Artist Dina Goldstein alleges she was cut from show after voicing support for Israel

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A B.C. artist alleges she was cut from a Vancouver art exhibition inspired by toys because she is an Israeli-Canadian who has made statements in support of Israel.

Dina Goldstein had been invited by the Centre of International Contemporary Art to show her large-scale satirical photographs of live models posing as Barbie and Ken in a pink dollhouse as part of Toy Story.

But less than two weeks before the show opened, Goldstein said, curator Viahsta Yuan texted her to say there had been complaints about her being included. In a screenshot of a text dated Sunday, April 28 at 3:33 p.m. that Goldstein shared with The Globe and Mail, a correspondent identified as Via writes: “I am currently facing some resistance from the board. Since we sent out the press release about the show they heard some voices against the inclusion of your works. I’m really disappointed and I’m still trying to persuade them.”

The message sender then offers to call Goldstein. The artist said that in the subsequent phone call Yuan explained that a group of artists (whom the curator did not name) had complained by e-mail about her participation owing to social media posts where she had been supportive of Israel, and that the gallery feared there might be vandalism of the work.

Goldstein pointed out that her series In the Dollhouse has nothing to do with Israel, and argued that the gallery should not give in to threats. “Discrimination against me because of my cultural identity is illegal,” she said. (Goldstein immigrated to Canada from Israel in 1976 at the age of eight.)

She said that on her personal Facebook page she has discussed her feelings about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. Her professional Instagram page includes images of her art and multicultural photographs of Israel that she shot in the 1990s, along with some statements about security and terrorist attacks there.

Initially Yuan agreed with her and promised to relay her response to the gallery’s board, Goldstein said, but when she heard from the curator two days later, the gallery asserted it was committed to diversity and was cutting her work for budgetary reasons.

Yuan herself gives a different account of what happened, offering multiple reasons why Goldstein was cut. She said the gallery had been anticipating a grant from the Audain Foundation that did not come through, leading it to reduce the number of artists. (Work by Indonesian artist Roby Dwi Antono and Japanese artist Aya Takano was also dropped at the last minute.) She and Goldstein agree that one of the Dollhouse photographs still needed to be framed and Yuan said the gallery could no longer afford that.

She also said the gallery decided to go with a video projection by Chinese artist Zhao Bandi, who stages scenes with his toy panda, because that would make the lineup “more diverse.” Yuan said the text exchange was about replacing Goldstein with Bandi.

Without Goldstein and Takano, the show featured 11 male artists and no women. However, Yuan said she got word Tuesday from the Equinox Gallery that the only remaining Canadian in the show, Sonny Assu, an Indigenous artist from Vancouver Island, wished to withdraw because he did not want to be involved in the controversy. Assu could not be immediately reached for comment.

Yuan also added that there was already a dollhouse piece in the show, and that Goldstein’s work was “redundant.” The show includes the work of Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare, who has recreated a Victorian dollhouse and furnished it with African textiles.

Founded in 2021, the CICA is a non-profit gallery in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood that aims to introduce international art to the city in exhibitions that feature both global and local work.

The gallery now has a long statement on its website disputing Goldstein’s allegations without naming her. “It is essential to clarify that an artist’s cultural and religious affiliations would never serve as justifiable grounds for exclusion at CICA Vancouver,” it reads. “We want to assure our community that our decision-making process for curating exhibitions is based solely on artistic merit and thematic relevance, guided by our organization’s mission and values.”