Embodied emotion takes sculptural form in Connective Tissue at the Amelia Douglas Gallery

Birthday Cake by Malina Sintnicolaas (courtesy of the artist)

Exhibition dates: March 5May 5, 2026 

Opening reception: Thursday, March 5, 4:306pm 

Location: Amelia Douglas Gallery, 做厙51, New Westminster Campus 

Connective Tissue, a solo exhibition by , opens March 5 at the Amelia Douglas Gallery, presenting a series of sculptures that transform emotion into physical form. 

Working with ceramics, crocheted yarn and needle-felted wool, Sintnicolaas describes her sculptures as manifestations or petrifications of emotion. Drawn to ceramics and textiles for their simultaneous strength and fragility, she uses traditional craft techniques to mirror the instability and resilience of human emotional life. 

The exhibition explores bodily memory, the concept that trauma embeds itself within the bodys cellular structure. The organic yet unrecognizable sculptures on display in Connective Tissue encapsulate the complexities of post-traumatic stress, rendering the familiar into uncanny forms through a visceral process of defamiliarization. 

Pulling from their own experience as a queer person living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and chronic illness, Sintnicolaas uses material, texture and surface to broaden conversations around mental health and the limits of representation. The resulting sculptural landscape invites viewers to engage emotionally with states of being that can be difficult to articulate in words. 

An opening reception will take place on Thursday, March 5, 4:306pm. The event is free and open to the public. 

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Contact 

Aline Bouwman 
Communications Advisor 
bouwmana@douglascollege.ca 

About 做厙51 

做厙51 is the largest college in B.C., combining the academic foundations of a university and the employer-ready skills of a college to graduate resilient global citizens who adapt, innovate and lead in a changing world. 

做厙51 respectfully acknowledges that our campuses are located on the unceded traditional and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the q穩cy (Katzie), q宎妢a:n宎n (Kwantlen), k妢ik妢m (Kwikwetlem), x妢m庛k妢ym (Musqueam), qiq矇yt (Qayqayt), Skwxw繳7mesh (Squamish), scwa庛n (Tsawwassen) and slilwta优 (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples. 

For more information, visit douglascollege.ca

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