Reading the Contemporary Art and Culture Talks: Chase Keetley

Join us for a presentation and discussion with current artist-in-residence Chase Keetley. Currently based in Vancouver BC, Keetley is a multi-disciplinary African-Canadian artist whose work is based in the Black Experience. He primarily investigates the mimicry and use of Blackness, such as the appropriation of cultural practices and iconography rooted in the Pan-African Ethnography. As a Black artist, Keetley is constantly confronted by Canada’s omission of Black people from our nation’s recorded history. Keetley’s 2018 project "Ofcourse”, was inspired by the removal and revival of Hogan's Alley, Vancouver’s first historic Black neighborhood, demolished circa 1971. Chase is now continuing his research into Black People Migrating en masse from San Francisco to Victoria on the 17th of April 1858. In the summer of 2018 Keetley founded Black Arts Vancouver, a community organisation that aims to further the artistic expression of Pan-African Youth in Vancouver. Now in their second year, Black Arts Vancouver provides secure spaces and educational outreach initiatives for Vancouver’s Black youth, providing a platform for participants to not only learn about themselves, but where they stand in history apart from the white settler narrative.