Interdisciplinary Artist

Pia Yona Massie is a multi-media artist, environmental activist, and teacher. 

Massie’s films and art have been exhibited in museums, festivals, and galleries throughout North America and Europe, including The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts, Lausanne; and Gallery 881, Monica Reyes and the grunt gallery in Vancouver, BC. Massie's writing has appeared in: DAMP: Contemporary Vancouver Media Art;  Foret-Frontiere : Une Action Art /

Nature; as well as The Bulletin, Adbusters and Ricepaper magazines. Her work has received Canada Council and BC Arts Council grants, a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant and numerous other awards.

 

Pia has taught and mentored for over forty years, in gratitude to her early

teachers, many collaborators and friends.  This includes work at community centres and universities, outdoor environmental education and film schools, kindergarten through graduate school, in three countries: Canada, the USA and Japan. 

 

In February, Pia collaborated with Kelly McInnes to create “Ocean Matriarchs

Orchestra” https://whatlab.ca/exquisite-pressure-x-f-o-r-m/.

 

In March, commissioned by the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Pia helped to create the Tanabata “Wishing” Trees, a beautiful annual ritual and celebration in David Lam Park. The trees held and fluttered with over 900 community wishes

in more than a dozen languages.

 

Currently, 40 years of her work is being brought online for a special collections

archive by VIVO Media Arts. She is collaborating with a new generation of artists on a multi-media piece called Time Travellers Testimony which brings the voices of Clayoquot Sound's War in the Woods; back full circle to the engaged creatives on the frontlines continuing the ongoing protection of our air, land and water.

 

Originally raised in Brooklyn, New York she has now lived half her life on the

West Coast, near the Pacific Ocean, in the city of her ancestors.  She is deeply

grateful to work and live in the Pacific Northwest unceded traditional lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.