Edge Effects, Gibson Art Museum, Vancouver, Canada
Sep 20, 2025–Feb 15, 2026

Lorna Brown
Justine A. Chambers
Patrick Cruz
Lucien Durey
Sameer Farooq
Jared Stanley
Elisa Ferrari
Germaine Koh
Helena Krobath
Liz Magor
Cindy Mochizuki
Pietro Sammarco
Liz Toohey-Wiese 
Debra Sparrow
Jin-me Yoon

Ecologists use the term “edge effect” to describe the conditions created when two adjacent ecological communities meet. Edge conditions might be narrow and severe, like those of a forest meeting farmed land, or porous and deep, like the brackish water of a river estuary. The edge effects in such zones captivate scientists because they can support a uniquely abundant array of animal and plant life, allowing for rich and complex co-existence between species that would otherwise never interact.

We imagine the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum to be a place that encourages edge effects. Situated at the threshold of the university’s academic community and energized by its context, the Gibson’s team is committed to creating conditions for artists to thrive, and for a diverse ecology of audience communities to feel at home.  

The fifteen artists whose works are drawn together to celebrate the Gibson’s inauguration consider edges in compelling ways. Some projects query SFU’s own histories and repositories: Justine A. Chambers meditates on thresholds of legibility in bodily gesture across time and space; Patrick Cruz conjures alternate paradigms for researching the SFU Art Collection; Sameer Farooq and Jared Stanley re-imagine the museum as a loom that catches and holds belongings; Elisa Ferrari questions sonic sediment found in the university’s archives. Others consider the implications of borders and inheritance: Liz Magor probes the vicissitudes of place and circumstance on student life across nation-states; Debra Sparrow weaves together entangled settler and Indigenous histories; Lorna Brown maps civic residents’ right to movement. Still others imagine how edges might be activated to inhabit futures differently: Lucien Durey attends to domestic labour in comedic and deeply personal aural and sculptural forms; Germaine Koh proposes new structures for community sustenance and conviviality; fourth and fifth grade students at University Highlands Elementary—with guidance from Pietro Sammarco, Helena Krobath and Liz Toohey-Wiese—listen to what rainwater’s path might teach us; and Jin-me Yoon affectively alters the tense conditions at a militarized border zone. In a special semi-permanent commission, Cindy Mochizuki brings the edge of Burnaby Mountain’s forests inside the museum, with a ceramic installation of kodama or Japanese tree spirits on the Gibson’s fireplace wall. Each artist develops new work specifically for this exhibition or presents projects never before seen by audiences in Canada.  

We believe that Dr. Edward Gibson was excited by edges. He was known to teach classes outdoors, and pressed his students to challenge existing systems. He called for an art museum on SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus because he believed in art’s capacity to catalyze conversations across disciplines, generations, and cultures. We are humbled to carry this vision forward, infuse it with SFU’s strong practice of creative and cross-disciplinary experimentation, and our own gallery team’s commitment to inclusivity.  

The Gibson’s inauguration and opening of Edge Effects will be accompanied by the launch of a companion publication (with contributions by curator Richard William Hill; architect Siamak Hariri; artist and accessibility consultant Kay Slater; artist Francisco-Fernando Granados; the Gibson’s visual identity designers, Information Form and Content; artist/poet Susanna Browne; writer/curator Joshua Segun-Lean; and the Gibson’s Director Kimberly Phillips. A dynamic suite of multi-generational programming, including artist performances and talks, curator-led exhibition tours, weekend art studio sessions for children and their families, and an informal series of academic forums, will punctuate the exhibition throughout Fall 2025 and into Spring 2026.

Curated by Kimberly Phillips with assistance from Susanna Browne, Rachel Maddock, and Joshua Segun-Lean

Exhibition preparation and installation by Mackenzy Albright, with Hannah Rickards and Ysabel Gana. SFU Art Collection Management by Sydney Laiss. Communications & Accessibility by Russell Gordon  

With gratitude to our colleagues at SFU Archives, SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, SFU School of Communication, and SFU Faculty of Education for their collaboration and support

Rachel Topham Photography

https://gibson.sfu.ca/whats-on/edge-effects