Elliptical Lineages Artist Spotlight - Anne Ngan & Gailan Ngan

Elliptical Lineages presents the work of artists that engage in the creative practices of a family member or those whom they consider kin. Curated by Jacqueline Bell, Director, Walter Phillips Gallery and Collections at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Elliptical Lineages is on view from June 7 to September 7, 2025.  

The exhibition complicates conventional ideas of artistic lineage and reflects on the exchange of knowledge between generations. Hear directly from a number of the artists exhibiting in Elliptical Lineages as they reflect on their work on view.

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About Anne Ngan

Anne Ngan (b. 1939, Sallanches, Haute-Savoie, France) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is focused mainly on painting and dance. In the 1950s, she studied drawing, painting, and etching at the École des Beaux-Arts, Marseille. In 1961, she moved to Paris to study architecture and expand her knowledge of set design for the theatre. During this time, she also trained in modern dance at the Schola Cantorum de Paris with Karin Waehner, a student of Mary Wigman. Between 1962 and 1966, Ngan apprenticed with theatre designer André Acquart, working on set and costume design. She relocated to Vancouver in 1966 where she worked on costume design for the theatre and also joined Helen Goodwin’s dance group. After a brief return to Paris, she settled on Hornby Island, British Columbia, with her future husband, potter Wayne Ngan. Deeply influenced by the back-to-the-land movement, Ngan spent the 1970s raising her daughters Goya and Gailan Ngan and engaging in fibre arts including spinning, weaving, and natural dyeing, as well as gardening and baking. In 1979, Anne committed her artistic practice fully to painting. Ngan has exhibited primarily in Hornby Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Paris, and Marseille. In 1984, the Surrey Art Gallery presented a retrospective of her paintings. In 2018, she took part in a dance performance choreographed by Evann Siebens honouring Helen Goodwin at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, as part of the exhibition Beginning with the Seventies.

Anne Ngan continues to paint, dance, and garden on Hornby Island.

About Gailan Ngan

Gailan Ngan (Canadian, b. 1971, Cumberland) works and lives in Vancouver and occasionally works from Hornby Island. Her practice involves pottery, sculpture and co-managing her late father’s art estate. Ngan's work spans pottery, sculpture, and painting, as well as a deep exploration of material histories. She utilizes clay acquired from commercial suppliers as well as clay and materials sourced from the natural landscape. In recent years, Ngan has incorporated highly textured materials and surfaces in her work, imbuing them with a tactile richness reminiscent of geological formations. Incorporating elements such as grogs and pulverized insulation brick, her surfaces emerge as landscapes of texture, marked by irregularities and dents that echo the passage of time and the forces of nature. This tactile language is often further explored through the lens of modern technology, including the translation of forms into the realm of digital fabrication through 3D scanning and printing techniques. Ngan graduated with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, in 2002. She has shown work at the Esker Foundation, Calgary; Cooper Cole, Toronto; The Apartment, Vancouver; San Diego Art Institute; Nanaimo Art Gallery; Art Gallery at Evergreen, Coquitlam; Kamloops Art Gallery; Unit 17, Vancouver; Christian Lethert Gallery, Cologne; and The Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2015 she received the North West Ceramic Foundation Award. Ngan is represented by Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver.

Elliptical Lineages  
Walter Phillips Gallery at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity  
107 Tunnel Mtn Drive, Banff  
June 7 to September 7, 2025   
FREE