Canadian artist Niina Chebry plumbs the abstract in nature. From tree to iceberg, her work wrestles with notions of beauty, impermanence and peril. She draws from a wide range of sources for her paintings, collecting inspiration from Asia, Europe and South America. Her childhood spent under vast prairie skies of rural Alberta, she now lives in Vancouver – where the shift to coastal flora and fauna seep into her compositions.
Chebry often selects imagery with a mind for the abstract as well as the narrative. The suggestion of water, tree, horse, or storm are built through textural layers and translucent colour.
Niina studied art at the University of Alberta and received her Bachelor of Education in 1986. Her paintings are included in public and private collections in Canada, United States, Europe and Japan, notably in exhibitions at the Canadian Embassy and the Ueno Royal Museum of Art. Niina’s work is represented by Vancouver Art Gallery Art Rental Gallery and Gallerie La Manzanilla.
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CBC Art Minute:
She paints with spatulas and squegees but won’t tell you all of her secret techniques
Exhibition Record
Solo
2025 A Change of Climate, Gibsons Public Art Gallery, Canada
2018 Ice, Vancouver Court, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
2016 Rural, Centennial Theatre, North Vancouver, Canada
2012 Reflective, 1000 Parker, Vancouver, Canada
2009 Tumbled, 1000 Parker, Vancouver, Canada
2006 Fragments, 1000 Parker, Vancouver, Canada
2004 Divine Equine, Art Junction, Whistler, Canada
2003 Simply Bovine, Gallery 83, Vancouver, Canada
2003 HOLY COW II, Iron Works Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2001 New Work, Phoenix Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
1999 Returning, Tokyo Salon, Tokyo, Japan
1999 HOLY COW, Vision Network, Tokyo, Japan
1999 KANJI, Bauhaus Gallery, Sapporo, Japan
1998 Sacred Cow, Sassenach Café, Sapporo, Japan
1998 KANJI, Obihiro International Centre, Obihiro, Japan
1998 Sacred Cow, Chomin Hall , Shikaoi, Japan
1993 New Work, Annie Mourillon Galerie, Strasbourg, France
Group
2023 Outside In The Hearth Gallery Bowen Island
2022 An Unprecedented Time The Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2021 The Edge Of Beauty, The Hearth Gallery Bowen Island
2020 Big and Small, the Gallery George, Vancouver, Canada
2019 Spontaneous Expressions, The Avenue Gallery September 20, Victoria, Canada
2016 An Assurance Of Doubt, Ian Tan Gallery, June 9, Vancouver Canada
2015 – 2019 PARKER ART SALON. 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver, Canada
2000 – 2021 Eastside Culture Crawl, 1000 Parker, Vancouver, Canada
2005 Holy Cow, Britannia Library, Vancouver Canada
2004 Serendipity, Vancouver Art Gallery Art Rental, Vancouver, Canada
2002 Juxtapose, Gallery 83, Vancouver, Canada,
1999 New Work, Art Space, Sapporo, Japan
1996 Member Show, Latitude 53 Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
1996 Figurative, Ortona Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
1995 Member Show Harcourt Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
1992 Plasticiens, L’Estampe Galerie, Strasbourg, France
1987 From The field, Oppertshauser Gallery, Stony Plain, Canada
Juried Invitation Shows
2017 Lit, Culture Crawl Preview Show, Vancouver, Canada
1999 Vision 2000 Canadian Embassy of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
1999 The 18th Ueno Royal Museum of Art Grand Prize Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
1997 New Artists 1996 Edmonton Art Rental Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
Acquisitions
City of Seattle 2020
Alberta Art Foundation 1996
Donations
Art for Life Live and Silent Auctions
UNICEF
Eastside Culture Crawl Roulette
Red Cross Fundraiser
BC Women’s Health Foundation
Hearth Gallery Bowen
Anxiety BC and Anxiety Canada
Vancouver Food Bank Small Art Auction
The Nature Trust of BC
Publications and Media
Vancouver Sun, “Culture Crawl”, November 2020
CBC Arts, “Art Minute”, March 2017
Judy Szabo, “Two Artists, Two Great Shows”, The Question, Jan.9, 2004
Shelley Arnusch, “New Works on Whistler Gallery Walls”, The Pique, Jan.30, 2004 Pick of the Week ”HOLY COW“, Georgia Straight, July 19, 2003
Monty DiPietro, “Show 2000”, Canada Culture, Canadian Embassy News, May 4, 1999
Maki Nibayashi, “ Time in Japan”, Tokyo Classified, 1999, 2000
Tokachi News, review of Kanji, Mainiti, May 5, 1999
Benjamin Rosse, “Eric Vu-An” (illustrations of a dancer’s biography), 1993