Artists who have experienced homelessness spotlighted in B.C. exhibition [Video]

An art exhibition that aims to abolish misconceptions around what it means to be homeless, while promoting the work of local, often overlooked, artists, has just launched at a downtown Vancouver art space.

Led by non-profit art society Outsiders and Others, From the Streets of Our Unfair City: Artists Who Have Experienced Homelessness will showcase the works of artists An Dong, Randy Pandora, and Brett Zu at a gallery on Howe Street until late January.

At one point or another, all three have had to contend with the experience of sleeping on Vancouver’s streets.

Curator Yuri Arajs says the exhibition spotlights work from those who have experienced homelessness, as opposed to artists who are currently homeless, because it helps to push the concept that the experience of being unhoused shouldn’t become the artist’s entire identity, especially to gallery visitors.

“The reason we make that distinction is because homelessness is something that happens to people, it is not who …