All My Friends Are Dead
Quin Martins & Others

June 16 – July 15, 2023

How does one write or make art about the drug poisoning crisis?

All My Friends Are Dead! is an exhibition about collecting to postpone or prevent loss. It’s about grasping at the found object or text before it dissolves between the fingers and vanishes. In a neighbourhood where community members have suffered immense loss, it seems vital to collect what remains. In forming a collection of artworks and ephemera, Quin’s work (which is also the Community’s work) hits on a profound sense of collective grief through self-expression. This is as much an exploration of letting go as it is holding on.

Quin Martins is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice is informed by having lived experience with mental health and substance use. His lifelong interest in collecting found objects and in outsider art has led to an art practice which cherishes materials and imagery typically thought of as not having much intrinsic value. Martins holds a BFA in visual arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, was a 2022 Artist in Residence at the Buinho Creative Hub, Portugal, and recently had his writing and photography published in SAD magazine.