Open Studio Artist in Residence | Naomi Watkins

April 29- June 3rd- 2026 

We’re so excited to welcome our first Open Studio Artists in Residence for 2026 – Naomi Watkins!

Naomi Watkins is a Two-Spirit Secwépemc interdisciplinary artist from Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops) and is based on the unceded ancestral territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, also known as Vancouver, BC.  

Working across carving, sound and video, Naomi’s current project explores themes of displacement, reconnection and the animacy of more-than-human beings. While travelling to remote or personally significant sites, they gather sound, video, materials and personal reflections that inform immersive, process-driven installations and multimedia works. By continuously revisiting specific locations, they cultivate a deeper sense of relational presence, believing that ongoing contact reveals land as an active participant in art and life–reawakening lost memories and ancestral stories tied to land and water–and ultimately creating a shared sense of belonging. These relationships inspire them to create work that embodies this connection, prompting viewers to reconsider how we relate to land, water and ancestral story. 

Naomi holds an MFA (2025) and BFA (2023) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, supported by a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. Their work has been exhibited and screened at the Polygon Gallery, Museum of Vancouver, FORM Festival and has an upcoming solo show at Grunt Gallery in September 2026.  

They received the 2025 Expanding the Form Award for their film Her Stories Have Always Been a Part of Me (2024) that Co-Artistic Director of FORM festival states “challenges the boundaries and capacities of what movement-on-screen can be…The film quietly poses larger questions, asking us to consider the greater movements that exist outside of our bodies of land sovereignty." 

The Open Studio Residency Program is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts & Culture NB, and ArtsNB.