The Vancouver we knew is disappearing. Every day, charming heritage houses are being replaced by stark beige and white rectangles. Long-term tenants are fighting displacement by a massive tech hotel. A nightclub hotel may soon change the feel of the West End forever. And throughout the city, bright blue signs stand in front of rundown character houses, proudly announcing the towering grey monoliths soon to replace them.

The disappearance of what were once affordable single-family homes from Vancouver is sad and complicated. Some are being replaced with hotels for tech workers who don’t even live here, in what the artist sees as a fabricated “hotel crisis” cooked up by City Hall. Others are being replaced with townhomes and condo towers that arguably provide more housing—but for whom? Suites in these new developments are prohibitively expensive for many working-class Vancouverites, often much smaller than those in the pre-war houses and boxy tri-levels they replace, constructed more cheaply and with far less character and beauty.

We live in a world in flux, and Vancouver, like the rest of the world, is changing before our eyes. For the artist, the juxtaposition of real, solid, imperfect buildings that will only exist a little longer with the glossy renderings of those soon to come mirrors the current state of the world: art and craftsmanship, education, diversity, and beauty being rapidly dismantled and replaced by shiny new inventions at the hands of those who value progress above what is lost in its pursuit. What is going to happen to our world and our city, and what will our collective future look like?

Through the acrylic gouache paintings in Signs of Things to Come, the artist captures Vancouver in transition and invites viewers to reflect on the disquieting period of change in which we collectively find ourselves. The works also mourn the loss of modest, serviceable houses that a single-income family could once afford—still living, soon-to-be-dying evidence of a time gone by.

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MEDIUM

acrylic gouache

ARTIST BIO

Emily Cowan is a self-taught painter working in acrylic gouache. In a style she has named “architectural portraiture”, her work focuses on houses, apartments, and domestic interiors.  

Growing up assuming she would someday own a home of her own, she began to make artwork centered around the theme of housing justice in 2021 as a way to cope with the realization that the world she grew up in is gone, and she will never live the life her childhood promised.  Rooted in personal longing and social critique, her paintings are both homage and protest: depicting homes she deeply admires but could never afford to own and care for.  

The concept of “Home” as a place of beauty, safety and permanence contrasted with our society’s view of housing as a for-profit industry piques her interest and provides her with limitless ways of exploring the image of the house.

A hallmark of Cowan’s style is meticulous detail work, highlighting not just the architecture of the building but the personal choices the home’s inhabitants have made, making her work intimate and deeply human. Cowan aims to connect others to the idea of “Home” as a human right, a universal place of escape and safety; and to highlight the disparity of who in our society has permanent access to these things and who does not.

Cowan exhibited her first solo show in 2025 and has participated in numerous group shows across Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Her art (both custom and original) is part of dozens of private collections and has been highlighted by local media. Signs of Things to Come is her second solo exhibition.