The Amelia Douglas Gallery is a non-profit organization run by members of the Douglas College community. The mandate of the Art Exhibit Committee is to feature new and established B.C. artists and to enhance the educational offerings of the College.
The gallery is named after Lady Amelia Douglas, the Cree wife of Sir James Douglas, known for her courage in the face of danger, and her skill and compassion as a nurse and midwife. Learn more about the life of Lady Amelia Douglas.
If you are an artist interested in learning more about the submission process, please see Submission guidelines.
We welcome you to explore the current and upcoming exhibits below.
Upcoming Exhibition
Connective Tissue
Malina Sintnicolaas
March 5 - May 5, 2026
Opening Reception: March 5, 2026 | 4:30 - 6 pm
About the exhibit:
Connective Tissue is a solo exhibition by Malina Sintnicolaas at the Amelia Douglas Gallery, showcasing a series of handmade sculptural works made out of various traditional craft techniques like ceramics, crocheted yarn, and needle-felted wool. Sintnicolaas considers her work to be manifestations, transmutations, or ‘petrifications’ of emotions into a physical form. She is drawn to ceramics and textiles as her central materials because of their contrast in properties, that they can be so strong yet so fragile at the same time, which correlates to the subject matter of her work, because like the materials, human emotions are fragile, unpredictable, and at times, difficult to maintain. Connective Tissue showcases sculptural work that is exploring the idea of ‘bodily memory’ and how emotions like trauma and anxiety can become imbedded in our cellular structure. Sintnicolaas depicts work that appears organic and biological, yet is unrecognizable, to create an energy that is both ominous and seductive at the same time. Using repetitive processes akin to ceramics, and a technique called hyperbolic crochet in her textiles, she uses her materials to emulate the bodily feeling of emotional turmoil and is questioning with her sculptures, in what ways can one induce empathy for an object even if the form is alien or abstract. She pulls from her own experience as a queer person who experiences C-PTSD and experiences an autoimmune disorder, and explores what ways can she use material to broaden discussions and representation around mental health. Working with texture, surface, material properties, and form, her sculptures drive to evoke feeling from the viewer to create an empathic landscape that will urge an understanding for states of being which are difficult to be described verbally.
About the artist:
Malina Izumi Sintnicolaas is a mixed media artist, writer, and educator born in Hamilton, Ontario and is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia. With a practice focused mostly in ceramic, and fibre sculpture, her works are considered to be manifestations, transmutations, or “petrifications” of emotions into a physical form. Both fibre and ceramics are materials that have an interesting contrast in properties, that they can be so strong yet so fragile at the same time, which correlates to the subject matter of her work, because like the materials, the human psyche is fragile, unpredictable, and difficult to maintain. Drawn to tactile materials and working with embodiment and emotional energy, her work is questioning ways in which one can represent emotions such as depression, trauma, and anxiety with a physical form and in what ways can one induce empathy for an object even if that object is abstract. She pulls from her own experience as a person who experiences C-PTSD and experiences an autoimmune disorder, and explores what ways can she use material to broaden discussions and representation around mental health. Working with texture, surface, material properties, and form, her sculptures drive to evoke feeling from the viewer to create an empathic landscape that will urge an understanding for states of mind which are difficult to be described verbally. She received her B.F.A from York University, and completed her Master of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She is currently teaching Visual Arts and Ceramics at the Richmond Arts Centre. She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally including the Burrard Arts Foundation in Vancouver, BC, Art Mur in Montreal, and the Canadian Sculpture Centre in Toronto, ON. She is also the recipient of the 2019 Audain Travel Award, the Won Lee Scholarship of the Sculptor’s Society of Canada, the 2022 BC Arts Council Project Assistant Grant, and the 2025 Canada Council Research and Creation Grant, respectively.