Bill Reid Gallery Presents Every River Has a Mouth
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art presents the world premiere of Every River Has a Mouth, guest curated by Snuneymuxw artist Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun.
This exhibition marks the gallery’s first Salish-focused presentation since 2017 and its first collaboration with White-Hill, Kwulasultun the role of guest curator, having previously worked with him as an artist featured in the gallery’s 2022 exhibition True to Place, and as a collaborator on various public programs.
Bill Reid Gallery Presents Every River Has a Mouth
- When: February 14, 2026 – February 14, 2027
- Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10:00am to 5:00pm
- Where: Bill Reid Gallery (639 Hornby St, Vancouver)
- Admission: Regular admission rates apply
- Check out the First Free Friday Afternoon of the Month thanks to Downtown Van
Guided by the concept of the river as a physical and symbolic connector, Every River Has a Mouth highlights the deep cultural, linguistic, and artistic relationships between the Interior and Coast Salish peoples. It brings together 13 artists working in sculpture, printmaking, textiles, painting, and mixed media, featuring leading Salish artists Susan Point and Angela George, alongside established and emerging artists.
Participating artists include: Angela George, Chase Gray, Danielle Morsette, Grace Edwards, James Harry, Luke and Ryza Marston, Manuel Axel Strain, Ocean Hyland, Paige Pettibon, Susan Point, Sydney Pascal, and Taylor Baptiste.
“Every River Has a Mouth brings to focus the peoples and cultures of the territories on which the gallery is situated,” says Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun, Snuneymuxw artist and Guest Curator. “By creating this platform for Salish artists and sharing these stories, we are able to contribute to the cultural resurgence and renaissance of Salish art and storytelling that is taking place at this very moment.”
Historically, Salish art has been marginalized and overlooked, when compared to Northern Indigenous art styles such as Haida and Tlingit, known for their intricate carvings and totem poles that many people continue to associate with Indigenous art today. Salish art was specifically mischaracterized in Franz Boas’ 1897 text “The Decorative Art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast”, which classified the cultural practice as underdeveloped and primitive. It was only in the 1960s and 1970s that traditional Coast Salish art began to receive its due recognition, through the work of seminal Salish artists, including Susan Point, Stan Greene, Simon Charlie, Charles Elliott, and the Salish Weavers Guild.
The exhibition title references many sources. The word “qun” in the Hul’q’umi’num’ language (White-Hill’s ancestral language) is used as a suffix to mean “language” – evidenced in the curator’s own Snuneymuxw dialect of Hul’q’umi’num known as Snuneymuxwqun. At the same time, the word “qun” on its own means throat. The title also refers to the fact that the end of every river – where it feeds into a larger body of water – is known as its mouth. For Coastal and Interior peoples, it’s the Fraser River – the “throat” – that connects the territories through shared art, culture, and language.
“I always try to push back against oversimplification of our Interior and Coastal cultures, and instead revel in the complexities. What is apparent to me through my teachings and what I know about our traditional art and language is that we share so much, and I want to honour and celebrate what we share as well as our differences,” adds White-Hill, Kwulasultun. “I hope that in seeing this exhibition, young Salish artists are shown that their stories are meaningful and worth telling, and that whatever medium speaks to them is the way their stories are meant to be told.”
Exhibition highlights include a 21-foot long canoe by father-daughter duo Luke and Ryza Marston; jackets with original designs as well as a maple monoprint by Susan Point; and an installation piece from Sydney Pascal, featuring a wall of tanned fish skins titled t̓iq i sts̓úqwaoz̓a | the salmon have arrived, a reference to the importance of salmon as a food source and how her ancestors can remember the rivers overflowing with salmon when they would return to spawn.
Bill Reid Gallery will host a series of public programs to support Every River Has a Mouth, as well as produce an exhibition publication available in spring/summer 2026. Follow the gallery on Facebook for exhibition updates.
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