Opening Reception: Fei Disbrow: The Familiar Unfamiliar

Join us for a public reception celebrating the opening of Fei Disbrow: The Familiar Unfamiliar, on Tuesday, January 13 from 6 to 8 p.m.

About the Exhibition

To turn down the noise of daily life, Fei Disbrow seeks out-of-the-way places where she can find small, unusual organisms. It is in these places where she observes and records unfamiliar, miniature lifeforms which are integral to this body of Disbrow’s work. Her research focuses on cryptogams, resilient and ancient organisms that cover 30% of earth’s soil surface and play a foundational role in ecosystems around the globe. Found in the Arctic, the desert, forests and cities, they are global extremophiles thriving in hostile habitats, capable of surviving death-like desiccation. This exhibition explores the rich, often-overlooked world of cryptogams—mosses, lichens, and algae—through Disbrow’s sculptural work.

Using a camera as a drawing tool, Disbrow captures these organisms without disturbing them.  The images are printed directly onto metal, then cut out, using outlines that are intuitively determined. Sculpted to defy traditional format, the pieces are either gently bent to echo the subjects’ undulating topographies or mounted onto monochrome panels to form photographic relief collages. By isolating these remarkable lifeforms and shifting their scale, each piece – presented not just as a biological subject but as a visual wonder – becomes a quiet contemplation.

About the Artist

Fei Disbrow experiments and plays with a variety of media to form sculptures and collages rooted in embodied experience. Her work prioritizes texture and form, composition and restraint. Disbrow’s pieces are visceral abstractions, emerging from both a rigorous and intuitive approach to making. Her use of materials challenges static notions of a medium’s meaning and purpose. She earned her BA in Geography from UBC, her MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, and has participated in multiple artist residencies. Disbrow has exhibited in Canada and the US, and is represented by Gallery Jones in Vancouver and FriesenSolo in the US. She lives and works locally.