Ernest Chua and Colin Dorward’s Without Saying exhibition is on display at the Yukon Arts Centre until Aug. 29
“The title suggests both the inexpressible power of painting, as a form of communication, and the intuitive connection between the two artists.”
Mary Bradshaw, Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) director and Phoebe Gonzales Rohrbacher, Teegatha’Oh Zheh Progressive Art Studio coordinator.
It feels strange to use words to introduce an arts exhibition that makes a point of communicating its messages without using words at all. But a new exhibition from Yukon artists Ernest Chua and Colin Dorward, aptly titled Without Saying, is all about emphasizing wordless dialogue, as each artist’s pieces invite the other to join a conversation that relies solely on visuals, emotions and silent thought.
Chua, originally from Singapore, is a self-taught artist now living in Whitehorse and thriving as a member of its creative community. Because he is autistic and mostly non-verbal, he uses his art as a medium to express himself, finding he can say more through visuals than with words. Chua’s works navigate representation and abstraction, making use of text, figures and symbology. With a talent for techniques like densification and deep layering, Chua has created a complex visual lexicon with his pieces, exploring many different approaches, finding what works for him and what doesn’t. He operates with a drive to always finish what he starts, even if he doesn’t return to a particular style or method.
Chua commonly practises out of the Teegatha’Oh Zheh Progressive Art Studio and is the June 2025 Jenni House artist-in-residence. He has work in the Yukon Permanent Art Collection, as well as several private collections.
Dorword, originally from Edmonton, is also now Whitehorse-based and primarily practises as a painter. He holds a PhD in Visual Arts from London, Ontario’s Western University, an MFA from the University of Ottawa, and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, in Vancouver.
Through his career, Dorward has achieved a number of accolades including being named a 2012 finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and winning the Honorable Mention in 2013. He was also awarded the William and Isabel Pope Artist Residency in Painting at NSCAD University, in 2014. His work can be seen in numerous public art collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the RBC Corporate Art Collection, the Yukon Permanent Art Collection and the City of Ottawa Art Collection.
Dorward prefers not to explain his work verbally or in writing, instead letting the visuals take onlookers on whatever journey they wish. Though he and Chua come from different backgrounds as artists, the similarities in their wordless approaches create something special when their work is displayed together.
The similarities do not end at wordlessness, however. With a shared predisposition for abstraction, deep layering and symbolic complexity, Chua and Dorward silently invite viewers to engage with their work by highlighting the conversational component of the pieces, rather than focusing on contrasting elements.
“Silent, intuitive and resonant,” reads a press statement written by the exhibition’s co-curators Mary Bradshaw, Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) director and Phoebe Gonzales Rohrbacher, Teegatha’Oh Zheh Progressive Art Studio coordinator, along with Dorward himself. “The title suggests both the inexpressible power of painting, as a form of communication, and the intuitive connection between the two artists.”
Citing other movements like Art Brut, Outsider Art, and now the progressive art studio movement, the team behind Without Saying believes that artists have long challenged traditional hierarchies, highlighting marginalized and self-taught artists who come from backgrounds not involving formal or academic training.
“These movements redefined notions of authenticity in art, and disrupted assumptions about who gets to participate in cultural narratives,” the team’s statement continues. The progressive art studio movement, a rising wave of creative spaces opening up with the goal of supporting artists with intellectual, developmental and mental health conditions, is helping re-shape understandings of neurodiversity, identity and inclusion, according to the team, pushing the world of the arts towards a future where there are no insiders or outsiders in the creative realm.
“This exhibition celebrates that artistic significance is not contingent upon formal training, verbal articulation or conventional pathways,” concludes the statement. “Regardless of their level of understanding of the larger historical or current art context that they belong to, artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities are highly capable of innovation within contemporary art conversations and their work is not peripheral to the broader story of art. The paintings in Without Saying emerge from a clarity of vision, conviction in process and the power of the image to speak in ways that transcend words.”Without Saying, presented in partnership with Teegatha’Oh Zheh Progressive Art Studio, is on display at the YAC in the Main Gallery until Aug. 29. The exhibition is free to view and can be seen during opening hours. The Teegatha’Oh Zheh Progressive Art Studio is a space that aims to empower artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities to develop their individual art practices, endeavouring to equip them with the necessary tools to pursue careers as exhibiting artists with dedicated time, space and high-quality art materials provided for them. To learn more about Without Saying, visit yukonartscentre.com/whats-on/without-saying.
