Zainub Verjee Explained

Zainub Verjee
Birth Date:1956
Birth Place:Nairobi, Kenya
Education:BA, Business Administration and Economics, Simon Fraser University

Zainub Verjee CM,[1] (born 1956) is a Kenya-born Canadian video artist, curator, writer, arts administrator and public intellectual. She began her career in the Vancouver arts community of the 1970s, which was steeped in interdisciplinary, intermedia, and intercultural practices. Having made her mark as an emerging artist, she shifted the emphasis of her work to curatorial, administrative and policy arenas. Applying the insight, creativity and criticality of an artist, she has brought “institutional critique” into the workings of the institution itself. Deeply engaged with the UK’s British Black Arts, Tactical Video Movement, Third Cinema and the post-Bandung Conference decolonization, Verjee has been embedded in the history of women’s labour in British Columbia.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] In February 2020 she was awarded the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for “outstanding contribution to the arts”.[7] [8] [9] [10] In 2021 she was conferred an honorary doctorate by the OCAD University recognizing her outstanding contribution to arts, racial and gender equity [11] [12] [13] She was elected as a Senior Fellow of the Massey College at University of Toronto in the fall of 2021.[14] [15] [16] Earlier she was appointed as McLaughlin College Fellow at the York University.[17] [18] [19] In 2022 she was conferred Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, by Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, Halifax[20] [21] She was the recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts given by Simon Fraser University, Burnaby in the Spring Convocation of 2023.[22] [23] [24] [25] [26] Her contribution to the pioneering prison theatre program in Canada and for integral role in the formation of the British Columbia Arts Council was recognized by University of Victoria by conferring her with an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts in Spring Convocation in 2023.[27] [28] [29] [30] [31]

In the summer of 2021, she had a solo show Speech Acts at Centre A:Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.[3] [32] [33] [34] Her work has been shown internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art and the Venice Biennale. She was Film Distribution Manager at the Women in Focus Society, Vancouver. She was involved with the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s.[35] [36] Zainub offered the connecting link between the Black British Art Movement and Vancouver.[37] In 1989 Verjee cofounded In Visible Colours with Lorraine Chan of the National Film Board,[38] an international film and video festival and symposium featuring the work of women of colour.[39] [40] At the Courtauld Institute of Art in a keynote[41] on In Visible Colours as an experiment in solidarity, Third cinema, women and birth of an aesthetic she spoke of as a witness to the unfolding of the decolonization process. It was the same time period when a new Afro-Asian solidarity emerged in the form of the Bandung Conference—a counter to the West, and a non- Western basis for organizing a non-alignment front to counter the Cold War.[42] Following the success of In Visible Colours, she was invited by the Jeanne Sauvé Youth Foundation to lead a workshop on International Forum 1992: globalization and nationalism at the first International Conference for Young Leaders, Montreal.[43] In 1992 she was awarded National Film Board Fellowship as part of New Initiatives in Film for women of colour and aboriginal women.[44]

She led the Artists’ Coalition for Local Colour, raising racism charges against the Vancouver Art Gallery.[45] [46] [47]

Writer and critic

As a writer and critic she has been very prolific.[6] [48] [49] [50] She was contributor to a special double issue of the Capilano Review,[51] the first to be entirely devoted to women, featuring thirty-seven British Columbia women writers and visual artists, all working within the theme of struggle, local and global.[52] [53]

Career

In the 1990s, she worked for a decade as the Executive Director of the Western Front Society[54] in Vancouver.[55] [35] [56] [57] She has been active as an arts administrator in the field of cultural policy and cultural diplomacy for over 30 years.[36] [58] [5] [59] Her decades of work in the sector has led to appointments on boards, steering committees and invitations to speak on the national and international fora.[60] [61] In addition to holding positions at Women in Focus, Citizen’s Forum on Canada’s Future -The Spicer Commission, Canada Council for the Arts, and Department of Canadian Heritage, she was engaged by Gordon Campbell, Canadian diplomat and the 35th Mayor of Vancouver on his landmark Vancouver Arts Initiative. Among many appointments to Boards, she is proud of her work at the B.C. Arts Board that led to the formation of the B.C. Arts Council.[62] [63] In 2017 she was appointed as the Director of the International Art Gallery at the Jubilee International Arts Festival in Lisbon.[64] Given her expertise in cultural policy and cultural diplomacy, she was at the forefront of the cultural policy work in the 1980s-2000s in Canada and internationally working on issues of Artist Labour, Racial Equity, and Culture Trade.[65] [66] [67] She is at forefront in writing about how COVID-19 exposed hypocrisy about the artists and their labour. She also co-authored a letter, on behalf of 75000 artists, to the Prime Minister of Canada on issue of Basic Income.[68] She is spearheading a movement on Basic Income for the artists which has become an international issue[69] [70] and she was invited to speak at the Creative Directions Festival of Monash University, Australia[71] and giving keynote on issues of labour and political economy of arts.[72]

Appointed in 2015, Zainub is currently the Executive Director of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.[62] [73]

Born in Nairobi in 1956, Zainub is a fourth generation Kenyan.[74] [75] She moved to Canada in the 1970s to study economics at Simon Fraser University. Verjee family is known for its philanthropy around the world.

She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023. She currently resides in Mississauga and Vancouver.[76]

Artist

"Zainub’s career in curatorship, policy and administration has been consistent and contiguous with what might be termed a critical transversal aesthetic. Zainub’s movement, from art to institutional work, as the pursuit of a more effective transversal praxis."[77]

Embedded in a Fluxus ethos, apart from her practice as a multidisciplinary artist, she is a programmer/curator, critic, writer, and activist. Her artworks have been shown at the Venice Biennale, Museum of Modern Art, NY, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland US, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, France, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, México, D. F. (Mexico City, Mexico), M.S.U. Baroda, India, Embassy Cultural House, London, Art Gallery of Alberta and resides in private and public collections (Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada).[78] [65]

Selected exhibitions

In 1993 Verjee presented Ecoute s'il pleut (Listen if it's Raining), a French/English video poem to allow the viewer to experience the fullness of silence.[80]

The Engaging Creativities: Art in the Pandemic[83] [84]

References

  1. Web site: Governor General announces new appointments to the Order of Canada and promotions within the Order. Office of the Secretary to the Governor. General. December 22, 2023. The Governor General of Canada.
  2. Web site: Zainub Verjee .
  3. Web site: Speech Acts: Zainub Verjee | Centre A.
  4. Web site: Artist - Zainub Verjee. March 11, 2018. vtape.org.
  5. Web site: Steering Committee. talenttolead.ca.
  6. Web site: Author - Zainub Verjee. 2021-04-30. canadianart.ca.
  7. Web site: Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
  8. Web site: February 20, 2020. Zainub Verjee (@Zainubverjee): 2020 Governor General's Visual and Media Arts Award Winner. 2021-04-30. ismailimail.blog.
  9. 19 February 2020. Eight Artists Win Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Canadian Art.
  10. Web site: Smith. Janet. February 19, 2020. Dana Claxton and Ken Lum win 2020 Governor General Visual and Media Arts Awards. 2021-04-30. The Georgia Straight.
  11. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Zainub Verjee conferred Honorary Doctorate by OCAD University at the 2021 Convocation . YouTube.
  12. Web site: Zainub Verjee conferred with an Honorary Doctorate for her exceptional contribution | (@zainubverjee). 30 July 2021.
  13. Web site: OCAD University awards five new honorary doctorates | OCAD University.
  14. News: Zainub Verjee elected a Senior Fellow of Massey College. Ismailimail . 21 September 2021.
  15. Web site: Zainub Verjee elected a Senior Fellow of Massey College. 20 September 2021 .
  16. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Senior Fellow Luncheon with Zainub Verjee: Teleos, nomos, ethos and the Massey Report . YouTube.
  17. Web site: College Fellows.
  18. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Massey Report at 70: Current Impasses and Prospects of Canadian . YouTube.
  19. Web site: Dr. Zainub Verjee (@zainubverjee) appointed as a fellow of McLaughlin College at York University. 3 August 2021.
  20. Web site: NSCAD University announces its 2022 honorary degree recipients . 11 April 2022 .
  21. Web site: Zainab Verjee (@zainubverjee) bestowed honorary degree by NSCAD University, Halifax, Canada . 19 April 2022 .
  22. Web site: Two Artists to Receive Honorary Degrees at Simon Fraser University. March 16, 2023. Galleries West.
  23. Web site: SFU announces 2023 Honorary Degree recipients. www.sfu.ca.
  24. Web site: Cultural critic Zainub Verjee and contemporary artist Stan Douglas among those who will receive SFU honorary degrees. Charlie. Smith. March 18, 2023.
  25. Web site: Zainub Verjee, Executive Director of Galeries Ontario/ Ontario Galleries, bestowed an Honorary Degree by Simon Fraser University, Canada. March 27, 2023.
  26. Web site: SFU June 2023 Convocation Ceremony A. 7 June 2023 . www.youtube.com.
  27. Web site: Spring 2023 Honorary Degree Recipients . 2024-01-04.
  28. Web site: Spring 2023 Convocation Ceremony – June 16, 2:30 p.m.. 17 June 2023 . www.youtube.com.
  29. Web site: UVic convocation includes honorary degrees for VANDU co-founder, arts trailblazer. June 4, 2023. Times Colonist.
  30. Web site: Zainub Verjee awarded Honorary Doctorate . 2024-01-04.
  31. Web site: Zainub Verjee Delivered the Commencement Address at University of Victoria (Canada). June 26, 2023.
  32. Web site: Stir Q&A: Zainub Verjee talks about the death of languages, neon, and the status of the artist. 15 August 2021 .
  33. Web site: Zainub Verjee talks about the death of languages, neon, and the status of the artist. 23 August 2021.
  34. Web site: Resistance as an Act of Public Pedagogy - Western Front.
  35. Web site: Diamond. Dr. Sara. 2015. Action Agenda: Vancouver's Prescient Media Arts. 2021-04-30. isea2015.org.
  36. Web site: In Visible Colours.
  37. Web site: Rajah . Niranjan . Zainub Verjee: Signifier to Signified . www.otherplaces.mano-ramo.ca.
  38. Book: Davis, Heather. Desire Change. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2017. 978-0-7735-4937-1. Montreal. 283.
  39. Web site: In Visible Colours. Heather. Rosemary. September 25, 2017. Canadian Art. March 11, 2018.
  40. "In Visible Colours": Women in Focus by Monika Gagnon, C Issue 25 Spring 1990
  41. Web site: 9 November 2019. 1989 This is Tomorrow: de-canonisation and decolonisation. 2021-04-30. courtauld.ac.uk.
  42. Web site: Verjee. Zainub. In Visible Colours - The Making and Unmaking of the Women of Colour and Third World Women International Film and Video Festival and Symposium. 2021-04-30. otherplaces.mano-ramo.ca.
  43. Book: Yip. Hoi Yee. International forum, 1992--globalization and nationalism : proceedings of the first International Confererence for Young Leaders, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 23-30, 1992. Deutsch. Steve. Éditions du Méridien. Jeanne Sauvé Youth Foundation.. 1993. 9782894159927. Laval, Quebec.
  44. Web site: 6 December 2020. Zainub Verjee - trailblazer for her generation. 2021-04-30. iicanada.org.
  45. News: Rosenberg . Ann . Racism Charges against Gallery Aired . The Vancouver Sun . December 7, 1991.
  46. Jamal . Sher-Azad . Where Outreach Meets Outrage–Local Colour and The Vancouver Art Gallery . Front . Jan–Feb 1992 . 19–21.
  47. Koh . Karlyn . Local Colour Challenges VAG . Ubyssey . 1994 . 74 . 27 . 3–5.
  48. Web site: Kinesis . Vancouver. Vancouver Status of Women. 1990-10-01 . >. Kinesis.
  49. Web site: April 2006. Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System Is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It - Leonardo, Volume 39, Issue 2. 2021-04-30. leonardo.info.
  50. 10.1163/23523085-00203010. Elsewhere, within Here: The Politics of Home. Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas. 2. 3. 310–322. 2016. Verjee. Zainub.
  51. Web site: Fall 1991: Struggle: Local and Global (Special Double Issue Featuring BC Women Writers & Artists). 2021-04-30. thecapilanoreview.com.
  52. Web site: 2 November 1991. Struggle: Local & Global Issue book launch - Western Front. 2021-04-30. Western Front Society.
  53. The Capilano Review, Capilano College, 1991
  54. Book: Whispered Art History : Twenty Years at the Western Front. 978-0-88978-261-7. Arsenal Pulp Press. 1993.
  55. Web site: Verjee. Zainub. March 2012. Essay: Ahasiw is Canada. 2021-04-30. ghostkeeper.gruntarchives.org.
  56. Para-Sites: A Casebook Against Cynical Reason edited by George E. Marcus University of Chicago Press, Apr 15, 2000 - Art - 493 pages
  57. Web site: rajah. Niranjan. Zainub Verjee: From Signifier To Signified. 2021-04-30. otherplaces.mano-ramo.ca.
  58. Web site: 2017-06-14. AGM Appoints Four New Members to the Board of Directors. 2021-04-30. mymississauga.ca.
  59. Ismailimail (September 14, 2016). “Women in Leadership: Zainub Verjee Reflects on the state of culture sector and offers inspirational insights". Ismailimail. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  60. Web site: Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170926163100/http://www.cfmdc.org/staffboard/. 2017-09-26. 2021-04-30. cfmdc.org/.
  61. Web site: Welcome to the Art Gallery of Mississauga!. 2021-04-30. artgalleryofmississauga.com.
  62. Web site: Quach. Veronica. 15 July 2015. Ontario Association of Art Galleries appoints new Executive Director. 2021-04-30. oaag.org.
  63. Web site: Gemma. Sierra Skye. Room's Cover Art Contest Closes December 15. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20200720225632/https://roommagazine.com/blog/rooms-cover-art-contest-closes-december-15. 2020-07-20. roommagazine.com.
  64. Web site: Merchant. Abdulmalik. 2018-08-14. Perspectives on the International Art Gallery at the Aga Khan's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in Lisbon. 2021-04-30. barakah.com.
  65. Web site: Zainub Verjee. EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE.
  66. Web site: Zainub Verjee: Will the COVID-19 crisis prod us to truly embrace a Canadian culture that gives agency to artists?. June 4, 2020. The Georgia Straight.
  67. Web site: Zainub Verjee: Can the arts world fight systemic racism in a real way instead of resorting to tokenism?. June 16, 2020. The Georgia Straight.
  68. Web site: Sandals. Leah. 16 July 2020. Artists and Advocates Push for Universal Basic Income in Canada – Canadian Art. 2021-04-30. canadianart.ca.
  69. Web site: July 15, 2020. Case for Basic Income for the Arts. 2021-04-30. basicincomecalgary.ca.
  70. Web site: Schneider. Tim. July 20, 2020. The Gray Market: Why the Entire Art World Should Back Canadian Arts Workers' Push for Universal Basic Income (and Other Insights). 2021-04-30. Artnet News.
  71. Web site: Creative Directions 2020 Program. 2021-04-30. monash.edu. School of Media, Film & Journalism.
  72. Web site: Artpreneur 2020.
  73. Web site: Zainub Verjee appointed as the New Executive Director of Ontario Association of Art Galleries. 2015-07-20.
  74. Web site: Nomadic Architecture showcased two decades ago at Burnaby Jamatkhana. Ismailimail. October 4, 2017. Ismailimail. March 11, 2018.
  75. Web site: Artists in Canada. National Gallery of Canada. January 27, 2006. Artists in Canada. March 11, 2018.
  76. Web site: Order of Canada appointees – December 2023 . 22 December 2023 . Governor General of Canada. 2023-12-28.
  77. Book: Bowen . Deanna . Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts In Canada . 2019 . Media Arts Network of Ontario and Public Books Toronto . Toronto . 978-1-9992748-0-1 . first .
  78. Web site: Zainub Verjee | Art Gallery of Alberta. www.youraga.ca.
  79. Book: Burnaby Art Gallery. Tracing Cultures. Henry, Karen A. Connie Fife. Manning, Dolleen. Burnaby Art Gallery. 1997. 0-920123-29-5. Burnaby, BC.
  80. Web site: Ecoute s'il pleut (Listen if it's Raining). VTape. vtape.org/. March 11, 2018.
  81. Web site: Hiding in Plain Sight Exhibit. Embassy Cultural House.
  82. Web site: Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts 2020 | Art Gallery of Alberta. www.youraga.ca.
  83. Web site: Home . covidcreative.ca.
  84. Web site: Zainub Verjee.
  85. Web site: Home . atm.mmu.ac.uk.

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