Current Exhibit:
About the Exhibition
27 July - 18 September 10AM-5PM
Kingston Arts Council | Tett Centre (370 King Street West, Kingston)
Free & Open to All
Although she is known for her own innovative, vivid colour-blocking technique and imagery, in Being Seen artist Portia ‘Po’ Chapman celebrates the natural voice of nature. Inspired by the beauty of sunlight shining through rawhide when her handcrafted hand drums are held up toward the sky, Po’s experimental exhibition places the light source within glowing, wrapped rawhide vessels revealing the species’ markings formed by their actual lived experiences
Being Seen takes a very moving twist whereby the viewer momentarily becomes part of the installation, for when the viewer stands among the glowing hides, the viewer experiences the emotional delight of being seen too.
This exceptional, uplifting, minimalist-styled installation, simultaneously integrates the beauty of the structural art piece, species and viewer set against the grunge of a busy, monolithic, urban jungle. Becoming a juxtaposition of a stiff, cold and stoic exterior against a sumptuous warm and inviting interior.
Portia believes that “we all deserve to be seen. When “Being Seen… we glow!”
The exhibition will run at the KAC’s Pocket Gallery in the TETT Centre from 27 July to 18 September, 2026.
About the Artist
Portia ‘Po’ Chapman (BFAH 2019 – Sculpture & Installation, BEd – Visual Art, OCT – Artist in Community Education Specialist) is a contemporary Kingston based, award winning, professional, exhibiting artist, muralist, frame drum maker, and published multi-disciplinary illustrator, reclaiming her Indigenous ancestry through nature focused artwork.
Po is best known for her use of circular composition, and her own unique colour blocking style inspired by wild grapevine silhouettes cast by the noonday sun. As the Queen’s University recipient of the 2019 Medal in Visual Art, some of Po’s most recent artistic accomplishments include: Creative City Impact Awards Illustration (2025), Shortlisted Muralist for the Robert Bruce Parking Garage (2025), Cover Artist for the GAN Face to Face 3 Portrait Exhibition (2025), King Township Land Acknowledgement Illustration (2025), Exhibited in the Kingston Artist’s Showcase (2024/25), Strong Enterprises Mural Competition Winner (2024/25), 3 Murals and Installation for Base31 (2022/23), Solo Drum Exhibit at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery (2023), 10 Piece Digital Illustration Series for the Queen’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives (2020), 7 Piece Digital Illustration Series for the Queen’s Fac. Of Ed. (2022), and the Cover Artist/Illustrator for the textbook “Ways of Being in the World…” (2023).
Po has also been featured by the Toronto Guardian, the YGK Arts Project, County Arts, the Kingstonist, and the Queen’s Journal, among others. When not creating artworks, Po leads local community art workshops and art talks as well as teaching Media Art at Loyola in Kingston. When Po is asked why she creates beautiful reflective artworks that inspire conversation and the sharing of stories, she responds: “Life just feels better when we smile!”