Janice Kerbel

Spring 2026 Audain Visual Artist in Residence
March 17 – 28, 2026

Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts is pleased to welcome Janice Kerbel as the Spring 2026 Audain Visual Artist in Residence.

Janice Kerbel uses language as a means to fluidly move between multiple forms such as print works, publications, scripts, scores, audio works, and performances. She returns repeatedly to questions of communication that are consistently anchored by an interest in performative language. Her projects are often grounded in extensive research, focusing on varied themes that range from radio plays, music composition, and theatrical lighting composition, to a bank heist and synchronized swimming.

During her time in Vancouver, Kerbel will give a public presentation on her work, meet with SCA graduate students, and engage with the wider community. She will also join SCA Professor Elspeth Pratt’s third-year visual art class, and has offered a joke from her recent artist book, Joke, as a provocation to the students to frame and catalyze their work in the 2026 BFA Project exhibition.

Events

Artist Talk
March 19, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
SFU School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver

BFA Project Exhibition
March 25 – April 4, 2026
Opening Reception: March 24, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Open Critique with Janice Kerbel: March 26, 10:00 AM – 12:20 PM and 1:30 PM – 4:20 PM
Audain Gallery
SFU School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver

Biography

Janice Kerbel was born in Toronto and currently lives and works in London where she is Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. She completed her BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, and an MA at Goldsmiths College, London. Kerbel was a Sobey Art Award finalist in 2006, received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in 2011, and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2015. Kerbel’s recent solo exhibitions and performances include greengrassi London (2026); National Gallery Prague (2023); Catriona Jeffries Gallery Vancouver (2023); The Common Guild Glasgow (2019); and Fundação de Serralves, Porto (2017). Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at STPI Singapore (2025), The Pearlman Museum, University of Carleton MN (2024); Liverpool Biennial (2018); V-A-C Foundation, Venice; Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg (2017); La Biennale de Montreal, Montreal (2016); Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como (2016); Tramway, Glasgow (2015); and more.

About AVAIR

The Audain Visual Artist in Residence (AVAIR) program brings artists and practitioners to Vancouver who have contributed significantly to the field of contemporary art and whose work resonates with local and international visual art discourses. Past residences have included Bridget Moser, Oscar Tuazon, Iman Issa, Ming Wong, Kota Ezawa, Irena Haiduk, Jackson Polys, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Heba Y. Amin, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Jeremy Deller, Sanja Iveković, Charles Gaines, Samson Young, Alejandro Cesarco, Raven Chacon, Sarah Pierce, Walid Raad, Jalal Toufic, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Hito Steyerl, and many others. The visiting artists interact with the students and faculty of the School for the Contemporary Arts as well as the broader visual arts and cultural communities. In keeping with the experimental nature of the School for the Contemporary Arts the terms of engagement are open and change from artist to artist. The cornerstone of the residency is the sharing of artistic research. The AVAIR program is generously funded by the Audain Foundation Endowment Fund.