RHONDA NEUFELD LEAVING HOME
LEAVING HOME
RHONDA NEUFELD
Vernon Public Art Gallery
July 24 - September 24, 2025
Catalogue of an exhibiti on held at the Vernon Public Art Gallery 3228 - 31st Avenue, Vernon, Briti sh Columbia, V1T 2H3, Canada
July 24 - September 24, 2025
Producti on: Vernon Public Art Gallery
Editor: Lubos Culen
Layout and graphic design: Vernon Public Art Gallery
Front cover: Leaving Home, installati on view, Vernon Public Art Gallery
Photography: Yuri Akuney, Digital Perfecti ons, Kelowna, Briti sh Columbia
Printi ng: Get Colour Copies, Vernon, Briti sh Columbia, Canada
ISBN 978-1-927407-91-2
Copyright © 2025 Vernon Public Art Gallery
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitt ed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any informati on storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitt ed by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writi ng from the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Requests for permission to use these images should be addressed in writi ng to the Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 31st Avenue, Vernon BC, V1T 2H3, Canada. Telephone: 250.545.3173, website: www. vernonpublicartgallery.com. The Vernon Public Art Gallery is a registered not-for-profi t society. We gratefully acknowledge the fi nancial support of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committ ee/RDNO, the Province of BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, Briti sh Columbia Arts Council, the Government of Canada, corporate donors, sponsors, general donati ons and memberships. Charitable Organizati on # 108113358RR.
This exhibiti on is sponsored in part by:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Executive Director’s Foreword · Dauna Kennedy
2 Curator’s Introduction · Victoria Verge
6 Rhonda Neufeld’s Leaving Home: Into the Light of Things · Nancy Holmes
11 Artist Statement · Rhonda Neufeld
13 Images of Artwork in the Exhibition
60 List of works in the exhibition
64 Curriculum Vitae · Rhonda Neufeld
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD
It is with great pleasure that we present this catalogue celebrating the work of Vernon-based artist Rhonda Neufeld, whose creative journey continues to enrich our community and beyond. Neufeld’s artistic voice is deeply rooted in the Okanagan landscape, yet her work resonates far beyond its geographic bounds— inviting viewers into spaces of reflection, curiosity, and quiet transformation.
Her 2012 exhibition at the Vernon Public Art Gallery, in collaboration with Rodney Konopaki, marked a pivotal moment in her evolving practice. The compelling dialogue between two distinct yet complementary visions, remains a memorable chapter in the gallery’s exhibition history.
This current body of work utilizes Neufeld’s deep exploration of nature transcribed through her printmaking practice. Join us for a walk through her exhibited landscape where with each impression and gesture, she maps the emotional and ecological contours of the world around us
We are honoured to include a guest writer’s essay by Nancy Holmes, a celebrated poet, essayist, and Professor Emeritus at UBC Okanagan. Holmes’ thoughtful engagement with Neufelds’ work offers a new layer of insight to this body of work. Her poetic lens offers a different insight to the subtleties of the work Neufeld so deftly explores.
This catalogue is more than a record—it is a testament to the enduring power of art to connect, challenge, and inspire. We invite you to linger with these pages and discover the quiet depth and radiant resonance of Neufeld’s vision.
We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Province of British Columbia, the Regional District of North Okanagan, and the BC Arts Council. Their ongoing investment in arts and culture makes projects like this possible and underscores the vital role creativity plays in shaping vibrant communities.
Dauna Kennedy Executive Director Vernon Public
Art Gallery
LEAVING HOME - INTRODUCTION
In speaking with Rhonda Neufeld about her exhibition Leaving Home, what struck me most was not a sense of departure, but one of arrival—over and over again. Though the title suggests movement away, Neufeld’s work speaks equally to the many ways one can arrive at home through an embodied attentiveness to place. Her artistic practice, shaped by decades of living rurally, walking, observing, and working directly with trees and the ground beneath her feet, reveals a capacity to become grounded wherever she is.
This isn’t the kind of grounding that comes from ownership or permanence, but rather from relationship—a reciprocal, felt connection to the more-than-human world. In this way, Leaving Home becomes less about severance and more about carrying a sense of home through encounter, gesture, and memory.
In her book The Lure of the Local, writer and activist Lucy Lippard speaks to the experience of “rootless” individuals—those who move frequently or live in places not of their ancestry, yet who nonetheless seek meaningful ties to place. “We carry our roots with us,” she writes, suggesting that belonging is not always bound to origin, but can emerge through intimacy with the land, attention to the rhythms of nature, and practices of care (Lippard 5). Rhonda Neufeld’s work embodies this proposition. Her prints, rubbings, and installations are not attempts to master or claim nature, but to move alongside it—to listen, to feel, and to make something in response.
Neufeld’s tree rubbings are a testament to this slow and respectful mode of engagement. Created by wrapping paper around a tree trunk and rubbing its texture onto the surface, these works emerge from prolonged physical contact. They are documents of time spent: hours tracing the ridges and scars of a particular being, in a particular place. They speak not of conquest or collection, but of collaboration. The tree is not a subject—it is a partner.
In the installation Beyond the Aspen Grove, we encounter tall branches rising from irregular stones, forming a sparse woodland in the gallery. Between them hang large lithographs printed on translucent paper, some embedded with images of bark, others echoing the verticality of trunks. Moving through the space feels like stepping into a memory of a forest—partial, illuminated, at once fragile and reverent. There is a sense of migration here, but also of continuity. As viewers, we do not witness a single home being left behind, but many places being returned to through remembrance and form.
This capacity to feel at home in motion—to locate one’s belonging not in geography but in relationship—is particularly resonant in a time when many are displaced, dislocated, or estranged from land. Whether by choice, circumstance, or systemic force, mobility is a defining feature of contemporary life. Yet, as Leaving
Home reminds us, mobility does not preclude connection. Neufeld’s work suggests that we can carry an ethic of attention and care with us, and that it is possible to root ourselves through practice, even on unfamiliar ground.
However, it is important to acknowledge that for settlers—those of us whose families arrived on this land through colonization—this connection to place is fraught with complexity. As Neufeld’s work explores her own relationships with land, trees, and ancestry, it also invites us to consider the histories we inherit and the responsibilities that come with them. While artists like Neufeld may seek kinship with the land, we must also recognize that such relationships have long been held and sustained by Indigenous peoples. The knowledge of how to live well with the land is not new—it has been practiced here since time immemorial. As Métis scholar Zoe Todd reminds us, “Indigenous peoples have maintained complex legal, ethical, and spiritual relationships with lands and waters that have been disrupted and devalued by colonial systems” (Todd 8). Recognizing this does not diminish settler efforts toward reconnection, but it does frame them within a much deeper and older continuum of land-based knowledge.
To draw rubbings from a tree is an act of care, yes, but it is also an act that must be understood within this larger cultural context. In many Indigenous worldviews, trees are kin—beings with agency, memory, and spirit. The gesture of touching, recording, and translating their forms is not simply aesthetic; it is ceremonial, reciprocal. As we appreciate Neufeld’s work, we must also ask: what are we learning, and from whom? How might settler artists and audiences listen more deeply to the teachings of Indigenous land-based practices, and what does it mean to take responsibility for our place on this land?
Neufeld’s exhibition offers no easy answers to these questions, but it makes space for them. Her installation Far Away Homeland, with its intricate Ukrainian-style paper cuttings (vytynanka), speaks to a personal lineage shaped by migration, longing, and ancestral memory. Created in reference to the Ukrainian villages of her forebears—places she has longed to walk but may never reach—the symmetrical designs function like portals to imagined landscapes. They are delicate and dreamlike, yet they also hold weight: the weight of history, of war, of deferred return.
In this work, we are reminded that the experience of rootlessness is not unique to the present moment. Many of our ancestors were displaced, fleeing violence or seeking opportunity, arriving in new lands with only fragments of home to carry. Yet in Leaving Home, Neufeld suggests that these fragments—traces, textures, gestures—can become part of a new language of belonging. One not based on ownership or nostalgia, but on presence and reciprocity.
As we walk through the exhibition, we too are asked to be present. The quiet beauty of Neufeld’s prints, the careful balance of her installations, the glowing translucency of paper—all invite slowness. They urge us to notice, to feel, and to reflect on the ways we inhabit the world. To ask ourselves: where do we feel at home? How do we mark the places we love? What do we carry with us, and what do we leave behind?
Ultimately, Leaving Home is not about departure or loss. It is about relationship. It is about what it means to be in touch—with trees, with memory, with ancestry, with the earth itself. Through her work, Rhonda Neufeld reminds us that home is not a fixed place, but a series of encounters—a way of being with the world, wherever we are.
Victoria Verge Curator
Vernon Public Art Gallery
Works Cited Lippard, Lucy R.
- The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New Press, 1997.
Todd, Zoe. “An Indigenous Feminist’s Take on the Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ Is Just Another Word for Colonialism.” Journal of Historical Sociology, vol. 29, no. 1, 2016, pp. 4–22.
RHONDA NEUFELD’S LEAVING HOME: INTO THE LIGHT OF THINGS
by Nancy Holmes
Ontological attention is a response to particularity; this porch, this laundry basket, this day […] It is the antithesis of the attitude that regards things as “resources,” mere means to human ends. In perceiving thisness, we respond to having been addressed. (In fact, we are addressed all the time, but we don’t always notice this). - Jan Zwicky, Wisdom and Metaphor
Rhonda Neufeld’s exhibition Leaving Home is awash in what poet and philosopher Jan Zwicky refers to as “thisness.” Neufeld’s rubbings of tree bark are a collection of particularities, each image an homage to a specific tree. The bark tracings preserve individuality as unique to that being as fingerprints are to us.
Zwicky’s term “thisness” is an English translation of the Latin term haecceitas. You can think of “thisness” as different from “whatness.” “Thisness” is an experience of something as it is, as it exists in itself. “Whatness” is instead a catogorzing word—if you ask “what” something is and are answered with the word “tree,” you have been provided with a generalized label. Even if you answer “the aspen on Rhonda’s farm,” you are still pointing and labelling. “Thisness” slips unmediated and instantly through distance and objectification to feel the press of body to body, the solidity of physical thing to physical thing. “Thisness” doesn’t point; it touches or envelopes.
Neufeld’s work in Leaving Home is a record of touching and caressing encounters between human and tree. She has pressed paper onto a tree’s trunk, wrapping it, rubbing the bark with mark-making material, and carrying that act of physical encounter to her studio where she uses multiple techniques to transfer that feeling onto paper. As we walk amongst these prints and sculptural works, we are bathed in an aura of “thisness.” Neufeld’s artwork is a beautiful example of a phemenological experience.
In a recent studio visit, I was not surprised to hear Neufeld speak of her interest in the ideas of the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Phenomenological processes, like Zwicky’s “ontological attention,” attempt to heighten highly conscious awareness of real things and objects. Phenomenologicallyinformed practices deliberately seek to experience things as they are, what you can touch and feel. As Simon Glendinning says, phenomenology is “a reflective re-visioning which frees us for what stands before our eyes […] phenomenology has consistently demanded that we re-look at the world without blinkers, and re-achieve a direct and primitive contact with the world.” One could argue that visual and sculptural art often provides us with experiences of re-visioning, but deliberate phenomenological practice strives to thin or bypass mental blinkers or linguistic constructs. Neufeld’s artwork in this exhibition removes blinkers by entangling us in the intricate patterns of objects that we often ignore; tree bark is often part of a system of
thinking about trees rather than a thing in itself. Through a direct and “primitive” contact, Neufeld ushers into our consciousness each unique tree, unveiling before our eyes “this particular tree’s bark” not simply “tree bark.”
Neufeld is not alone by focussing a phenomenological practice on these common yet mysterious beings: trees. Neufeld’s work has affinities with other Canadian artists such as Marlene Creates whose Larch, Spruce, Fir, Birch, Hand (2007–) is a time-based series of photographs of the artist’s hand touching trunks of trees that grow where she lives. Painter Teresa Posyniak gives us tree bark in visceral, richly tactile close-up encounters using thick paint and encaustic methods in her Pondersosa series (https://www.teresaposyniak. com/ponderosa). Neufeld’s work adds significantly to this experience of really seeing trees as they are, and not just seeing. Neufeld’s rubbings literally bring a tree’s body onto the paper. Her encounter with the tree erupts right before our eyes—we are in the moment of the encounter even as it transmutes from medium to medium. We are witness to the energy of touch.
For the prints are full of luminosity and energy. Like both Creates and Poysniak, Neufeld’s processes allow her to reach toward the light in each of these beings. In William Wordsworth’s famous poem, “The Tables Turned” (its most quoted line is “We murder to dissect”), Wordsworth urges us to “Come forth into the light of things.” He claims that each thing has its own inner light which, if we truly see it, means we cannot retreat into a belief that it is a soul-less object. Neufeld’s prints on translucent paper, and especially her vytynanka works where light is literally invited to shine through, venerates the light in these trees. Her art honours the fact that these are light-filled beings. As the fraying and melting edges of the prints convey, this is a vibrating encounter that hints at how the borders between the human mind and the world around us are more blurred than we think they are. The fact that the scale of Neufeld’s works is the precise scale of the trees themselves means that as we move up to them, we are taken into what feels like real space flooded with light emanating from the trees themselves.
In the exhibition, then, we are flooded with the light of these trees, we feel the borders between us thinning, and we are experiencing “thisness.” As Zwicky says, if we truly feel “thisness,” we are being addressed. Similarly, Wordsworth says that encounters in the natural world start a process where the “heart/…watches and receives.” Merleau-Ponty says that in phenomenological experience we are in dialogue with things: “Sensing takes place as the ‘co-existence’ or ‘communion’ of the body with the world that Merleau-Ponty describes as a reciprocal exchange of question and answer” (Toadvine). This interchange of deep looking and acknowledging makes Neufeld’s works both ethical and ecological. Ethical relations flourish in this kind
of exchange. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas says that a true encounter with an Other is a kind of recognition of the Other’s dignity and existence. As scholar ten Kate notes, “This openness towards the Other and the recognition of the Other’s vulnerability, which is conceptualized through the phrase ‘Thou shall not kill,’ is what Levinas calls justice” (ten Kate).
In the West, and increasingly around the globe, contemporary culture often divides us from the natural world. The planet’s forests, waters, soils, air and species are all in crisis. Justice for the natural world is much needed. As Zwicky notes, experiencing “thisness” is the “antithesis of regard[ing] things as resources.” All of the qualities that Neufeld entangles in Leaving Home, the encountering, the exchange, the particularities, the fragility of both the paper and the individual being of trees, and their translucence takes us into a state of recognzing the existence and vulnerabiltiy of these natural beings.
In this context the title of Neufeld’s exhibition, Leaving Home, is particularly poignant. These creations enact “leaving” as Neufeld peels off the rubbing paper and turns to her studio. These leafless, ghostly works speak of love and love lost, of the earth’s astonishing endless variety of things, and how we are imprinted by places even when they disappear from our lives. Whether moving away from a beloved country home or migrating across ocean and continents, the touch of those places remains in us.
Visitors to this exhibition will have an aesthetic experience, the art is beautiful, and they will also feel something mysterious. We are being invited to experience these beings in ways that bypass rationality, that present us with unrepeatable and complex patterns that may remind of our own lives and histories. We may feel the vulnerability of these powerful living things, and possibly acknowledge our own. We are given a path into the light of things if we choose to take it.
Bibliography:
Creates, Marlene
- Larch, Spruce, Fir, Birch, Hand (2007–) http://www.marlenecreates.ca/works/2007larch.html
Glendinning, Simon
- “What is Phenomenology?” Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2009. https://royalinstitutephilosophy.org/article/what-is-phenomenology/
Posyniak, Teresa
- “Ponderosa” https://www.teresaposyniak.com/ponderosa
ten Kate, Schalk
- “Chapter 12: The Levinasian Other” in Philosophical Tools for Climate Change https://opentextbooks.rug.nl/climatephilosophy/chapter/the-ethical-phenomenology-of-emmanuel-levinas/
Toadvine, Ted
- “Maurice Merleau-Ponty”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2023/entries/merleau-ponty/
Wordsworth, William
- “The Tables Turned.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45557/the-tables-turned
Zwicky, Jan
- Wisdom and Metaphor. Brush Education, 2014.
Nancy Holmes is a writer who lives in Kelowna BC. She has six published collections of poetry, most recently Arborophobia (U of Alberta Press, 2022). Her book The Flicker Tree: Okanagan Poems was shortlisted for the Raymond Souster award. She is the editor of Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems (Wilfrid Laurier UP) and her poetry, non-fiction and fiction have been published in periodicals throughout Canada, Ireland and the UK. She won the Malahat Review’s Creative Non-Fiction prize in 2017 and she has recently won the 2024 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize with The Fiddlehead. Nancy has work forthcoming in The New Quarterly, The Trumpeter, and Riddle Fence as well as a chapbook, Waiting for the Moon, with Alfred Gustav Press. She is retired from teaching Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan where she facilitated many eco art and community art projects, including the Eco Art Incubator with colleague Denise Kenney and the award-winning Border Free Bees with her collaborator Cameron Cartiere of Emily Car University of Art + Design. https://www.nancyholmes.ca/
RHONDA NEUFELD: STATEMENT FOR LEAVING HOME
Central to my work is my relationship with the land, where I live and where I travel. I explore the relationship between the land and my body that exists literally, metaphorically and philosophically. Walking is a way of becoming aware of the intimate details of the land, whether I am following the path of a feral animal or a path of my own direction. I perceive the sounds, smells, textures, colours, changing light and contours of the land with all of my senses and this connects me with the earth and the actual ground that I stand on.
I want to get closer and more personal in my interactions with the natural world and blur the edges of where we overlap. Leaning into sun warmed, body temperature stone, as the heat radiates back into the night, is like being within the folds of another body. Leaning into the trunk of a tree with its rough skin, so like my own aging skin, I become aware of the pulse of its deeply rooted life. There is joy and wonder in all these experiences that I want to record in the most direct way. Later in my studio as I work with my gathered materials and my art materials I extend my immersed and embodied experience of each place.
The works in this exhibition, Leaving Home, are mainly from the place that I knew so well, that was our home(land) for forty-three years, and which became the source of my subject matter over these decades. My home included the locales within my walking distance; the lake at the end of the road, the mountain above us (with so much animal life), and the rock cliffs and worked fields close by. The trees in this exhibition are the trees of home.
When I make rubbings of trees and stone my hands are on my subject in a very intimate way, where we interact at our own life-sized scale. I transfer these rubbings to copper plates, wood blocks or lithographic stones to etch or cut the image into the surface. By printing multiple impressions from this matrix I can use this repetition to amplify an idea, as in the lithographic prints in the installation piece Beyond the Aspen Grove. There is also something devotional and meditative about the process of printing an edition of multiples.
Printmaking has been my main means of expression for a very long time, the inherent qualities of the various methods are embedded in how I think about making art. One of the most wonderful things about printmaking, because the image prints opposite from what I see on a plate or block, is that the first impression is always a surprise. The element of chance delights me, and offers another opportunity to further respond to the developing image, extending my time with the residue of my experiences in the natural world.
I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance that Keith Richards provided. He understood my conceptual vision for this exhibition, came up with solutions for problems that stymied me, and constructed the support structures for the two installation works. Our conversations throughout were enriching.
A very special thank you to Beverley Peacock for her excellent help and advice with my almost last minute coloured lighting emergency. My gratitude for Beverley’s willingness and ability to solve my lighting dilema is beyond measure.
LEAVING HOME
ARTWORK IN THE EXHIBITION
Shrine
2017, Intaglio on Rives BFK paper, 11.5 x 25.5 in (framed)
There Are Green Parrots 2018, Intaglio on Revere paper, 13 x 24 in (framed)
Twilight Among the Gums
2018, Intaglio on Arches cover paper, 17.25 x 38 in (framed)
Five Fruits
2021, Intaglio on Arches cover paper, 13 x 19 in (framed)
(Cherry, Pear, Apricot, Apple, Plum)
Orchard 2022, Woodcut on Kozo paper, 24 x 39 in (Cherry, Apricot, Pear, Plum, Apple)
Night Orchard , 2023, Woodcut on Moriki Kozo paper, 25.5 x 39 in (Cherry, Apricot, Pear, Plum, Apple)
Winter Forest, Late Afternoon 2022, Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper, 29.5 x 55 in (Fir, Saskatoon, Choke Cherry, Aspen, Sumac, Ponderosa Pine)
Bare
2023, Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper, 29.5 x 55 in
(Fir, Saskatoon, Aspen, Choke Cherry, Sumac, Ponderosa Pine)
Before Spring 2025, Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper , 29.5 x 55 in
(Amur Maple, American Elm, Black Locust, Weeping Birch, Manitoba Maple, Black Walnut)
Once the Sun
2025, Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper, 29.5 x 55 in
(Chinese Elm, Green Ash, Weeping Willow, Mugo Pine, Poplar, Red Leaf Maple)
October by the Fremont River 2023, Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper, 29.5x 27.75 in (Box Elder, Fremont’s Cottonwood, Thin Leaf Alder)
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Juniper 2005, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Pinyon Pine 2007, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Cedar 2006, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Fir 2007, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Aspen 2006, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Ponderosa Pine 2006, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Birch 2007, Lithograph on Gampi paper, 23.5 x 17.375 in
Far Away Homeland (installation view detail), 2020, five paper cuts on Mi-Tients paper, 61 x 44 in each (Cherry, Plum, Apricot, Apple, Pear)
Far Away Homeland (installation view detail), 2020, five paper cuts on Mi-Tients paper, 61 x 44 in each (Cherry, Plum, Apricot, Apple, Pear)
Far Away Homeland (installation view detail), 2020, five paper cuts on Mi-Tients paper, 61 x 44 in each (Cherry, Plum, Apricot, Apple, Pear)
LIST OF WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
LITHOGRAPHS
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Juniper (eight prints)
2005
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken at Capitol Reef National Park, SE Utah
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Pinyon Pine (eight prints)
2007
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken at Capitol Reef National Park, SE Utah
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Aspen (eight prints)
2006
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Ponderosa Pine (eight prints)
2006
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Beyond the Aspen Grove: Birch (eight prints)
2007
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken at Capitol Reef National Park, SE Utah
Fir (eight prints)
2007
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken along Round Lake Road, Armstrong BC
Cedar (eight prints)
2006
Lithographs on Gampi paper
23.5 x 17.375 inches each
Rubbings taken at Pacfic Spirit Park, Vancouver, BC
WOODCUTS
October by the Fremont River
2023
Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper
29.5 x 27.75 inches
(Box Elder, Fremont’s Cottonwood, Thin Leaf Alder)
Rubbings taken at Capitol Reef National Park, SE Utah
Orchard
2022
Woodcut on Kozo paper. 24 x 39 inches
(Cherry, Apricot, Pear, Plum, Apple)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Night Orchard
2023
Woodcut on Moriki Kozo paper
25.5 x 39 inches
(Cherry, Apricot, Pear, plum, Apple)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Winter Forest, Late Afternoon
2022
Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper
29.5 x 55 inches
(Fir, Saskatoon, Choke Cherry, Aspen, Sumac, Ponderosa Pine)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Bare 2023
Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper
29.5 x 55 inches
(Fir,Saskatoon, Aspen, Choke Cherry, Sumac, Ponderosa Pine)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Before Spring 2025
Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper
29.5 x 55 inches
(Amur Maple, American Elm, Black Locust, Weeping Birch, Manitoba Maple, Black Walnut)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Once the Sun
2025
Woodcut on Seichosen Kozo paper
29.5 x 55 inches
(Chinese Elm, Green Ash, Weeping Willow, Mugo Pine, Poplar, Red Leaf Maple)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
PAPER CUTS
Far Away Homeland: Cherry
2020
Papercut - Mi-Tients paper
61 x 44 inches
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Far Away Homeland: Plum
2020
Papercut - Mi-Tients paper
61 x 44 inches
Rubbings taken on home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Far Away Homeland: Apricot
2020
Papercut - Mi-Tients paper
61 x 44 inches
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Far Away Homeland: Apple
2020
Papercut - Mi-Tients paper
61 x 44 inches
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
Far Away Homeland: Pear
2020
Papercut - Mi-Tients paper
61 x 44 inches
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
INTAGLIO PRINTS
Five Fruits
2021
Intaglio on Arches cover paper
13 x 19 inches (framed)
(Cherry, Apple, Plum, Apricot, Pear)
Rubbings taken at the home farm, Round Lake Road, Armstrong, BC
There Are Green Parrots
2018
Intaglio on Revere paper
13 x 24.75 inches (framed)
(Sheoak, Cypress Pine, River Red Gum, and 4 types of Wattle (Acacia), of 900 varieties!)
Rubbings taken in Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, South Australia
Twilight Among the Gums
2018
Intaglio on Arches cover paper
17.25 x 38 inches (framed)
(6 River Red Gums)
Rubbings taken in Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, South Australia Shrine
2017
Intaglio on Rives BFK paper
11.5 x 25.5 inches (framed)
(Various tropical fruit trees)
Rubbings taken in our homestay garden, Ubud, Bali)
RHONDA NEUFELD CURRICULUM VITAE
M.F.A. (Printmaking, Drawing), University of Regina, Regina, SK, 1996
B.F.A., Open University/Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC, 1992
Four year diploma (Printmaking, Painting), ECCAD, Vancouver, BC, 1979
Student exchange to Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS, 1977
Banff School of Fine Arts, Banff, AB, 1972 (6 week, instructor Roy Kiyooka)
EXHIBITIONS OF COLLABORATIVE WORK WITH RODNEY KONOPAKI
2017 52N 106W: Measured and Marked, The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK
Whereabouts, Malaspina Printmakers Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2014 Walking Lines/Saskatchewan, Art Gallery of Regina, Regina, SK
Suggestions from Kamloops, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC
2013 Chance Operations2, Thames Gallery, Chatham, ON
2012 Chance Operations2, Two Rivers Art Gallery, Prince George, BC
Chance Operations2, Penticton Art Gallery, Penticton, BC
Chance Operations2, Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, SK
Drawn Passages, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
New Work, The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK
Mark Making, Drawn Festival, Gallery Jones, Vancouver, BC
2011 Chance Operations2, Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, Medicine Hat, AB
Chance Operations2, Art Gallery of Swift Current, Swift Current, SK
Chance Operations2, Gallery 501, Sherwood Park, AB
Chance Operations2, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC
Walking, Martha Street Studio, Winnipeg, MB
2010 Chance Operations2, Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, Moose Jaw, SK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Leaving Home, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
2004 Ground Truth, SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, AB
1998 A Common Flesh, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna, BC
A Common Flesh, Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC
Paths, Malaspina Printmakers Society Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1997 the density beneath our feet, Vernon Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
1996 M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, the density beneath our feet, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK
1989 Rhonda Neufeld, Topham Brown Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
Rhonda Neufeld, The Ranger Station Gallery, Harrison Hot Springs, BC
1983 Prints and Drawings, Merritt Library Gallery, Merritt, BC
1982 Prints and Drawings, Topham Brown Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC Prints and Drawings, Langham Cultural Centre, Kaslo, BC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (* juried)
2023 State(s) of Being, Lake Country Art Gallery, Lake Country, BC
Hither and Yon, Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC
2022 Reading the Land: Ten Years of Collecting (with R. Konopaki), Kamloops Art Gallery, Goodbye Farewell Exhibition, ARTEfunktional, Kelowna, BC
2021 OK Rambling, Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC
2018 40 Years (with R. Konopaki), The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK
Through the Memory Atlas: 40 Years of Collecting (with R. Konopaki), Kamloops Art Gallery Art and Objects, ARTEfunktional, Kelowna, BC
CORrE, Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC
2017 Hand-Picked Okanagan (with R. Konopaki), Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC
2016 Journeying (with R. Konopaki), ARTEfunktional, Kelowna, BC
Scapes (with R. Konopaki), Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC
Shh! Good Art Up & Down the Okanagan Valley, Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC
2015 From the Matrix (with R. Konopaki), ARTEfunktional, Kelowna, BC
2014 Faculty Exhibition ’14 (with R. Konopaki), Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC
2013 Paper Exchanges (with R. Konopaki), Lake Country Art Gallery, Lake Country, BC*
2012 Okanagan Print Triennial (with R. Konopaki), Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC*
Faculty Exhibition ’12 (with R. Konopaki), Concourse Gallery, ECUAD, Vancouver, BC
2011 New Directions in Drawing (www.newdirectionsindrawing.com) (with R. Konopaki)*
Works on Paper (with R. Konopaki), The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK
Faculty Exhibition ’11 (with R. Konopaki), Concourse Gallery, ECUAD, Vancouver, BC
2010 In Edition, 20 Years of Malaspina Printmaking (with R. Konopaki), Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC
Faculty Exhibition ‘10 (with R. Konopaki), Concourse Gallery, ECUAD, Vancouver. BC
2009 Faculty Exhibition ‘09 (with R. Konopaki), Concourse Gallery, ECUAD, Vancouver. BC
New Faculty Exhibition (with R. Konopaki), Illingsworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, AB
Best Foot Forward, Arnica Artist Run Centre, Kamloops, BC*
2008 Faculty Exhibition ‘08 (with R. Konopaki), Concourse Gallery, ECUAD, Vancouver, BC
2007 The Lab, New Faculty Exhibition, Kwantlen University College, Surrey, BC
2005 Memoir and Image (Darlene Kalynka, Marcia Wedeking, Rhonda Neufeld), Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
2004 Memoir and Image, Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC
Patterns that Connect, Faculty Exhibition, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
2003 Fugitive Gallery, Vernon, BC
2002 Blow Out Sale, Member’s Exhibition, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna, BC
Small Matters, Member’s Exhibition, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
Member’s Exhibition, Malaspina Printmakers Society Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001 Member’s Exhibition, Malaspina Printmakers Society Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Small Matters, Member’s Exhibition, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
Artocracy, Member’s Exhibition, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna, BC*
2001 Amazing Space, Vernon Performing Arts Centre, Vernon, BC
Prints from Canada’s Pacific Province, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
The Heat, The Art Ark, Kelowna, BC
2001 The Body, The Art Ark, Kelowna, BC
2000 Small Matters, Member’s Exhibition, Vernon Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
1996 Land Biography…Pa(y)ssages of the Okanagan, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC*
Malaspina Printmakers Society Annual Juried Exhibition, Foto-Base Gallery, Vancouver, BC*
Really Dangerous, Student Exhibition, Fifth Parallel Gallery, University of Regina, Regina, SK
1995 Malaspina Printmakers Society Annual Juried Exhibition, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, BC*
1994 Divine Difference, Graduate Student Exhibition, Fifth Parallel Gallery, University of Regina, Regina, SK
1993 Okanagan Mainline Juried Exhibition, Penticton, BC*
Images and Objects XI, BC Festival of the Arts, Trail, BC*
Ribbon Show, Armstrong, BC
Celebrating Vernon, Vernon, BC
3rd Annual International Miniprint Exhibition, Juniper Gallery, Napa, California*
Small Matters, Member’s Exhibition, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
1992 Great Canadian Wildlife Show, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna, BC*
1984 Printmakers: Judith Foster, Rhonda Neufeld, Evelyn Armstrong, National
Exhibition Centre, Castlegar, BC
Printmakers: Judith Foster, Rhonda Neufeld, Evelyn Armstrong, Merritt Library, Merritt, BC
1983 21st Okanagan Juried Exhibition, Penticton, BC (toured BC)*
Printmaking Defined, Maltwood Art Gallery, Victoria, BC
1982 Miami International Print Biennial, Coral Gables, Florida*
20th Okanagan Juried Exhibition, Kelowna, BC*
1st Annual BC Festival of the Arts, Kamloops, BC*
Festival 1982: A Celebration of Women in the Arts, Robson Square Media Centre, Vancouver, BC*
TEACHING
2014 Sessional Instructor (drawing), UBC-Okanagan, Kelowna, BC
2013 Soft ground etching workshop, home studio, Armstrong, BC
2013 Drawing workshop (with R. Konopaki), Thames Art Gallery, Chatham. ON
2011 Soft ground etching workshop, Martha Street Studio (with R. Konopaki), Winnipeg, MB
2010 Soft ground etching workshop, St. Michael’s Printshop (with R. Konopaki), St. John’s, NL
Visiting Artist Instructor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC
2008-09 Sessional Instructor (printmaking, drawing), Alberta College of Art and Design,
2006-07 Sessional Instructor (printmaking, drawing), Kwantlen University College, Surrey, BC
2003-05 Sessional Instructor (drawing, foundation) Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
2002 Relief Printmaking, Vernon Arts Centre, Vernon, BC
2001 Collagraph Printmaking, Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
Relief Printmaking, Shuswap Summer School of the Arts, Salmon Arm, BC
1997 Introduction to Intaglio, home studio, Armstrong, BC
Introduction to Intaglio, Vernon Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
1995 Instructor (printmaking teaching fellowship), University of Regina, Regina, SK
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“State(s) of Being”, Lindsay Lorraine, Janine Hall, Joice M. Hall, Mary Smith McCullouch, Rhonda Neufeld, essay by Bree Apperley, 2023
“52N 106W: Measured & Marked”, essay “(Un) Invited Happenstance” by Bruce Montcombroux, 2017
“Scapes”, Mary Smith McCulloch, Rhonda Neufeld, Rodney Konopaki, Paul Roux, essay by Julie Oakes
“Printmaking on the Edge: 40 Years at St. Michael’s”, by Kevin Major, 2014
“Walking Lines/Saskatchewan”, essay by Rob O’Flanagan, 2014
“Paper Exchanges”, essays by Katie Brennan and Briar Craig, 2013
“Okanagan Print Triennial 2012”, essay by Tegan Forbes, 2012
“Drawn Passages”, essays by Lubos Cullen and Ben Reeves, 2012
“Chance Operations2”, essays by Terryl Atkins and Darrin Martens, 2010
SELECTED ARTICLES
2014 Bowman, Brian, “Walking Lines/Saskatchewan”. Buzzcity. Regina, January 2014.
O’Flanagan, Rob, “Seeing with your eyes closed” https://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion-story/4156341-seeing-with-your-eyes-closed/
2013 Mowatt, Gail, interview with Rhonda Neufeld
https://soundcloud.com/the-muse-ckvs-93-7-fm/sc-airdate-2013-06-26-the-muse
2012 Brennan, Katie, “Drawn Passages, Rodney Konopaki/Rhonda Neufeld” www.gallerieswest.ca/reviews/”drawn-passages”-rodney-konopaki-andrhonda-neufeld/index:html, February 13, 2012.
2010 Lawrence, Rebecca, “Art lovers can take a chance on new exhibition”. Moose Jaw Times-Herald. November 20, 2010.
Guest, Gloria, “Chance Operations”. Moose Jaw Express.Com. December 2-8, 2010.
2005 Johnson, Danna, “The artist in the Work”. Kamloops This Week, January 2005.
2002 Shand, Marg, “Rhonda Neufeld, printmaker”. The Umbrella. May 2002. Vol.XII, No.5.
1997 Brennan, Maev, “Rock’n art”. The Daily Courier, Kelowna. January 9, 1997
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
• Thompson Rivers University 4th year students at my studio, Armstrong, BC 2018
• A Swarm in June, Border Free Bees, Summerhill Winery, Kelowna, BC, 2017
• A Swarm in June, community art project, Brent’s Gristmill Heritage Park, Kelowna, 2015
• Crossings Collective (Portia Priegert, Joanne Sale, Pippa Dean-Veerman, Rhonda Neufeld) invited artists, World Migratory Bird Day, Armstrong, BC 2013
• Presentation on applying for artist residencies, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, 2013
• Panel member discussion on current printmaking, Lake Country Art Gallery, Lake Country, BC, 2013
• Crossings Collective invited artists, ALECC Conference, UBC-O, Kelowna, BC, 2012
• Vivarium 1, Eco Art Incubator participant, UBC-O, Kelowna, BC, 2012
• Jury member with Katie Brennan, Heather Leir, Trevor Moen, Lake Country Art Gallery members exhibition, Lake Country, BC, 2012
• Co-curator, The Lab, New Faculty Exhibition, Kwantlen University College, Surrey, BC 2007
• Board member, Caravan Farm Theatre, Armstrong, BC (since resigned)
• Adjudicator, Vernon School District non-academic scholarship awards, Vernon, BC (5 times)
• Visiting artist, Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, Merritt, BC 1996
• BC Honey Producers’ walk-though display at Interior Provincial Exhibition, Armstrong, BC (5 years)
ARTIST TALKS
Emily Carr University of Art and Design (with R. Konopaki), Vancouver, BC 2015
Kamloops Art Gallery (with R. Konopaki), Kamloops, BC 2014
University of Regina, Regina, SK 2014
Kamloops Printmakers studio (with R. Konopaki), Kamloops, BC 2013
Penticton Art Gallery (with R. Konopaki), Penticton, BC 2012
The Gallery/Art Placement (with R. Konopaki), Saskatoon, SK 2012
Vernon Public Art Gallery (with R. Konopaki), Vernon, B, 2012
Two Rivers Art Gallery (with R. Konopaki), Prince George, BC, 2012
Burnaby Art Gallery (with R. Konopaki), Burnaby, BC 2011
Art Gallery of Swift Current (with R. Konopaki), Swift Current, SK 2011
Shuswap Summer School of the Arts, Salmon Arms, BC 2001
Malaspina Printmakers Society, Vancouver, BC 1998
Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC 1997
BC Municipalities Convention, Vernon, BC1988
Okanagan College Continuing Education, Vernon, BC 1986
Langham Cultural Centre, Kaslo, BC 1983
Topham Brown Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC 1982
AWARDS/RESIDENCIES
2016 Visiting artists (with R. Konopaki), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK
2014 Canada Council For the Arts Travel Grant (Walking Lines/Saskatchewan, with R. Konopaki)
2013 Artists-in-residence (with R. Konopaki), Kamloops Printmakers, Kamloops, BC
Artists-in-residence (with R. Konopaki), Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, ON
2012 Visiting artists (with R. Konopaki), University of Regina, Regina, SK
2011 Visiting artists (with R. Konopaki), Martha Street Studio, Winnipeg, MB
2010 Visiting artists (with R. Konopaki), St. Michael’s Printshop, St. John’s, NL
2009 Self-directed visual arts residency (with R. Konopaki), Banff Centre, Banff, AB
2008 Self-directed visual arts residency (with R. Konopaki), Banff Centre, Banff, AB
1996 Graduate Student Scholarship, University of Regina, Regina, SK
Excellence in Scholarly Research, University of Regina, Regina, SK
1995 Teaching Fellowship, University of Regina, Regina, SK
Teaching Assistantship, University of Regina, Regina, S
1994 Graduate Student Scholarship, University of Regina, Regina, SK
COLLECTIONS
Walter Philips Gallery, Banff Centre, Banff, AB (with R. Konopaki)
Special Collections, UBC, Vancouver, BC (with R. Konopaki)
University of Alberta Museums, Edmonton, AB (with R. Konopaki)
Emily Carr University of Art, Vancouver, BC (with R. Konopaki)
Paul Fleck Library, Banff Centre, Banff, AB (with R. Konopaki)
Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC, (with R. Konopaki)
Art Gallery of Swift Current, Swift Current, SK (with R. Konopaki)
Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC (with R. Konopaki)
National Bank of Canada, PQ (with R. Konopaki)
Saskatchewan Arts Board, Regina, SK (with R. Konopaki)
Cenovas Energy, Calgary, AB (with R. Konopaki)
Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, SK (with R. Konopaki)
Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, Medicine Hat, AB (with R Konopaki)
Martha Street Studio, Winnipeg, MB (with R. Konopaki)
St. Michael’s Printshop, St. John’s, NL (with R. Konopaki)
Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC
Presidents Collection, University of Regina, Regina, SK
Malaspina Printmakers Society Archives, Vancouver, BC
Government of British Columbia, Victoria, BC
Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC
Private collections