Pages from the Diaries

Solo exhibition at Gallery Jones in Vancouver, B.C.

Paintings from the Daalkaatlii Diaries at Gallery Jones. Photo Gallery Jones. 2025.

In Pages from the Diaries, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas brings together a constellation of new and recent works that reflect continuity and transformation in his artistic practice. Selected pieces from the Daalkaatlii Diaries series anchor the exhibition, accompanied by newly conceived copper hoods, works on paper, and ink paintings on board.

The exhibition reflects an artist that moves across material and narrative registers. Daalkaatlii, the Haida word for “sandhill crane slough,” represents both a place and a metaphor. The sandhill crane, which is migratory, attentive, and ancient, evokes themes central to Yahgulanaas’s work: movement across territories, the cyclical nature of stories, and the persistence of memory. In the Diaries, these ideas are rendered through paintings on canvas. Stripped of the sculptural elements that characterize Yahgulanaas’s large-scale metal works, which are installed across Vancouver and Richmond in prominently public and private collections, the series marks a breakthrough in his artistic practice. Where previous sculptures and two-dimensional works were more constructed, these paintings are gestural and colourful.

Although only a portion of the full 26-canvas Diaries series is on display, they represent a quieter, more contemplative chapter in Yahgulanaas’s visual storytelling. Inspired by Yahgulanaas’ childhood on Haida Gwaii, the intimacy of these works is counterbalanced by the re-emergence of his iconic copper hoods—sculptural hybrids that draw from Haida crest imagery and automotive form. The hoods embed traditional value systems into industrial materials by means of contemporary art. The new pieces in the exhibition expand the artist’s ongoing interrogation of the transformation of objects, histories, and identities.

Installation of Pages from the Diaries at Gallery Jones. Photo Gallery Jones. 2025.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, ink paintings on board and works on paper reveal Yahgulanaas’s continued engagement with line as a means of narrative and motion. These pieces suggest both writing and drawing, echoing the diary concept not only in theme but in form: Entries, reflections, pages turned.

Pages from the Diaries is not a retrospective; it is a conversation in motion. The exhibition reflects the active play and multi-disciplinary nature of his current artistic practice, which continues to evolve and expand. It is a gathering of pages—some quiet, some sharp, all intentional. In Yahgulanaas’s hands, story becomes a structure we live within.