CANCELLED Please note that this event has been cancelled. If you require further information, please reach out to [email protected].
Celebrate the first day of fall with us! The RMG invites you to attend the opening reception of Couzyn van Heuvelen’s solo exhibition, CAMP, with an artist talk, and fall feast in our newly re-opened Backyard.
Registration for the feast is now full, but everyone is welcome to join us for the opening reception from 3-5pm. We hope to see you there!
Remarks and an artist talk + tour with Couzyn will take place in the exhibition around 3:30pm. Dinner will be served around 5pm.
While you’re here, we’re also happy to open and celebrate two new permanent collection exhibitions: About Time and Alexandra Luke: Push and Pull. Check them out!
We are pleased to offer this event during Oshawa’s CONVERGENCE festival, an exciting music and art experience in downtown Oshawa.
For information on our facilities, please click here. If you have questions about the event or other requests, please email Hannah at [email protected].
Speculative Mapping for the Star Glyph Garden is a gathering for setting intentions and asking questions about what is possible when we are led by an ethic of care. Designed for the RMG’s new backyard, the Star Glyph Garden will be a rock garden that welcomes visitors to consider the constellation of people and more-than-human beings that make up this community. The design itself is informed by Indigenous storytelling, as well as the future-oriented cosmology and landing practices of Karyn Recollet and Jon Johnson.
This event is the first in our new Civic Conversations series, which asks: What are we willing to risk to protect, strengthen, and nourish our world and each other? We invite artists and activists from various disciplines to guide us towards stirring questions that challenge us to converse honestly about what is at stake in the way we relate to ourselves, each other, and the places where we live.
Within the context of the RMG’s newly renovated backyard space, this event will provoke thinking and conversation around settler gardening practices and the distinct potential the Star Glyph Garden holds for radical relationality. As a group, participants will be led through a lightly curated mapping process. Karyn will offer prompts that invite reflections and will gather participants into relation. Ephemeral fragments will be left on the site as offerings of love and promise in preparation for the planting of the rock garden, which will take place at a later date.
Participants will be invited to join the artists and gallery staff in a picnic lunch.
Please come prepared to be outside with appropriate clothing, sun protection, and water. The RMG is delighted to provide all participants with a boxed lunch. We have seating and picnic tables, but if you wish, you may choose to bring a picnic blanket for lunch.
For information on our facilities, please click here. If you have any questions about the event or other requests, please email Hannah at [email protected].
Karyn Recollet (Cree, born in Sturgeon Lake First Nation, SK, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an Assistant Professor in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. An urban Cree scholar/artist/writer, Recollet’s work focuses on urban Indigenous art-making practices as complex forms of urban glyphing- expressing an expansive understanding of land pedagogy that exceeds the terrestrial. Recollet is in conversation with dance choreographers, Black and Indigenous futurist thinkers, and Indigenous and Black geographers as ways to theorize and activate relationality through forms of land-ing in rupturous times.
Jon Johnson’s research is focused on urban land-based Indigenous Knowledge in Toronto and their representation through oral and digital forms of storytelling. He works actively within Toronto’s Indigenous community in his capacity as a lead organizer for First Story Toronto, an Indigenous-led community-based organization that researches and shares Toronto’s Indigenous presence through popular education initiatives such as storytelling tours of the city and its freely-available smartphone application.
This program is supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment, The City of Oshawa, and The Regional Municipality of Durham.
Join artist and designer Jair Kale in conversation with RMG exhibiting artist Aaron Jones. Talking as friends and creatives, Jair and Aaron will discuss Aaron’s exhibition, “Fountain of Dreams” and the ideas and influences layered within this new body of work.
Fountain of Dreams is an immersive installation of video, audio, and photo murals that considers the spatial and multi-sensory qualities of haunting and remembrance. Playing with physical and conceptual layers, the exhibition is interested in the interplay between permeable borders – geographical and generational – and between dream states and wakefulness.
This event is free and open to everyone. Please register here.
Seating will be provided for all guests.
For more information on our facilities, please click here. If you have questions about the event or other requests, please email Hannah at [email protected].
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Aaron Jones describes himself as an image-builder who reconfigures materials from books, magazines, newspapers and personal photos into new characters and realities. His collages and photo-based installations are a form of self-and world-exploration; he uses paper as a medium, where rips and tears become painterly brush strokes. Through a cathartic practice of constructing and deconstructing, Jones joins opposing visuals and colours in search of ‘peace’; a spiritual satisfaction. Recently, Jones has been exploring his birthplace of southern Ontario. The circumstances of the last two years have sparked a consideration of how he might survive off his own basic skills and natural resources. Jones has been exploring the natural landscape, as well as researching plants, wildlife, and the natural conditions near his mother’s home in Pickering, to understand their offerings and inner workings. His new intimately scaled, figurative collages are set against large-format pictures of rural landscapes and a video performance, contrasting scale and the ethereal with the real.
Born 1993 in Toronto, Jones graduated with a BA from OCADU in 2018. His work has been included recently in a special project for Nuit Blanche and the Art Gallery of Ontario’s We Are Story: The Canada Now Photography Acquisition exhibtion. He’s also been included in the exhibitions Three Thirty at Doris McCarthy Gallery, From the Ground Up at NIA Centre for the Arts, Ragga NYC at Mercer Union, all in Toronto, and Propped at Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON. Jones was awarded The Gattuso Prize for his exhibition Closed Fist, Open Palm for the 2020 CONTACT Photography Festival.
Aaron Jones is represented by Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto.
Jair Kale, born and raised in Claxton Bay, Trinidad, grew up in a nurturing nuclear family. Throughout his childhood, he often accompanied his mother to her classes while she pursued her Master of Social Work. During this time, any literature with creative writings captivated his imagination, laying the foundation for his artistic journey and that which would become a cherished pastime, the quest for knowledge.
Embracing multiple artistic facets, Kale emerged as a talented poet, photographer, and designer. His work reflects a keen eye for colour and negative space, a defining aspect evident in his photography and design projects.
Driven by a vision that juxtaposes geographic societies to highlight their parallels and distinctions, Kale delved into exploring the coexistence of diverse cultures in ways outside of the status quo. Holding significant depth, his work encourages viewers to contemplate the nuance and metaphors in the intricate beauty of human relationships.
Kale writes lyrics for Toronto artists, designs clothing for Brands featured in Adrift Skateshop, and recently he has exhibited an installation, Blue Crabs from Claxton Bay at Project1616, an artist run gallery/project space in Toronto. He received his AdvDip as a Fashion Management graduate from George Brown Casa Loma in 2021. Currently living and working in Toronto, he aspires to provoke perception and challenge stereotypical ideologies.
We’d like to thank TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment for their sponsorship of Fountain of Dreams.
Please join us to celebrate the opening of pitch, slip, a new exhibition by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence, Alex Close.
Through her work, Close explores how our experiences in public spaces are shaped by our fragmented, layered, and ever-changing memories. From public performance venues to virtual reality, she is drawn to question engineered experiences and the role that trust plays in our day-to-day lives. This body of work is reflective of Close’s evolving approach to abstract painting and her bold embrace of experimentation in the RMG’s artist residency studio, which is supported by the RBC Foundation’s RBC Emerging Artist Project.
Refreshments will be served. Join us in the exhibition space at 7pm for a conversation between the artist and RMG Associate Curator, Hannah Keating.
Seating will be available. If there is anything else we can do to support your participation, please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].
Let us know you’re coming with an RSVP (not required, but encouraged).
Join us on June 10, 2023 to celebrate two solo exhibitions at the RMG with brand new work by Aaron Jones and Anna Binta Diallo. Fountain of Dreams is an installation of audio, video, and photos by Aaron Jones that considers the spatial and multi-sensory qualities of haunting and remembrance. In Topographies, Anna Binta Diallo brings an assortment of image fragments into strata-like installations. Playing with physical and conceptual layers, these exhibitions share an interest in the interplay between permeable borders, whether geographical, geological, or generational.
Refreshments will be provided. Please join us for remarks at 2pm, followed by a tour of Topographies with artist Anna Binta Diallo.
Anna Binta Diallo, Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light, from the Topographies series, 2023. Digital collage. Courtesy of the artist.
Aaron Jones, Wandering, 2023. Film still. Courtesy of the artist.
This weekend is also the 19th Annual Peony Festival and The RMG Spring Artisan Market! Check out the Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens at 155 Arena St. (just a 12 minute walk from the RMG) between 10 am to 4 pm on June 10th and 11th for family friendly activities and displays.Come back to the gallery on Sunday, June 11th from 11am to 4pm to shop for unique gifts and products by local artisans.
We’d like to thank TD Bank Group for their support of these exhibitions through the TD Ready Commitment.
This event will be held on Zoom. It is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Register here.
In this virtual gathering, RMG Associate Curators, Hannah Keating and Erin Szikora, will provide an overview of the RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program application, sharing tips for preparing your own application and talking through strong samples from past applicants. This guidance will be applicable to the RMG’s active call for residency applications, but will also have broader relevance for other exhibition or grant opportunities. Following a short presentation, we’ll answer questions from the audience.
Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by May 16, 2023. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.
Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].
A panel discussion with Shahrzad Amin and Raoul Olou
Let’s chat about selling artwork! For this workshop, we’ve invited two practicing artists to share some of their experiences selling works on various platforms, including Instagram, art fairs (in-person and online), and their own virtual shops. The moderated conversation will cover a range of practical topics, including:
Maintaining an online presence
Dealing with customers
Assessing shipping strategies
Paying yourself and reinvesting in your practice
Managing work-life boundaries
This workshop will be hosted as a 70-minute Zoom meeting. The panel will run for 45 minutes with 15-25 minutes reserved at the end for questions and conversation with the audience.
This event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Raoul Olou is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. He creates work that references personal experiences, which reveal concepts of nationality, citizenship and race, through the depiction of everyday environments. Formally trained as filmmaker and currently practicing as a self-taught painter for over 10 years, Raoul has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mark Christopher Gallery, and the Run Gallery. He has received several grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Art Council, Ontario Arts Council, and received the Mayor’s Award and the Honorable Painting Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (2019 and 2022). He has been commissioned on several large scale mural projects all over the Greater Toronto Area, working with Mural Routes, KJBit Collective, and through his own independently led projects including a recent City of Toronto commissioned mural. Raoul has also been commissioned on significant private works for the Drake Hotel, the Gladstone, and the Sheraton Hotel. His work has been collected publicly and privately—by the City of Toronto, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the Wedge Collection and has been invited for artist residencies at the Museum of Contemporary Art x Akin Collective, Drake Devonshire, and Annandale Artist Residency.
Shahrzad Amin is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist who exhibits her works nationally and internationally. She creates socially engaging art pieces that invoke thoughts and encourage conversations about socio-cultural issues that surround us. Shahrzad makes original pieces that truly move people to feel intense emotions. Her interest in fundamental social issues such as democracy, equality, and migration has informed an art practice examining diasporic and socio-cultural subjectivities through the lenses of art practice, sensory ethnographic filmmaking, architectural design, gender, and language. Her works also highlight a social openness and necessity for global international connectivity by applying the historical eastern architectural figures such as arch bridges and combining cultural motifs as a metaphor for overcoming cultural distances. She received a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from Tehran University of Art (2010) and an MFA in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design from OCAD University (2020). Notable awards include Research-Creation Grant (Canada Council for the Arts), Exhibition Assistance Grant (Ontario Arts Council), Artscape Foundation Launchpad Bursary, and more.
Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by October 26, 2022. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.
Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].
The RMG would like to acknowledge the RBC Foundation for their generous support of the Artist Professional Development Workshop Series.
Learn how to put your best foot forward with images! In this workshop, we’ll look at editing tools and processes that are relevant to the post-production side of artwork documentation. Whether you’re uploading examples of your work to a grant application, a call for submissions, or your online portfolio, this workshop will help you share accurate and polished images of your work with funders, curators, and others who rely on photo documentation to make important decisions about you and your work.
Topics include:
A review of digital files – what you need to know about resolution and file size
An overview of fundamental photo-editing techniques
An introduction to preparing image files for applications with a discussion about why good quality images matter and how to meet expectations
Please note: This workshop does not cover how to take good pictures, so it won’t cover camera types or settings, accessories, or techniques for capturing accurate colour or lighting. This workshop also isn’t about preparing digital files for print. The goal of this workshop is to provide an overview of post-production tactics for creating high quality digital images that can be used in grant or exhibition applications, or like settings.
This workshop will be hosted as a 70-minute Zoom webinar with an opportunity to ask questions at the end.
Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by September 21, 2022. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.
Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].
About the presenter:
Laura Findlay (she/her) is a Toronto based artist and the owner of LF Documentation. Originally from Montreal, she received her BFA from Concordia University in 2011 and MFA from the University of Guelph in 2014. She’s exhibited work and participated in artist residencies throughout Canada, the US, and Europe and she is represented by Norberg Hall in Calgary, Alberta. Laura has professionally documented artwork and exhibitions for clients throughout southern Ontario, Montreal, and abroad since 2009. Clients include the AGO, RBC Visual Arts Collection, Scotiabank Fine Art Program, Superframe, C Magazine, Oakville Galleries, Scrap Metal Gallery, Daniel Faria Gallery, Bradley Ertaskiran, Arsenal Contemporary, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Galerie Antoine Ertaskaren, Franz Kaka Gallery, and Aargauer Kunsthaus, among others. Her photographs of artwork have appeared in print in Artforum, Border Crossings Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine, C Magazine, Vogue Paris, and Chatelaine, among others. She has served on the juries for international residencies and scholarships.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected].
The RMG would like to acknowledge the RBC Foundation for their generous support of the Artist Professional Development Workshop Series.
Learn about the contest entry guidelines and gain insight into the jurying process with help from RMG staff. We will review the competition’s judging criteria, the competition categories, and answer all of your questions. To register, visit www.oshlib.ca/signup or call 905-579-6111.
About the Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition:
The Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition is co-hosted by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa Senior Community Centres, and the Oshawa Public Libraries. This year’s theme is victory. If you are 55+ and a member of the RMG, Oshawa Senior Community Centres, or the Oshawa Public Libraries, we invite you to submit one artwork for the exhibition. Show us what victory means to you! All mediums are accepted. Prizes are awarded in three categories: Novice, Hobby, and Open.
Attendance at both sessions is not mandatory; however, if you’re new to grant writing and you’re interested in taking part in the guided peer review session, we strongly encourage you to attend Part I: Grant Writing 101. Please note that the deadline to register for the peer review session is April 20.
Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by March 30, 2022. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.
Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].
Part I: Grant Writing 101 with Daniella Sanader
Offering an overview of the funding landscape, this workshop will highlight how grants can support your art practice and projects, how to prepare and manage your time, and where to find key funding opportunities. We’ll also review best practices for budgets and support material and read through a successful grant application to explore useful writing tips you can use in your own applications.
This workshop will be hosted as a Zoom webinar, with a short mid-session break and an opportunity to ask questions at the end.
Part II: Guided Peer Review: Project Proposals
In this facilitated session, you will be paired with another artist to exchange project proposals and provide mutual support through questions and suggestions. We will provide structure and advice for the peer review that will guide your 1:1 breakout rooms and Daniella Sanader will join the call at the end to address any additional questions.
Each participant should come prepared with ONE of the following:
Option A: If you are preparing to apply for a grant and already have a project proposal prepared, bring that draft text for review. The text should be no longer than 500 words.
Option B: If you don’t currently have a grant in mind, you can prepare a hypothetical project proposal using the following prompt: Describe your project. Explain the inspiration for your project or why you wish to undertake it at this time and how this project will contribute to your artistic development. The text should be no longer than 500 words.
Option C: If you recently applied for a grant, but were unsuccessful, you can bring your project proposal from that application. You may have an opportunity to reapply or submit the project for consideration in another grant application. The text should be no longer than 500 words.
Schedule
This workshop will be hosted as a Zoom meeting and will have the following schedule:
6:00-6:10 Welcome and housekeeping
6:10-6:30 Breakout rooms in pairs – participants introduce themselves and exchange texts; read and reflect independently.
6:30-6:45 Partner 1 offers feedback to Partner 2
6:45-7:00 Partner 2 offers feedback to Partner 1
7:00-7:20 Return to the main Zoom room – pairs or individuals can bring questions to the group for more input; Daniella Sanader will join the call to answer questions as well.
About the workshop leader
Daniella Sanader is a writer and reader based in Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Canadian Art, Artforum.com, C Magazine, BlackFlash Magazine, Border Crossings Magazine, Maclean’s, The Brooklyn Rail, esse magazine, and others. Her texts have also been published by a number of galleries and artist-run spaces across Canada and internationally. In January 2018, she was named the annual Emerging Cultural Leader by the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO). She was also a participant in the Critical Art Writing Ensemble III at the Banff Centre in 2018. Currently, she works as a freelance editor, supporting artists, curators, and arts organizations to realize a variety of texts.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected].
The RMG would like to acknowledge the RBC Foundation for their generous support of the Artist Professional Development Workshop Series.
