Khim Mata Hipol

Filipino-born Khim Hipol is an emerging interdisciplinary artist based on the unceded territories of the Squamish, TsleilWaututh, and Musqueam people. Through photography, Hipol examines how a sense of identity can be manipulated through commercialization. He explores the intersections of tourism, souvenir objects, and official government symbols, demonstrating how countries establish identity through these representations. Through portraiture, he illustrates how individuals use these objects to express patriotism and nationalism while simultaneously questioning their meanings and invoking ideas of colonialism and the “foreign.” He graduated with a Certificate of Photography (2019) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Photography and a Minor in Art and Text (2023) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Hipol is a recipient of the Audain Travel Award (2022), Chick Rice Award for Excellence in Photography (2023), An honorable mention of the Seymour Art Gallery ‘New and Emerging’ (2022) and was long-listed for the Lind Prize (2022, 2023). He has shared his works in group shows at Filter Photo in Chicago Illinois (2024), Pendulum Gallery (2024), Access Gallery (2024), The Center of Fine Arts Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA (2022), Calgary (2022 and 2023), and Vancouver and Philippines (2023). His works have been privately collected in Union Christian College (Philippines), Cianu Umuk Gallery (Philippines), Vancouver, Toronto, Canada, and USA.