Saturday April 4 - An Emard

April 4 to 19, 2026

Opening reception Saturday, April 4, 4-6pm

people is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Chicago-based artist An Emard. 

The exhibition will be viewable by appointment only after the opening reception. Email Scott at sctkmp@gmail.com to arrange a visit.

—

I was in a workshop, or something like it; a janitor’s closet, maybe an artist’s studio. My business suit, starched, hung still on its hanger behind the door as I worked. My hands slowly began to callous. I ground pigments of cadmiums and lapis, said to create an elixir of life, into phials of primordial ooze mixed with mercury and sweat. The phials rattled and BAM! A burst. The reaction revealed a cosmic scene, a tiny death, a bomb. Suspended, I faced this perfection — an impossible mirror showed what I am and therefore what I cannot be. From this confrontation, a shadow fell from light, like a spark from a hammer strike.

That spark became the devil.

An Emard is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the myth-making and world-building potentials of queerness. They were born into a working family in suburban Ventura, California and spent their formative years navigating queerness in the shadow of the Catholic Church and the light of lemon orchards, asphalt, and the Pacific Ocean. Emard now resides in Chicago, IL, where they received an MFA from Northwestern University. Emard has exhibited in venues including Block Museum (Evanston, IL), Weather Proof (Chicago, IL), Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL), POP GUN (New York, NY), Steve Turner Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Kibum MacArthur (Los Angeles, CA) and Some Clouds (Los Angeles, CA), among others.

Thursday December 4 - Basketball, Pickle, Router, Horse by Steve Hubert

people is pleased to announce a new show of paintings by Steve Hubert. 

Join us for the opening of Basketball, Pickle, Router, Horse on Thursday December 4^th  from 6-9pm. Afterwards the show can be viewed by appointment and on select weekend days, to be announced on Instagram @hubes1000. You can also contact Steve at stevenmhubert@gmail.com or @hubes1000 to arrange for a tour!

—

A question for Steve:

Why these pictures? Why now? 

 

S- Many years ago, I was talking to a friend about the CD buy-back plan that A&B Sound used to have. We wondered where all the CDs ended up. I speculated that they got shipped from all over Canada to a big warehouse in Calgary and that they were redistributed from there. For some reason I thought this was funny. Like why? Because Calgary is spread out and probably has a bunch of warehouses? Honestly, at the time I’d probably only been to Calgary once or twice. My first time there I went to a little theater in Kensington to see Akira! This was with some cool, slightly older people, one of whom was wearing the Sepultura Arise T-shirt that gave me a lot of drawing ideas back then. Anyways, back to the CDs: that would have been the end of the story except that a few months later I was talking with the same friend and mentioned that I heard somewhere that A&B Sound has a warehouse in Calgary that stores all the CD buybacks. This friend pointed out that this was a joke we’d come up with only a few months earlier and that the whole thing was made up. 

Q: So, circularity dressed up as serendipity?

S: Let me answer you another way: 

On October 31, 2017, Facebook user M.e. [sic] Powers asked the question, “[h]as anyone noticed how much a mouse is like a [Ouija board] planchette? Helping us find answers from beyond our own knowledge?” 

The discovery of this query answered my own google search which had been, “has anyone ever asked the question has anyone noticed how much a mouse is like a planchette”?  I asked this question because it seemed so obvious, yet the similarity of a mouse and planchette had never occurred to me until just then. And this despite the fact that my recent painting, titled I Watched An Invisible Force Work Upon a Person Who Computes in Public, seemed to be so obviously about this similarity. 

So I guess you can only know about what you know. I am mostly unfamiliar with Ouiji Boards because my mom forbade it (evil) and because I watched the movie Witchboard and that was enough of that. But to the point: if you only know what you know about you might become overly confident, even about things you know nothing about. For example, I did not know this phenomenon had a name until just now: the Dunning-Kruger effect. But now I do. And we are all victims of this effect to some degree. Although once you know about the D-K effect it becomes something you know about which must help in a feedback loop-y kind of way.

So back to your original question: Why these pictures? Why now? Well, I’m not sure if I chose to do them, exactly. Not directly. I would only paint these paintings if they happened at least partly by accident. Or through a series of surprises. And as for “why now?” Well ‘now’ is already back then, isn’t it? 

 

Q: Ok. Thank you. I’ve learned a lot.

 

S: Me too.

Thursday November 13 - Burnt Tongues by Julian Hou, Soya Sabi, Tovya Goodwin

Burnt Tongues

November 13-27, 2025 

Opening reception, Thursday, October 13th, 6-9PM

Performance by Soya Sabi at 7PM

Works by Julian Hou, Soya Sabi, Tovya Goodwin

Curated by Tovya Goodwin

A mapping of language as it falls dormant in its original medium and reconstitutes into newfound forms. Repetition parlays into ritual, and ritual into religion, until what was once uninhabitable comes to be known as home. 

Saturday October 11 - People by M.E.

M.E.

People

11 - 31 October 2025

Who do you remember? Who do you forget? Who do you want to forget?

People is a solo exhibition by Magda Ewelina (M.E.), informed from the space it inhabits, and those that surround it. The exhibition consists of a series of never before seen sculptural, assemblage-based objects utilizing a range of found materials collected from sites such as the La Biennale di Venezia, Art Toronto, local grocers, and other such contexts. These floor-based sculptures investigate the display of personas in an intimate gallery space (former artist studio) known as the gallery People. Items such as tote bags become layered with added materials, bedazzled with a myriad of objects related to the body and other such accessories. The sculptures are arranged in an even row around the space, evoking a notion of seriality and appearing as an unusual gathering of peoples, now on display

People is the first presentation in Vancouver by the Polish-Canadian collective who uses recycled and common materials from various aspects of traditional and contemporary life to speak to self sufficiency, agricultural practice, personhood, social hierarchy and identity, among other motifs. M.E.’s use of materials invites us to examine relationships to one another, as well as the objects that sometimes hold these relationships.

After this presentation, M.E. will host a Polish lunch from the Polonia Sausage Deli, located across from the People Gallery at 4286 Fraser Street. Details forthcoming. Free kielbasa, cheese, bread and sweets will be provided. This exhibition is made possible thanks to Unit 17.

Magda Ewelina (M.E.) is an artist collective that takes its form as an envisioned persona intended to promote anonymity, creativity and nostalgia. M.E.’s Polish and Canadian background allows the persona to recall simpler times, pointing to and remembering the past that in a sense felt more rich, vibrant and alive. M.E. is a gateway to Europe for this artist collective who aim to promote a nomadic practice, often focusing on resourcefulness and play. By utilizing motifs of the kitchen, the garden and other domestic sites, including the heavy use of recycled and common materials, M.E. attempts to use all resources to their maximum potential - often resulting in examples of functional reappropriation.