Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival returns for its eighth year

The Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival is back for its eighth year, showcasing artists and performers who may not be typically represented within mainstream art institutions.

The festival will feature visual and performing art from 56 artists from across B.C., representing a wide range of backgrounds.

“These are artists that face barriers in showing their work,” said festival founder Pierre Leichner.

“The barriers can be social, economic, political, and often they can be physical and mental disabilities that prevent them from accessing resources which sometimes other artists — let’s call them ‘insiders’ — have access to.”

Visual artist Klara Leppo says she enjoys bringing beauty into things society would typically find ugly, and shares an example of one of her pieces — an adorned Narcan kit.

“I want people to be a little uncomfortable but looking at something pretty while they are uncomfortable,” Leppo said.

Leppo says she finds inspiration through her life experience with abuse, suicidal ideation, homelessness, and the death of loved ones.

She says she creates art as a way of finding deeper meaning, often using vivid colours.

“It shapes and reworks trauma into something else that I’m quite attached to,” she said.

“It works with the raw material of trauma until it is not trauma anymore.”

Multilingual, neurodivergent, and non-binary artist Sunny Daydream — who sings in both English and Mandarin — used to go by ‘Sad China’ during a time in their life when they say they were exploited by people who did not have the best intention for them.

“Growing up, I really felt like I was only seeing hypersexualized images of Asian women and femmes in the media and also on the internet,” Daydream said.

“I had to unlearn a lot of internalized racism and misogyny.”

Now, through healing and a journey of self-love and discovery, they’ve entered a new chapter.

“Now that I’m non-binary, I’ve started seeing myself more as what can I showcase other than the way I look,” they said.

“It’s a new era for me, learning about myself and being more healed than ever, and I want to bring more sunshine and free dopamine to peoples’ lives — so I’m now Sunny Daydream.”

The Vancouver Outsiders festival runs Friday through Sunday at the Yaletown Roundhouse Community Centre and is free to check out.