Queer Arts Festival’s Vanishing Act reaches fully realized curation, at Sun Wah Centre to July 8
New Delhi’s Adwait Singh curates the fest’s signature art exhibition under creative direction of QAF founding artistic director emeritus, SD Holman

Queer Arts Festival presents Vanishing Act in partnership with Centre A: International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, On Main Gallery, and Griffin Art Projects to July 8 at the Sun Wah Centre
AS THE 2022 Queer Arts Festival pulls into its final week, its flagship curated visual-arts exhibition has expanded into its fully realized installation.
Vanishing Act first opened at the start of this year’s fest in June, but the multi-floor exhibition has just expanded onto yet another level of the Sun Wah Centre within Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, giving people the chance to experience the show in its entirety before the fest wraps up.
New Delhi-based curator Adwait Singh worked under creative direction of QAF founding artistic director emeritus, SD Holman, for Vanishing Act. The exhibition features nearly 20 artists spanning South Asia and its diaspora.

Artwork by Aryakrishnan Ramakrishnan. Photo by Chris Randle
Vanishing Act brings people face-to-face with their own Frankensteins. Singh’s curation asks viewers to “behold the hulking vessel of modernity, where the only hope for a future is a ghostly one, the only inheritance a poisoned gift.”
“Through a survey of queer artistic practices from South Asia and beyond, the exhibition will bring forth apocalyptic-revelations about radical forms of hospitality, sociality and empathy that are fed by the consciousness of a catastrophic co-becoming,” Singh says in a release.
Featured artists include Andrew McPhail, Aryakrishnan Ramakrishnan, Areez Katki, Bassem Saad, Charan Singh & Sunil Gupta, Elektra KB, Fazal Rizvi, Hank Yan Agassi, Hiba Ali, Imaad Majeed, Omer Wasim, Renate Lorenz & Pauline Boudry, Renuka Rajiv, Shahana Rajani, Sharlene Bamboat, Syma Tariq & Sita Balani, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Vishal Jugedo.
More information is at QAF.

Artwork by Renuka Rajiv. Adwait Singh, far right. Photo by Chris Randle
Related Articles
The anchor program of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival features everything from sake tastings to taiko-drumming demonstrations
Spanning the side of a downtown building as part of this year’s Capture Photography Festival, the installation radiates Indigenous knowledge and Prairie warmth
Artists hitting the Performance Works stage include New Jazz Underground, Nubya Garcia, and more
Performances by Bakara Band, violinist Suzka Mares, and vocalist Andrea Superstein are in store at David Lam Park and beyond
At Indian Summer Festival fundraiser, the province’s strong contingent of gin crafters like Copperpenny Distilling Co. and Tofino Distillery meets international names
The standup artist also happens to follow Modern Orthodox Judaism and was once a New York City attorney
At The Cinematheque, Nanos Valaoritis’s memories of a long life in poetry are like a museum you never want to leave
Presented by VIDF with New Works and the Chutzpah! Festival, double bill premieres works by Alexis Fletcher and Fernando Hernando Magadan
Performances in store range from the breathtaking acrobatics of Kalabanté Productions to a life-sized puppet in Where Have All the Buffalo Gone?
Program includes Boy on a Dolphin, The Travelling Players, On the Waterfront, and more
Photo-based exhibitions can be found throughout Metro Vancouver and in Whistler this season
The cultural calendar is filled with everything from film screenings to experimental theatre to stuff just for kids
One-woman solo show follows the creator’s own near-death experiences, from her childhood in the Bronx to travels in Israel, Asia, and South America
Maillardville’s music and culture event hosts free contra dance, Youth Zone Tent, and more
The veteran musician, hitting Festival du Bois, revisits the breadth of his career with Le Grand Orchestre
Director Sepideh Yadegar’s debut feature follows Iranian international student Sahar as she stands up for women’s rights in Vancouver
From We All Fall Down’s Papillon to BRKFST Dance Company’s STORMCLUTTER, artists bridge the gap between contemporary and street styles
La Femme Cachée faces buried trauma; En Fanfare celebrates the power of music; and Saint-Exupéry tells an old-style adventure story
Vancouver International Wine Festival event is also a chance to search out the best vintages in your own back yard
The francophone four-piece have fans in Europe and the States. Now it’s our turn
The fest features multiple events for all ages celebrating the city’s blooms
Local arts and culture organizations say “the clock is ticking” as they await answers from Premier David Eby and Spencer Chandra Herbert
Second-annual event opens with Mahesh Pailoor’s Paper Flowers and closes with Enrique Vázquez’s Firma Aquí (Sign Here)
The artist got his big break on The Big Sick
The solo for Jeanette Kotowich addresses the choreographer’s mixed Oji-Cree and Mennonite ancestry
Amanda Montell’s rowdy Big Magical Cult Show, Ashley Gavin’s unmatched crowd work, and local standup stars at the Vancouver Art Gallery bistro
The 2025 fest journeys from searing personal memoirs to hilariously neurotic short stories to a cookbook about modern Jewish cuisine
This year’s event features a diverse lineup of artists from Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, and B.C.
Having its world premiere at the fest, the work merges the ancestral knowledge of mau rākau with contemporary dance
Top picks from Napa Sauvignon Blanc to Columbia Valley Merlot, plus advice for hitting an international assortment at this year’s Bard on the Beach fundraiser