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A Veteran and a Rising Talent Share the Walls at Kostuik Gallery

A forty-year career meets a two-year one, and somehow it works. This September, Kostuik Gallery, located on the cusp of Yaletown, opens Against the Grain, pairing sculptors Marianne Lovink and Katja Zubkova in a duo exhibition running September 17 through October 11. The two artists sit at opposite ends of a career timeline, and both work in wood carving, a discipline still rarely associated with women, which makes the pairing as much a statement as it is a show. The exhibition also lands during Kostuik’s 25th anniversary year, a milestone built on decades of representing mid-career and established artists.

Lovink has spent over forty years refining her craft, carving since 1984 and completing public art commissions across Toronto and Philadelphia. She has shown with Kostuik Gallery since 2000, and her work carries the influence of Dutch design and Modernism in every hand-carved piece. Zubkova is on the opposite end of that timeline. She joined the Kostuik roster in 2024, arriving at sculpture after a career on Canada’s High-Performance Biathlon team and training at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Her carved wall sculptures are titled entirely in binary, each one encoding a piece of her own story.

“Wood carving still isn’t a space people associate with women, and both of these artists are quietly changing that — one through thirty years of major public commissions, the other through a completely new visual language. I think that’s a story worth telling,” says Jennifer Kostuik, owner and director of Kostuik Gallery.

Two Timelines, One Shared Language

Despite the gap in experience, both artists describe their relationship to wood in strikingly similar terms. Lovink talks about craft and art as inseparable, pointing to the natural world as the constant source she keeps returning to, whatever material she’s working in. Zubkova describes being drawn to materials that already carry their own language — the grain, the imperfections, the warmth — and wants that history to stay visible in the finished piece rather than be carved away.

It’s a fitting pairing for a gallery that leans toward artists working with minimalist themes shaped by space and nature, a roster that includes internationally recognized photographer Michael Kenna alongside gallery artists David Burdeny and James Lahey. Over the years, Kostuik has represented artists from Vancouver, across Canada, the US, Europe, Mexico, and Argentina, and shown work at international art fairs in cities including Miami, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Toronto, and Montreal.

Exhibition Details

Dates: September 17 – October 11
Opening reception: Thursday, September 17, 5–7 pm
Artist talk: 6:15 pm, during the reception
Location: Kostuik Gallery, 1070 Homer Street, Vancouver
In attendance: Both artists will be present for the opening

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Luxury Lifestyle Observer: Helen Siwak is the founder of EcoLuxLuv Communications & Marketing Inc and publisher of Folio.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine and PORTFOLIOY.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine. She is a prolific content creator, consultant, and marketing and media strategist within the ecoluxury and luxury lifestyle niches. Helen is the west coast correspondent to Canada’s top-read business magazine Retail-Insider, holds a vast freelance portfolio, and is an EIC for Hire. Connect with her here: [email protected].