Studio News & Events

• Please join us in Toronto this weekend for a very special opening and presentation of new works at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Those who've been following the studio's progress on Instagram will know that the studio has been hard at work for some time. Special thanks to the MOCA team -- working with you on this commission has been such a pleasure. Furthermore, it is a honour to be sharing the opening and period with fellow artists Tishan Hsu and Alex Da Corte until Jan. 26, 2025.


• A delight to learn that Michael's most recent book JAJ was nominated for two awards in Pop Culture Classroom's 7th annual Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards: one for "Best in Adult Non-Fiction" and another for their "Mosaic Award."


• And then another wonderful suprise to find JAJ won the Mosaic Award! Thank you to juror Amanie Mahmood of the Denver Public Library for saying, “This is a unique and important anticolonial perspective that is very relevant for American audiences. I have never read anything like this before, and it really resonates.”


• AND JAJ has been nominated for two (!) BC & Yukon Book Prizes -- the Bill Duthie Bookseller's Choice Award and the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes. Thank you to the society for this double honour.


• The Flight of the Hummingbird opera, produced by Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria, with music by 2024 Juno Award Winner Maxime Goulet, dramaturgy by Glynis Leyshon, and libretto by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, completed its pandemic-interrupted tour of wonder and music with BC schools and other venues. Thank you to the opera companies, our hosts, and, of course, all the performers and audiences who brought this special story to life.
  
  We are excited to continue working with this team toward the premiere of a full-length version of the opera in 2025.


• Work began in 2023 for a new 2 x 4m mural commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery. The epic mural, based on a story brewing for decades in sketchbooks, will be completed in 2025.