abstract elements with an emphasis on concrete poetry.

They present a dedicated survey of Boulet’s key works produced in various formats, from traditional cross-stitching to assemblage techniques and filaments of colour embedded in quilting. Boulet’s lived experience has led him to pay close attention to building a base of knowledge that remains open to addressing a wide range of issues associated with social justice, well being, the omnipresence of poetic inspiration, and the need for psychic and physical space to accommodate an emerging queer identity. The characteristic markers of his investigation are complex and generally identified with autobiographical sources and the formal consequences of an evolving definition and making of art.

Boulet’s conceptual process of making introduces fine craft textile art as part of an inclusive wellness program for community building. In addition, he extends the discourse around fine craft materiality via his exploration of more diverse elements including medical terminology (as either oblique/direct references), design strategies and performative sound.

RICHARD BOULET has two undergraduate degrees completed back-to-back from the University of Manitoba. The first is a Bachelor of Environmental Studies in Architecture followed by a BFA. Richard later received his MFA in Drawing and Intermedia at the University of Alberta.

LAM WONG is a Canadian visual artist, designer, and curator, born in 1968 in Xiamen, China. He immigrated to Hong Kong at the age of two and later to Canada in the 1980s. Wong has lived and worked in Vancouver since 1998. His art is primarily rooted in regional West Coast art history, with an emphasis on the development of painting and its avant-garde narrative.

MATILDE NUZZO is a sinologist by training and an emerging visual arts curator by profession, graduating from Venice’s Università Ca’Foscari. Nuzzo is co-founder of LensArt, an initiative to highlight neuro-diverse artists and inclusivity. She has organized numerous exhibitions, workshops and cultural events with project partners including Pistoletto Foundation, University of Verona, Fondazione Marchesani (Venice) and ArtVerona. Her residency in Vancouver is made possible with the generous support of Griffin Art Projects, Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), Dallas Loken, Lyn Goldman and anonymous donors.

WAYNE BAERWALDT is an independent visual arts curator and producer. His best-known curatorial projects trace performative elements in artmaking with an emphasis on unstable, disputed identities and the language of their construction and presentation in public and private spaces. Recent projects and publications include Meeting for Teas: On the Road to Decolonization. He is the guest editor for Issue #62 of PUBLIC, The Gender-Diverse Lens, and conducts ongoing research in social justice issues and questions of representation as a Michele Sereda Artist in Residence for Socially Engaged Practice at the University of Regina. He is a board member of the Hnatyshyn Foundation, Ottawa and on the Advisory Committee of Participant, inc., New York City.

Sponsor credits: Griffin Art Projects, Lyn Goldman, Sheila Spence, 21C Curators, Inc., Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, and Anonymous.

Hard-cover Publication:

If I May Digress: Richard Boulet and Collaborators offers perspectives the growing influence of fine crafts in the making of contemporary and modern art history. In many ways the artworks by Boulet and his collaborators represent a unique inquiry self-consciously free from morphological constrictions. Remarkable outcomes and stylistic shifts are examined.

Contributors to the publication include Dick Averns, Wayne Baerwaldt, Dr. Michele Hardy and Dr. Steven Harris. Publication design by Barr Gilmore.