Curatorial Tour: Christina Leslie: Likkle Acts

Walk through the exhibition Christina Leslie: Likkle Acts with exhibition curator Hannah Keating. Hannah will explain how the works were made and the stories and ideas that motivated Christina to create them.

Curatorial Tours are free and open to everyone. They provide deeper insight into the themes, context, and content of our exhibitions. Seating options are available. For more information about access and our facilities, please visit this page or contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] with any specific requests. No advance registration required.

Christina Leslie is an artist based in Pickering, Ontario. She earned her BFA in 2006 at OCADU in Toronto and her MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, USA in 2022. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications and exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her latest series “Sugar Coat” has been exhibited virtually on Ain’t Bad Magazine (2021), Featureshoot.com (2022), PetaPixel.com (2022), and in-person at BAND Gallery (2023). She has exhibited nationally and internationally at GAMU (2009), Royal Ontario Museum (2010), Pier 21 (201, Art Gallery of Windsor (2017), Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives (2020), Prefix ICA (2021), and McMaster Museum of Art (2022). Much of her photographic practice revolves around the themes of de-colonialism, identity, immigration, issues of marginalization, history, memory, race, and her West Indian heritage. She often utilizes text and alternative and historical photographic processes to produce her photographs. She is a member of an all-female photography collective, Silver Water Collective and is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.

Christina Leslie: Likkle Acts is presented by Partners in Art with additional support provided by the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council and Alterna Savings.

The Neighbours Art Hive with the LivingRoom Community Art Studio

The gallery invites you to join us for artmaking and community connection in The Neighbours Art Hive between 12-3:30pm every Friday from January 10 to February 14, 2025. Passionate and helpful volunteers from the LivingRoom Community Art Studio will be onsite to support your creative explorations and cultivate a warm and welcoming environment for all. Participants are welcome to take their projects with them or hang them up for everyone to enjoy!

The Neighbours Project, installed at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (February 2024).

What to expect:

Everyone is welcome; no art experience required.

These drop-in events are free.

You’re welcome to come and go as you please.

Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be served.

What is an art hive?

Art Hives are safe, accessible spaces that enable people of all ages to participate in free public relaxation. In an Art Hive, traditional hierarchies, processes, and ways of being can be deconstructed and re-imagined in playful, personal, and compassionate ways.

The Neighbours Art Hive is a temporary installation at the RMG that transforms the gallery into an active studio space with help from the LivingRoom Community Art Studio. Outside of these facilitated sessions, we also invite all our neighbours to drop in any time during operating hours to make use of the free art materials on their own time. The RMG is located at 72 Queen Street, Civic Centre in Oshawa, across from the McLaughlin Branch of the Oshawa Public Libraries. The Neighbours Art Hive is in Gallery A, which is located on the lower level of the RMG. It is accessible by stairs or elevator. Between the elevator and Gallery A, you’ll pass our public washrooms. We have an accessible single-stall washroom as well as gender-inclusive multi-stall washrooms. Read more about our facilities here.

Upcoming Sessions:

Friday January 10, 2025

Friday January 17, 2025

Friday January 24, 2025

Friday January 31, 2025

Friday February 7, 2025

Friday February 14, 2025

Presented by The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation.

Seniors Spring Social Event

Let’s celebrate spring together! Back by popular demand, this free event encourages seniors (age 55+) to spend the afternoon curating their own program.

Participants may choose do the exhibition tour then have tea and snacks, do one or both of the workshop activities, do one of the workshops and then go on an exhibition tour, it’s a matter of preference.

Event options include:

Tours of the RMG current exhibitions at 1pm and 2pm
Two different drop in art making workshops
Light refreshments available in our onsite Arthurs Restaurant 1-3pm

In the Lookout (lower level) join guest artist instructor, Jade Wysotski from 1:30pm-2:30pm to create an adorable realistic kitten!

Working with black and white drawing media on toned paper, this piece will have a soft and realistic look. Participants will be provided with simple line art and use mark making techniques to communicate texture and form. This activity is suitable for all drawing abilities!

In the studio (lower level), participants are encouraged to make unique cards! Create stamp printed leaves on a watercolour background. This workshop is supported by the Learning and Engagement team!

In Arthurs, enjoy light refreshments.

Join us at 1pm and 2pm for tours of our current exhibitions.

Seniors Programming has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Sienna for Seniors Foundation.

Bright and Merry Warming Station

We’ll be open from 5-7pm during the Bright & Merry Market!

Drop by for some cozy beverages and treats, enjoy a tour of our new exhibitions, and find holiday gifts at the RMG Shop.

Feed the Need Donation Box will be at the gallery for your donations.

The RMG reserves the right to cancel this event due to circumstances beyond RMG’s control or not reasonably anticipated, including but not limited, to weather, or inability of Facility to host Event.

RMG Friday: Passages

Join us for the final RMG Friday of the year! The evening will kick off with a performance by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence Vanessa Godden followed by the O’Neill CVI Dance and Movement Studies students. In the Lookout, DRIFF will be screening Common as Red Hair by Robbie Robertson.

Enjoy food from local restaurant, Gabe and Pancha’s.

Vanessa Godden, Transference (2024), performed at the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, October 13, 2024. Image by Henry Chan.

7-8PM Transference: A performance by Vanessa Godden

Transference is a performance by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence Vanessa Godden. Throughout the performance, Godden will submerge their body in containers of different sizes filled with salt water. The artist’s movement, and the resulting sounds, will interact with a sound composition produced in collaboration with Markham-based Visual and Sonic artist, James Knott. The composition includes audio collected by Godden during their residency at the RMG, field recordings from Trinidad and Tobago, experimental steel pan recordings, and a choir of sounds collected from Queer and Trans loved ones. The performance serves as a bridge between Godden’s Non-Binary Queer diasporic existence in the West and the lineages of movement instigated by colonization of South Asia and the Caribbean.

The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.

The artist thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this work.

O’Neill CVI Dance and Movement Studies students perform, choreographed by Kiera Beaugh and Megan Nadain.

This piece dives into the language of anxious movements—the nervous ticks, repetitive gestures, and subconscious rhythms we turn to when unease sets in. Each motion draws from the tension between comfort and compulsion, exploring how, in moments of distress, we may find solace in patterns that are both familiar and self-destructive. This piece invites the audience to witness the complexity of self-soothing behaviors and the ways we navigate our inner landscapes in search of calm, even in places that may not offer it.

Kiera Breaugh is a dancer/choreographer whose style lives at the intersection of contemporary and hip hop. Kiera has a BA in Dance from LMU in Los Angeles. While in LA, she was a member of LA dance companies: the Young Lions, Immabeast, Immabreathe and MashUp Contemporary Dance Company.

Kiera has performed in Dance Matters, A Woman’s Work, the Toronto Fringe Festival, the Orlando Fringe Festival, the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Dusk Dances, Hamilton. She has choreographed for PRESENCE, a site specific series commissioned by Peggy Baker Dance Productions: ProArteDanza in their Choreolab and an original piece during the half-time of a Raptors Game. Kiera has completed the Hicks Choreography Fellows Program through Jacob’s Pillow and is in the middle of a two year residency at Assembly Hall in Etobicoke offered through Toes for Dance.

Kiera has worked with and danced for artists including Ian Eastwood, Brian Friedman, Janelle Ginestra, Kylie Thompson, Mary Ann Chavez and Monika Felice Smith. Her work often explores themes such as racial identity, female upward mobility, and other ideas that aim to empower the unheard.

Our Hearts as Planets” sets out to explore the deep comfort that can come from finding connectivity and community amidst a world that can often feel incredibly overwhelming. The weight of our struggles can cause us to feel isolated, alone or misunderstood, yet letting others in and finding common ground often leads to a lightening of our mental loads and we are often reminded that we are not alone. We explored gestures and movement phrases in isolation from one another eventually, slowly and sometimes sporadically finding their way into unison and harmony. Whatever is going on in our lives today, we strive to find gratitude to be where we are right now, with these people, dancing together, in this incredible space, for you. Welcome to our journey. I am grateful to dancers for their open hearts and minds, and for all of their beautiful contributions to the work.

Megan Nadain (she/her) is a Toronto-based dancer, choreographer and dance educator originally from North Vancouver, BC. She is a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and was the recipient of the The Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant. She was a company member with Dancetheatre David Earle and has worked independently with Darryl Tracy, Nicole Nigro, inDANCE, Toronto Heritage Dance and Miranda Abbott. She has the pleasure of being a faculty member at The School of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre teaching Creative Movement and Modern and has directed CCDT’s Core Apprentice Program for the past 8 years; she is thrilled to take on the directorship of the Accelerated Training Program this year. Megan is also on faculty at Dance Arts Institute (formerly the School of Toronto Dance Theatre) teaching in The Professional Program and Adult Contemporary Dance. She has also worked as a dance educator at York University and The National Ballet of Canada’s In Studio program and facilitates the dance programs at several elementary and secondary schools in Toronto. Two projects that she has been involved with that she is exceptionally passionate about are Bridging Generations Through Dance with Dancing with Parkinson’s and Moving together: Choreographic mappings of children with diverse dis/abilities and their neurological responses to a dance-play event with Coralee McLaren.

DRIFF will be screening Common as Red Hair by Robbie Robertson.

About the film: The aftermath of an emotional funeral causes a grieving father and mother to reexamine their early life decision to have gender normalization surgery performed on their intersex infant.

Screening times: 8:00 and 8:45

Trailer

An anchor of the cultural calendar in Durham Region, RMG Fridays are free community events that bring together various art forms. Designed for all ages they feature a variety of live music, performances, film screenings with DRIFF (Durham Region International Film Festival), exhibition tours, artist talks, and highlight community partners and local businesses.

The RMG reserves the right to cancel this event due to circumstances beyond RMG’s control or not reasonably anticipated, including but not limited, to weather, or inability of Facility to host Event.

Convergence Music and Art Festival

Kick off Oshawa’s Convergence Music and Art Festival at the RMG! The launch party will be taking place at the Gallery on Friday, September 20. During the Festival on Saturday, September 21, find us at the ARTBLOCK and at the Family Zone.

RMG Friday: Convergence Launch Party

September 20, 2024
7-10pm
Location: The Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Join us to celebrate the launch of the Convergence Music & Arts Festival. Enjoy live musical performances by Joel Anderson, Christina Smith, and Desarae Dee* as well as art-making activities, exhibitions, and food from local restaurants.

* Please note: due to unforeseen circumstances Desarae Dee is unable to perform.

Joel Anderson is a songwriter with a rich, smooth tone that fuses elements from R&B and Gospel. His music, characterized by heartfelt storytelling and passionate delivery, deeply resonates with listeners through its authenticity and emotional depth.

Scarborough-born, Jamaican-raised Christina Smith’s unique sound is a combination of elements. Some of her musical influences include FKA twigs, Halle Bailey, Kathleen Battle and Qveen Herby. She describes her sound as classical fusion, pulling from the vocal technique and delivery of classical music, and the instrumentation of contemporary music (including, R&B, pop, house and rock).

Join local guest artist Chelsea Frattura in the art studio to get your geek on! Dive into the nostalgic world of 8-bit artwork as you design and create your own custom magnet. Using the grid method, you’ll bring your favourite pop culture icons to life—or invent your own design! Perfect for beginners.

ARTBLOCK

September 21, 2024
11am-7pm
Location: Former Oshawa GO Bus terminal

At the Convergence Music & Arts Festival, the City of Oshawa and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery are co-presenting ARTBLOCK, an art-centered festival Zone showcasing local artistic talent. This area will include a public art exhibition in the former Oshawa GO Bus terminal, art by local artists, participatory art activities and more!

Feature in ARTBLOCK: Points of Connection

For over 20 years, the Oshawa Bus Terminal served as the site for countless homecomings, goodbyes, greetings and adventures. Now no longer in use, it stands like a monument to past memories while awaiting its future redevelopment. For Convergence Music & Arts Festival, the terminal returns to its former glory, packed with people and stories, as the site of the art exhibition Points of Connection.

Points of Connection brings together work by locally connected artists to explore how our personal histories are tied to collective experiences and settings. The exhibition gathers us to reflect on the ways we seek connection; through personal histories, community, technology and nature.

This Bus Terminal connected Oshawa’s communities to and from, far and wide, making it a fitting location for an exhibition that considers how we as a community flourish through connections.

Presented by the City of Oshawa and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

Family Zone

Saturday, September 21, 2024
11am-7pm
Location: Family Zone

Join us in the Family Zone at the Convergence Music and Art Festival! We will be designing our own unique band t-shirt art using watercolour resist techniques to create awe-inspiring creations.

This event has been financially assisted by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.

The RMG reserves the right to modify or cancel this event due to circumstances beyond RMG’s control or not reasonably anticipated, including but not limited, to weather, or inability of Facility to host Event.

Backyard Movie Night

Join us on September 7th for a Backyard Movie Night!

Order of Events:

7PM: Doors open + art activity starts

8PM: Art activity ends + Movie starts

9:50PM: Movie ends

Starting at 8PM, the RMG, in collaboration with DRIFF, will be showing Chandler Levack’s, “I Like Movies”, a comedy-drama based in the 2000s about a teenage cinephile who works at a video store, is eager to be a filmmaker and let’s everybody know it.

Bring a chair or a blanket and get cozy for a night at the movies. Enjoy good eats from Bollywood Tacos.

Chandler Levack grew up in Burlington, Ontario and lives in Toronto, where she studied cinema at the University of Toronto and screenwriting at the Canadian Film Centre. She has directed numerous music videos, earning two JUNO nominations, and was a veteran music writer and a current film critic for the Globe & Mail. In 2017, her short film We Forgot to Break Up premiered at TIFF and went on to play SXSW. In 2022, her debut feature film I Like Movies premiered at TIFF, was selected for Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival and won prizes around the world. She is currently working on her second feature Anglophone, a casual hang out movie full of ill-advised sex, drugs and rock n’ roll in the Montreal music scene circa 2011, with Zapruder Films and Banner House Productions.

Join us for an art activity in the lower level of the backyard. We will use acrylic gouache paint to depict iconic movie moments and capture the essence of cinema sights. No experience required!

Fall Seniors Social Event

Back by popular demand! This free event encourages seniors (age 55+) to spend the afternoon curating their own program. We will offer refreshments, tours and drop in art making sessions.

1PM and 2PM: Tours of the RMG current exhibitions

Meet in the lobby of The RMG to tour our new permanent collection exhibitions Resistance, Jack Bush: Breakthrough and Pegi Nicol MacLeod: Unforgettably Hers.

Light Refreshments in Arthur’s

Take the elevator to Level 4 to enjoy refreshments in the lovely Arthur’s. This area is only open during special events, please enjoy the exclusive views from above Oshawa.

Drop in art making workshops

Two different hands on art making opportunities available on RMG’s lower level! Drop in, no registration required, while supplies last.

Flower Pot Painting:

Let your creativity flow or have us guide you to create a bright succulent planter to admire. Beginner friendly, no experience required!

Pyrography with guest artist Victoria Grant:

Participants embark on their creative journey by practicing with the pyrography tools on scrap wood under personalized guidance from Victoria herself. Once participants feel comfortable and confident with the technique, they transition to designing their own mini canoe paddles. This part of the workshop encourages personal expression, allowing each individual to imbue their creation with elements that resonate with their unique identity and creativity.

Throughout the workshop, Victoria provides hands-on assistance and expertise, helping participants refine their designs and execute them to perfection. By the end of the session, each participant will have crafted a personalized pyrography design on a mini canoe paddle that they can proudly take home, showcasing both their newfound skills and personal artistic vision.

Victoria’s workshops not only foster artistic skill development but also celebrate cultural heritage and personal expression, making them an enriching experience for all involved.

Beginner friendly, no experience required!

Seniors Programming has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Sienna for Seniors Foundation.

Transference: A performance by Vanessa Godden

Transference is a performance by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence Vanessa Godden. Throughout the performance, Godden will submerge their body in containers of different sizes filled with salt water. The artist’s movement, and the resulting sounds, will interact with a sound composition produced in collaboration with Markham-based Visual and Sonic artist, James Knott. The composition includes audio collected by Godden during their residency at the RMG, field recordings from Trinidad and Tobago, experimental steel pan recordings, and a choir of sounds collected from Queer and Trans loved ones. The performance serves as a bridge between Godden’s Non-Binary Queer diasporic existence in the West and the lineages of movement instigated by colonization of South Asia and the Caribbean.

The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.

The artist thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this work.

Christina Leslie: Likkle Acts Opening Reception

Help us celebrate the opening of Christina Leslie’s solo exhibition Likkle Acts!

This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected].

Christina Leslie is an artist based in Pickering, Ontario. She earned her BFA in 2006 at OCADU in Toronto and her MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, USA in 2022. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications and exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her latest series “Sugar Coat” has been exhibited virtually on Ain’t Bad Magazine (2021), Featureshoot.com (2022), PetaPixel.com (2022), and in-person at BAND Gallery (2023). She has exhibited nationally and internationally at GAMU (2009), Royal Ontario Museum (2010), Pier 21 (201, Art Gallery of Windsor (2017), Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives (2020), Prefix ICA (2021), and McMaster Museum of Art (2022). Much of her photographic practice revolves around the themes of de-colonialism, identity, immigration, issues of marginalization, history, memory, race, and her West Indian heritage. She often utilizes text and alternative and historical photographic processes to produce her photographs. She is a member of an all-female photography collective, Silver Water Collective and is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.