In I, the Vessel, Maya River and John Steil meet through different materials yet a shared sensibility — one grounded in presence and the transformation that unfolds through observation.
For Maya River, transformation begins with what has already lived — paper once a tree, later discarded — softened, pulped, and shaped again through touch and time. Her sculptures and vessels hold memory, breath, and renewal; they attune to the slow pulse of nature as it reforms itself.
For John Steil, drawing becomes a form of mapping — a tracing of thought. His freehand line drawings and geometric notations emerge from years of observing the urban landscape, where the hand follows the quiet architecture of perception.
Distinct in material language yet united in attentiveness, both artists move beyond depiction toward translation — each piece becomes a distilled record of what passes through the artist: a moment, a place, a rhythm, a trace of the environment as it is sensed and re-formed. What remains is not a record of what is seen, but what is felt, held, and understood through time.
This exhibition will be open throughout the Culture Crawl event (Nov. 20–23), running simultaneously with VIVA’s Open Studios and continuing into the following week. We look forward to welcoming visitors — the exhibition is free and open to the public.
Sales & Inquiries: Please contact gallery staff regarding works available for sale.
Artists’ Bios
Maya River is a Vancouver-based visual artist whose practice explores the interconnectedness of humanity and the natural world. Her vessels and sculptures draw influence from natural cycles of decay and renewal, ancient forms, architecture, and the subtle forces that move through the environment. Through the transformation of upcycled paper pulp — matter that has lived many lives — into sculptural form, each piece becomes a quiet witness to change, holding memory, rhythm, and the unseen forces that persist within material. Her works invite a renewed relationship with the materials that shape our lives.
John Steil is a Vancouver-based visual artist whose practice spans drawing, collage, painting, and sculpture, informed by his background in physical geography and community planning. His freehand line drawings evolve through a fluid connection with his environment. His approach brings together several long-standing influences: an early grounding in physical geography, which later informed his work designing neighbourhoods as a community planner, and an ongoing awareness of the structures and relationships encountered while travelling through cities. Beginning with a simple structural idea — often sparked by a city plan or geometric sketch — each drawing develops through an attentive, iterative process. A long habit of doodling often feeds this evolution, with spontaneous marks becoming starting points that guide the work as it takes shape on the page.