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Griffin Art Projects

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Griffin Art Projects is a non-profit gallery in North Vancouver that showcases contemporary art Griffin Art Projects is founded by the Freybe family.

Griffin Art Projects is an art gallery space located in North Vancouver that showcases contemporary art exhibitions, primarily from private collections. Inspired by the strength of private art collections in our region, Griffin Art Projects builds on the important role that collectors and contemporary artists play in our cultural landscape through exhibitions, events, and publications.

10/14/2026

Join us onsite at Griffin Art Projects on Sunday, October 25, 2026 from 1 - 2PM for a Curator Talk with emerging curator and Okanagan Curator Award Winner, Victoria Verge! For our Okanagan viewers, we are pleased to offer online accessibility through Zoom.

The talk, Rooted in Rural: Curating Beyond the Centre, will discuss Verge’s research as she prepares for the inaugural exhibitions at the new Vernon Art Gallery, in her role as Curator of Contemporary Art. As an emerging curator working in a regional gallery, Verge shares how curiosity, collaboration, and community have become the foundation of her curatorial practice.

This talk explores the opportunities and challenges of curating beyond major urban centres, and how rural institutions can foster experimentation, build meaningful relationships with artists, and imagine new models for exhibition-making.

RSVP through the link in our bio!

We are excited to welcome Verge to Griffin Art Projects for the Okanagan Curator Award Residency from October 24 to November 21, 2026!

The Okanagan Curator Award provides an Okanagan-based curator with a one month residency at Griffin Art Projects in North Vancouver. This award is a component of the 2026 Griffin–Similkameen Residency Exchange Initiative. Learn more through the link in our bio!

Photo: Zev Tiefenbach

10/12/2026

On view at Griffin Art Projects until December 13, 2026 | Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection

Four and Face Mask (2012) is a sculpture intricately carved from red cedar and adorned with woven cedar bark, demonstrating artist Beau Dick’s mastery and command of traditional carving practices. Dick’s treatment of masks is not as singular carvings but as comprehensive elements on a larger free-standing sculpture that reflects the contemporary aspects of his practice.

Dick’s second featured work, Untitled (Pugwis, The Sea Creature) (2009), is a red cedar mask that incorporates horsehair and feathers to depict Pugwis, a sea creature from Kwakwaka’wakw mythology.

Beau Dick (1955–2017) was a Kwakwaka’wakw artist and activist based in Alert Bay, BC. Carving at an early age, Dick began training with his father and grandfather before working alongside renowned Northwest Coast artists including Robert Davidson and Bill Reid. While he was rooted in traditional carving techniques, Dick sought to bridge the gap between traditional ceremonial art and the global contemporary art world, and often incorporated contemporary influences and materials in his practice.

Slide 1: Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, Installation View, 2026. Photo: Tim Chang

Slide 2: Beau Dick, Untitled (Pugwis, The Sea Creature), 2009. Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, Installation View, 2026. Photo: Tim Chang.

We are grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

Visit www.griffinartprojects.ca for more details.

1174 Welch St, North Vancouver

10/10/2026

On view at Griffin Art Projects until December 13, 2026 | Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection

Pieces of Water #7, Blood Recall (1995) is an oil painting from Gathie Falk’s later career that represents her continuing fascination with the everyday.

Gathe Falk (1928–2025) worked in painting, ceramics, performance, and papier-mâche during her 60-year career based in Vancouver. Inspired heavily by German Expressionism, Falk’s early paintings were playful, colourful, and expressive. Thematically, she was interested in documenting everyday life, thereby representing its significance and oft-forgotten beauty. This interest continued as Falk began working in ceramics, sculpting replicas of commonplace objects from her home, and was also explored in her performance art, as she recreated daily rituals from her own life using props and costumes.

Slide 1: Gathie Falk, Pieces of Water #7, Blood Recall, 1995. Oil on canvas. 48 x 48 in. Photo: Lisa Baldissera.

Slide 2: Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, Installation View, 2026. Photo: Tim Chang.

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

Visit www.griffinartprojects.ca for more details.

1174 Welch St, North Vancouver

10/09/2026

Would you like a closer look into our current exhibition? Join us for our free Guided Tour of Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection on Sunday, October 18 at 1PM!

Led by our Young Canada Works Curatorial and Marketing Assistant, Charmaine Mah, this tour offers a chance to learn more about select pieces and together discuss the works from the exhibit’s historically rich and diverse body of work.

RSVP through the link in our bio!

On view until December 13, 2026, the O'Brian collection reflects a legacy in Canadian arts and culture that is profound and multifaceted. As collectors, they acquired a significant body of work that reflects the evolution of Canadian contemporary art, along with art from the postwar period and intergenerational Indigenous artists from the region. As philanthropists, the O’Brians provided crucial support to institutions and individual artists alike, enabling the realization of numerous projects and initiatives. As advocates and leaders, they have ensured the relevance and vitality of cultural institutions for future generations. Found in Translation provides a comprehensive look into their celebrated collection for Vancouver audiences!

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Charmaine Mah is an illustrator and textile artist. Through her mixed-media practice, Charmaine engages with a variety of dialogues including Chinese-Canadian immigrant history, monstrosity and queerness, and navigating intersectional identities. She is also passionate about facilitating accessible spaces for others to participate in art-making and knowledge-sharing. She is currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Image: Found in Translation Sunday Tour with Charmaine Mah. Photography Credit: Tim Chang

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the generous support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

10/08/2026

On view at Griffin Art Projects until December 13, 2026 | Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection

Southeast Wind (2004) depicts a supernatural sea creature with the likeness of a killer whale, which in Haida oral histories is the embodiment of the tempestuous weather brought to Haida Gwaii by the southeast wind. Artist Robert Davidson’s use of bold black and red forms suggest the transformative force of the supernatural being, as well as the turbulent weather of the archipelago.

Robert Davidson (b. 1946), also known as Guud San G***s (Eagle of the Dawn), is a Haida artist and a major figure in the renaissance of Haida art and culture. Davidson works in an expansive range of media, including totem poles, masks, printmaking, painting, and fine jewellery. His practice is deeply rooted in the formal vocabulary of Northwest Coast formline design, which he learned through a lineage of established carvers, including the work and legacy of his great-grandfather Charles Edenshaw, and Bill Reid, who Davidson apprenticed under for 18 months.

Slide 1: Robert Davidson, Southeast Wind, 2004. Acrylic on canvas. 40 x 60 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Stonington Gallery.

Slide 2: Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, Installation View, 2026. Photo: Tim Chang.

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

10/05/2026

Thank you for joining us this weekend for the North Shore Art Crawl! We hope you enjoyed exploring the visual arts in North and West Vancouver during this year’s sunny arts festival. Griffin welcomed over 100 visitors throughout the weekend, with many new attendees discovering the gallery for the first time.

If you weren’t able to visit, our current exhibition, Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, is on view until December 13, 2026!

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The O'Brian collection reflects a legacy in Canadian arts and culture that is profound and multifaceted. As collectors, they acquired a significant body of work that reflects the evolution of Canadian contemporary art, along with art from the postwar period and intergenerational Indigenous artists from the region. As philanthropists, the O’Brians provided crucial support to institutions and individual artists alike, enabling the realization of numerous projects and initiatives. As advocates and leaders, they have ensured the relevance and vitality of cultural institutions for future generations. Found in Translation provides a comprehensive look into their celebrated collection for Vancouver audiences!

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

Visit www.griffinartprojects.ca for more details.

1174 Welch St, North Vancouver

Images: Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, North Shore Art Crawl, October 2026. Photography Credit: Tim Chang.

10/04/2026

On view at Griffin Art Projects until December 13, 2026 | Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection

Dana Claxton’s photography practice challenges the Western commodification of First Nations objects and experience. In The Protector (grid) (2020), the artist explores the representation of Indigenous women in popular culture through an act of protest. The text on the sign the Indigenous model is holding in this series of images is taken from the rock band Redbone’s 1974 hit “Come and Get Your Love.” The slight change in poses between images references fashion editorial photoshoots, while her accessories are highlighted by the grey couture she is wearing.

Dana Claxton (b. 1959) is an internationally regarded Hunkpapa Lakota artist working across film, photography, and performance art. Her work is noted for its interrogation of representations of Indigenous women in popular culture. A core theme across Claxton’s many practices is her investigation of beauty beyond Western standards and beauty’s persistence through hardship and oppression. This theme underlies Claxton’s deep celebration of the strength and humility of Indigenous women.

Slide 1: Dana Claxton, The Protector (grid), 2020. Chromogenic print. 72 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Slide 2: Dana Claxton, The Protector (grid), 2020. Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, Installation View, 2026. Photo: Tim Chang.

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

Visit www.griffinartprojects.ca for more details.

1174 Welch St, North Vancouver

10/03/2026

On view at Griffin Art Projects until December 13, 2026 | Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection

Haida feast bowls were traditionally made of wood and used to serve food during a potlatch or to contain eulachon grease, a flavourful oil rendered from fermented candlefish, which soaked into the wood of the bowl. The use of silver and gold in Jim Hart’s Haida Raven Feast Bowl (n.d.). redefines the shape of the feast bowl, transforming it into a contemporary sculptural work rather than a functional object.

James (Jim) Hart has been Chief of the Eagle Clan since 1999 and was the first Northwest Coast artist to use bronze as a sculptural medium. Hart is best known for his painted and printed graphic designs, sculpted wooden monuments, cast bronze sculptures, and silver and gold jewellery. He became Bill Reid’s assistant in Vancouver in 1989, when he facilitated the finishing details on Reid’s The Raven and the First Men, a centrepiece of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, and Reid’s Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Jade Canoe, displayed at Vancouver International Airport. Hart’s work juxtaposes classical and contemporary forms through a variety of materials.

Slide 1: Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection, Installation View, 2026. Photo: Tim Chang.

Slide 2: Jim Hart, Haida Raven Feast Bowl, n.d. 0.925 silver and 24k gold. 15 x 7 x 10 in. Edition 1/10. Photo: Tim Chang.

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

Visit www.griffinartprojects.ca for more details.

1174 Welch St, North Vancouver

10/02/2026

Please join us this weekend, Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4 from 11AM - 5PM for the annual North Shore Art Crawl!

Come on down with your family and friends to enjoy this free North Shore arts festival by North Van Arts who has partnered with local galleries, breweries, cafés and more to showcase over 100 incredible artists in 70 locations across West Vancouver and North Vancouver!

Here at Griffin Art Projects, you’ll be able to view our current exhibition, Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection. On Sunday, October 4 at 1PM, we will be offering a free guided tour led by our Young Canada Works Curatorial and Marketing Assistant, Charmaine Mah. The tour is a great opportunity to learn more about select artworks and artists!

Learn more through the link in our bio!

–

On view until December 13, 2026, the O'Brian collection reflects a legacy in Canadian arts and culture that is profound and multifaceted. As collectors, they acquired a significant body of work that reflects the evolution of Canadian contemporary art, along with art from the postwar period and intergenerational Indigenous artists from the region. As philanthropists, the O’Brians provided crucial support to institutions and individual artists alike, enabling the realization of numerous projects and initiatives. As advocates and leaders, they have ensured the relevance and vitality of cultural institutions for future generations. Found in Translation provides a comprehensive look into their celebrated collection for Vancouver audiences!

Slide 1 & 2: 16th Annual North Shore Art Crawl Locations, 2026. Courtesy of North Vancouver Community Arts Council.

10/01/2026

On view at Griffin Art Projects until December 13, 2026 | Found in Translation: The Michael and Inna O’Brian Collection

Working in diverse mediums, such as wood, argillite, gold, silver, and silkscreen printing, Reg Davidson developed a practice that prioritizes a deep reverence for traditional formline design, as seen in this mask. Adorned with natural pigments and woven cedar bark, Gaghett (2004) represents a stylized human figure bearing an eagle crest that is prominently displayed on the forehead, thereby demonstrating affiliation with the Eagle lineage.

Reg Davidson (b. 1954) is a Haida artist recognized for his many contributions to Haida culture, including traditional dance and singing. Belonging to the Eagle Clan, Davidson comes from an important lineage of Haida artists. He is the son of Claude Davidson and younger brother of Robert Davidson, and received artistic training from both of them.

Reg Davidson, Gaghett, 2004. Red cedar, operculum shells, horsehair. 24 x 19 x 10 in. Photo: Tim Chang.

Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture, Merla Beckerman, and PARC Retirement Living.

Visit www.griffinartprojects.ca for more details.

1174 Welch St, North Vancouver

Address

1174 Welch Street
North Vancouver, BC
V7P2R5

Opening Hours

Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm
Sunday	12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+16049850136

Website

http://griffinartprojects.ca/, https://linktr.ee/griffinartprojects

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