Helga Pakasaar

Helga Pakasaar is an independent contemporary art curator based in Vancouver. She was Audain Chief Curator at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver from 2017 to 2023, and was a curator at the former Presentation House Gallery from 2003 to 2017. She held curatorial positions at the Art Gallery of Windsor from 1995 to 2001 and Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff from 1987 to 1990. Since the 1980s, she has been an independent curator, art consultant, researcher, editor, and writer. She has produced many exhibitions and publications on Canadian and international artists, site-responsive commissions, performances, public programs, and outdoor artworks. Her interest in photography, moving pictures, media art, and image culture, and their histories, focuses on current developments, often in dialogue with historical works. With a strong interest in socially-engaged, interdisciplinary practices, her exhibitions and related initiatives with local and international artists respond to global cultural discourses. Many of her projects have involved research in little-known archives and collections and have brought into focus Westcoast art histories. Her writing has been published widely and she contributes to visual art organizations in various capacities. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (1983) in Contemporary Art History from UBC and was the recipient of the Alvin Balkind Curatorial Achievement Award in 2013.