Ola Volo is a Kazakh Canadian artist, [1] best known as a public muralist. [2] Her style blends aspects of Eastern European folk art with a focus on pattern and narrative to depict fantasy scenes. [3]
Born in Kazakhstan, she moved to Canada with her family at age 10, and studied art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. [1]
Volo has been commissioned by companies like Hootsuite, Lululemon, and Starbucks [4] and has created numerous works around the Vancouver area where she previously resided.
In 2021, Volo was asked to create mural to bring awareness to the rise of abuse against women due to COVID-19.
Her work has included neighbourhood murals and corporate commissioned work in Vancouver, [1] the Mackey Building in Sudbury as part of the 2016 Up Here Festival, [5] and Walla Volo in Montreal's Mile End neighbourhood, the largest mural in Canada painted by a woman. [6]
She designed the cover art for Matt Mays' album Once Upon a Hell of a Time , [7] and is the subject of the album's song "Ola Volo". [8]
Volo's art has been used as product labels such as the ones for Doan’s Craft Brewing Company located in East Vancouver [1] as well as painting a mural for the company's tasting room. [9]
In 2017, Volo created a mural for the Forge, a parking area located in Granville Island. Despite being a muralist, exhibiting her process live while in the presence of visitors as well as interacting with them was new to Volo. [4]
She participated in the National Newspaper Week in 2021 by designing a print [10] [11] to spread awareness about the importance and reliability provided by newspapers. [12]
Due to Volo’s popularity in Vancouver, it led to a brief break from the city and a new studio set up in Montréal. The stay in the city allowed Volo rest and time to reflect [1] as well as inspiration for her WALLA VOLO mural. [13]
Located at Hyatt Regency along Burrard Street is Volo’s mural called Wall for Women. With the familiar influence of Eastern European folk art present in Volo’s works, [14] this mural was done with the intention to spread awareness on the rise in relationship violence against women which has been a prevalent issue during COVID-19 as well as a symbol of empowerment. [15]
Integrated in the mural are five QR codes containing information about domestic abuse as well as a way to donate and provide aid to women suffering from mistreatment. [14]
Vancouver is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2.6 million in 2021, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Greater Vancouver, along with the Fraser Valley, comprises the Lower Mainland with a regional population of over 3 million. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada, with over 5,700 people per square kilometre, and fourth highest in North America.
The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues. The league operated as the High-A West in 2021, then resumed its original moniker in 2022.
Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is located 12 km (7.5 mi) from Downtown Vancouver. It is the second busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic, behind Toronto Pearson International Airport, and the second busiest airport in the Pacific Northwest region, behind Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. As a trans-Pacific hub, the airport has more direct flights to China than any other airport in North America or Europe. It is a hub for Air Canada and WestJet, and an operating base for Air Transat. Vancouver International Airport is one of eight Canadian airports that have US Border Pre-clearance facilities. It is also one of the few major international airports to have a terminal for scheduled floatplanes.
The Millennium Line is the second line of the SkyTrain rapid transit system in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by BC Rapid Transit Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, and links the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Port Moody. The line was opened in 2002 and was named in recognition of the new millennium.
Waterfront station is a major intermodal public transportation facility and the main transit terminus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located on West Cordova Street in Downtown Vancouver, between Granville and Seymour Street. The station is also accessible via two other street-level entrances, one on Howe Street to the west for direct access to the Expo Line and another on Granville Street to the south for direct access to the Canada Line.
Chinatown is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is Canada's largest Chinatown. Centered around Pender Street, it is surrounded by Gastown to the north, the Downtown financial and central business districts to the west, the Georgia Viaduct and the False Creek inlet to the south, the Downtown Eastside and the remnant of old Japantown to the northeast, and the residential neighbourhood of Strathcona to the southeast.
Emily Carr University of Art + Design is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co-educational institution that operates four academic faculties, the Faculty of Culture + Community, the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media, the Audian Faculty of Art, and the Jake Kerr Faculty of Graduate Studies.
Burrard is an underground station on the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located in Downtown Vancouver on Burrard Street, where Melville and Dunsmuir Streets meet, and is the western terminus of the R5 Hastings St that provides service to Simon Fraser University.
The Granville Street Bridge or Granville Bridge is an eight-lane fixed cantilever/truss bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, carrying Granville Street between Downtown Vancouver southwest and the Fairview neighborhood. It spans False Creek and is 27.4 m (90 ft) above Granville Island. The bridge is part of Highway 99.
Gordon Appelbe Smith was an English-born Canadian artist, known for expanding the dialogue between abstraction and representation, working with mediums such as painting, printmaking, and sculpting. Smith taught with contemporaries Bruno Bobak, B.C. Binning and Jack Shadbolt at the Vancouver School of Art for 10 years, then for 26 years at the University of British Columbia before retiring in 1982 to paint full-time.
Vancouver City Centre is an underground station on the Canada Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located on Granville Street, between West Georgia Street and Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver, and serves the shopping and entertainment districts along Granville and Robson streets, and the office and shopping complexes of Pacific Centre and Vancouver Centre.
Daily Hive, formerly known as Vancity Buzz, is a Canadian online newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It began digital publishing in 2008 and became Western Canada's largest online-only publication by 2016.
Great Northern Way–Emily Carr is a planned underground station for the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. It will be located at the intersection of Great Northern Way and Thornton Street adjacent to the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in the Strathcona neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally scheduled to open in 2025, the station's projected opening was pushed back to early 2026 in November 2022.
Mount Pleasant is a planned underground station for the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. It will be located at the southwest corner of the intersection of East Broadway and Main Street in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally scheduled to open in 2025, the station's projected opening was pushed back to early 2026 in November 2022.
Oak–VGH is a planned underground station for the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. It will be located at the southwest corner of the intersection of West Broadway and Laurel Street near Vancouver General Hospital in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally scheduled to open in 2025, the station's projected opening was pushed back to early 2026 in November 2022.
South Granville is a planned underground station for the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. It will be located at the northeast corner of the intersection of West Broadway and Granville Street in the South Granville area on the border of the Fairview and Kitsilano neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally scheduled to open in 2025, the station's projected opening was pushed back to early 2026 in November 2022.
James Insell, better known by the stage name Jimbo, is a Canadian designer and drag queen who is best known for competing in the first season of Canada's Drag Race (2020), the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World (2022), and the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2023).
Spinning Chandelier is a public artwork by Rodney Graham in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The work is situated under the Granville Street Bridge in Downtown Vancouver. It was unveiled in 2019.
Canada has many of its own pizza chains, both national and regional, and many distinctive regional variations and types of pizza resulting from influences of local Canadian cuisine. The "Canadian pizza" toppings typically include tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, bacon, pepperoni, and mushrooms; although variations exist, this recipe is also known internationally by that name.