Queer Form Unfollows Function
A public artist talk by Jade Yumang as part of the Artist in Residence Program
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
5:00 p.m.
Coach House, Green College, and livestreamed
6201 Cecil Green Park Road, University of British Columbia
greencollege.ubc.ca
Reception to follow from 6:20–7:00 p.m. in the Piano Lounge
*This event is open to the public, seating is limited.
The artist talk by Artist in Residence Jade Yumang will explore the frameworks of queer form as a method of cultural inquiry and aesthetic expression. This exploration will encompass several projects that investigate how bodies are oriented and perceived both optically and spatially. The discussion is grounded in fibre craft techniques and their histories, emphasizing that these techniques often require tension and force. However, once that tension is released, they result in a soft, pliable material—much like the body, which undergoes strain and yearns for relief.
Yumang is the first AHVA alum (BFA ’08) to return to the department as artist in residence.
Jade Yumang was born in Quezon City, Philippines, grew up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, immigrated to unceded Coast Salish territories in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and has been living in the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires in Chicago, IL. They have exhibited their work in several museums and galleries nationally and internationally. Yumang has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the BC Arts Council. They have been an artist –in residence at the Fire Island Artist Residency, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space Residency, and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. They earned an MFA with honours from Parsons School of Design in 2012 and a BFA with honours from the University of British Columbia in 2008. Yumang is an associate professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Artist in Residence Program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory is made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor. Past AHVA Artists in Residence have been Beau Dick, Stan Douglas, Germaine Koh, Marianne Nicolson, Diamond Point, and Paul Wong.
We acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
Image: A Queer Viscera Sucker Comes to America at Oh Art Foundation, Chicago, IL, 2025. Reactive dye on cotton, rayon, and metallic thread, glass beads, recycled fiberfill, aluminum wire, MDF, gel nail polish on acrylic nail tips, aluminum clasps, and motion-sensitive motors.
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