The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, a cornerstone of Oshawa’s vibrant arts community, is pleased to welcome Alix Voz as our new Chief Executive Officer. Voz will officially join the gallery on June 2, 2025. We are also pleased to announce that Rose Rockbrune has joined the team as our new Director, Finance and Operations.

With over ten years of experience in the arts and non-profit sectors, Voz brings a deep commitment to cultural leadership, education, and community building. Most recently, she served as the Gallery Director + Curator at Cambridge Art Galleries, where she expanded public access to the arts and significantly grew organizational support.

“On behalf of the RMG, it’s staff and the Board of Directors, I am thrilled to announce and welcome Alix Voz as our new CEO” says Kegan Winters, Chair of the Board of Directors. “Alix brings to the role a wealth of experience and a vision for the future that is perfectly aligned with the RMG’s strategic plan, our values and our culture of care. I would also like to welcome Rose Rockbrune as our new DFO. As a CPA and an active member of the Oshawa community, Rose brings extensive experience from the public and private sectors, and we are glad to have her join the team.

As we look forward to Alix joining us, I would like to extend gratitude and thanks to our Senior Curator and Interim CEO, Leila Timmins. During this time of transition, Leila has been providing strong leadership and stability to the organization, and we are deeply appreciative of this.”

“I’m very excited to be joining the incredible team at the RMG” say Alix Voz. “I’ve long admired the gallery’s commitment to artists, community, and care, and I’m truly honoured to become part of its next chapter. I look forward to listening, learning, and collaborating as we continue building a vibrant and inclusive space for creativity and connection.”

There will be a reception to welcome Alix Voz to the RMG at the AGM on Wednesday, June 18. Need to sign up or renew your membership? Click here.

We are pleased to present four new exhibitions this spring!

Click here to plan your visit.

In November 2024, the gallery was honoured to receive funding from Partners in Art (PIA) to support Pickering-based artist Christina Leslie’s first major museum solo exhibition Likkle Acts and its related programming. Featuring four series of photographs, the exhibition delves into themes of memory and migration, as well as looking at the history of the transatlantic slave trade and its ties to the sugar industry. Set in Jamaica, each body of work explores the artist’s familial relationships and the complex history of the Caribbean. The RMG is proud to present this powerful exhibition by a local artist, and grateful for the support of PIA to allow us to share this work with our community.

The financial support from PIA was also instrumental in allowing us to activate the exhibition with a range of public and private events. The exhibition’s programs have created opportunities for visitors to celebrate Caribbean and diasporic identities, confront the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, and to engage with the materiality of Leslie’s innovative and experimental practice. As a springboard for important conversations, these talks, tours and workshops enable children, adults, and artists to explore important questions and insights, from the artist and one another.

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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.

About Partners in Art
Partners in Art is a Canadian charitable organization that funds and champions contemporary visual art through philanthropy, volunteerism and education. Since 2002, PIA’s model of collective philanthropy has funded bold, innovative, contemporary arts projects to champion thoughtful perspectives on our world and drive social change. PIA actively collaborates with Canadian curators, educators, art organizations and museums. Having raised over $6.1 million and supported over 146 different projects, PIA focuses on funding projects featuring contemporary artists with challenging works. Annual member donations, fundraising events and public donations make PIA’s work possible. Learn more here.

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We are pleased to present four new exhibitions this winter!

After five years at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG), Lauren Gould will be stepping down as CEO in February 2025. Lauren joined the RMG on March 16, 2020, the first day of lockdown, at the beginning of the pandemic. While this made for an unexpected beginning, Lauren was able to navigate this time with proficiency and grace, establishing a deep culture of care for the gallery staff, Board, artists, and community. 

During her time as the RMG’s leader, Lauren completed many important initiatives including the renewal of organizational policies, the realization of The Backyard Community Arts Greenspace, and the strengthening of the financial health of the gallery through growing revenue, eliminating the deficit, and developing an internally restricted reserve. 

“Lauren‘s abilities as a caring, strategic, impactful and inspiring leader, and her passion for the arts have been deeply felt by the staff, Board, and the entire community that the RMG serves.  She has accomplished many great things during her tenure with the gallery.  Her stewardship and completion of many key initiatives leaves the organization better positioned to thrive in the future. While Lauren will most certainly be missed, we wish her well and look forward to seeing what new challenges she takes on next!” says Kegan Winters, Chair of the RMG’s Board of Directors.

“I know I speak for the entire staff team when I say that Lauren will be deeply missed. Her kindness, accountability and care for the staff have made a lasting impact on the gallery. I am grateful to have worked with a leader that embodies the values of the RMG and so thankful for all that she has done to strengthen the gallery, actively support artists, and build relationships within the community,” shares Leila Timmins, Senior Curator.

“I am fortunate to have worked with such a dedicated, joyous, creative group of people.  Serving as the leader of the RMG has been my honour and given me great joy.  The feeling of this place and space, its grounding in care, and belief in the power of the arts is truly remarkable.   I have deep gratitude for each and every person I’ve connected with during my time at the gallery,” said Lauren Gould, “The RMG has a bright and brilliant future!”

Lauren, the Board of Directors, and senior staff will be working to ensure a smooth transition in leadership in the months ahead.  The Board of Directors has struck an ad-hoc Transition Committee that will lead the search for a new CEO alongside Searchlight Partners.  The posting can be found on the Searchlight Partners’ website.

The RMG is a place where we want everyone to feel like they belong.  It is also a space for many to reflect, learn, engage in dialogue, and connect.  During these complex global times, we believe art can play an important role in understanding our world and in healing.  We have cultivated a culture of care that considers how we care for each other, artists, and our communities.

Recently, there have been a number of high-profile incidents of censorship of artists and arts workers in our sector worldwide with regards to Israel-Palestine, particularly Pro-Palestine perspectives.  This has prompted us to make a statement so that past, current, and future partners and artists understand our stance.  The RMG also wanted to share how we’re taking action internally to support our team who have been affected by the ongoing atrocities.

The RMG does not tolerate any form of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia.  One of our organizational values is Equity and Justice.  We are dedicated to integrating anti-oppressive and anti-racist processes throughout all facets of our work.  You can read more about our vision, mission, and values here and our Equity Public Statement and annual update here. 

There is a protected freedom of expression in Canada.  We recognize our team members, and others that the RMG works with, may be advocates for equity and social justice or be involved in activism outside of the RMG. We support the fundamental freedom of expression.  Similarly, we do not condone hate speech or discrimination based on the identifiers in the Ontario Human Rights Code. 

We support our team and understand that at times it can feel difficult to carry on business as usual.  As such, we may pause our communications at times, we will continue to provide personal emergency leave days or necessary wellness breaks for staff, and we will align with partners who uphold our values.  

A new interactive map developed through a TeachingCity Oshawa collaboration with Durham College and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG) is highlighting public art in Oshawa.

The mobile-friendly map allows Oshawa residents and visitors to interact with six public art pieces in the city’s downtown core:

1. Crown, Douglas Bentham;
2. grace, Mary Anne Barkhouse;
3. Group Portrait 1957, Douglas Coupland;
4. Reverb, Noel Harding;
5. River Tree/Bench, Reinhard Reitzenstein; and,
6. Upstart II, Clement Meadmore.

At each artwork, community members can scan the featured Q.R. code to read and/or listen to learn more about the artist, the artwork, and more.

The interactive elements of Group Portrait 1957 by Douglas Coupland have been taken one step further to incorporate an augmented reality (A.R.) component. The A.R. experience provides further interpretive information about the sculpture in a fun and engaging way.

The interactive map was developed by students from the Interactive Media Design and Contemporary Web Design programs at Durham College with input from The RMG and City of Oshawa to showcase public art.

Art enthusiasts can collect unique badges in the app while interacting with the artwork through the map. After collecting all six badges, community members can show the badges at the RMG for a free prize.

Learn more about TeachingCity at teachingcityoshawa.ca and follow #OshTeachingCity on Twitter and Instagram.

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“A new chapter of public art in the great city of Oshawa has come to life through another transformative TeachingCity collaboration,” said Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter. “An engaging experience for residents and visitors alike, the interactive map will highlight the City of Oshawa’s commitment to arts and culture, accessibility and engagement.”

“We were so pleased to partner with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery on this project giving Durham College students an opportunity to apply their classroom learning to support community engagement. I am proud of their work and I know that our community will enjoy this digital application for years to come,” said Don Lovisa, President, Durham College.

“We are so excited to showcase public art in this new virtual format,” said Lauren Gould, CEO, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. “Public art activates the imagination and encourages people to experience their surroundings in a new way. This new digital experience provides a fun and engaging way to learn about the art in our community. We hope it inspires the community to visit the gallery and see even more art!”

Please join us in welcoming multidisciplinary artist Noah Scheinman to the RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program! During his residency at the RMG, Noah will continue his ongoing research into the social and environmental impacts of nuclear power in Canada and work towards a new exhibition of sculpture and audiovisual installation. To learn more about Noah’s artistic practice and his plans for the incubator lab, visit his profile and read his blog post below!

My name is Noah Scheinman, and I’m a multidisciplinary artist with a research-based practice that includes work in sculpture, installation, moving image, photography, and design. I have a tendency to pursue long, self-initiated, and multi-stage projects that use art and media as material and conceptual paradigms for investigating the complex and contested environments of the Anthropocene—how they are imagined, constructed, maintained, resisted, and ultimately fall into ruin. In this context, ruin doesn’t imply simply disappearance or decay, but rather indicates the enduring afterlives of (industrial) modernity as it continues to haunt contemporary and future landscapes through legacies of contamination, colonialism, and the commodification and instrumentalization of natural worlds. One of these projects, Timber Limits, explores the histories, epistemologies, and political ecologies of forests and the timber industry in so-called Canada (and its global reach), while in another I use speculative geo-fiction to consider lithographic narratives of concrete as it became the material and metaphorical basis for rapid postwar urbanization.

The work proposed for my residency at the RMG emerges from another ongoing research trajectory, The Legacy of Matter, which engages artistic methodologies to map Canada’s Postnuclear Landscape—the network of geographic sites which have been irrevocably transformed by the extraction, processing, transportation, use, and storage of atomic materials. What is called “clean energy” also produces a host of damaging socio-ecological externalities that have and will continue to impact human and more-than-human worlds for generations to come. This includes northern locations where uranium is mined, laboratories where nuclear technologies have been tested (sometimes in forests and ponds!), and communities where proposals for the long-term storage of radioactive waste have the potential to forever reshape the land and its relations. While research and travel to each individual site informs a video-essay and accompanying sculptural installation that unpacks the unique features of a local place, it is when these artworks/locations are considered together that connections are made that reveal larger systematic patterns of environmental violence. This is not the spectacular destruction of exploding bombs and reactor meltdowns, but rather (to borrow from the scholar Rob Nixon) the slow, incremental violence of difficult-to-perceive processes that do their work over extended periods of time.

In residence, I will continue this work by focusing on the particular historical conditions of Oshawa and the regional municipality of Durham as they relate to the production of nuclear energy, the shores of Lake Ontario, the increasing obsolescence of combustion engines, and questions of containment, exposure, and toxicity when ideologies and bodies clash and mingle in unruly mixtures of earth and time. This research program will be loosely organized around five thematic clusters:

1) Sound, geography, and jurisdiction

2) Energy regimes and material cultures

3) Invisible visibilities/visible invisibilities

4) Environmental histories of nuclear architectures

5) Radioactive water and the shoreline

Through these interconnected groupings I will investigate such events as the Gunshot Treaty of 1789, which established the northern boundary of British control in the area using the acoustic reach of a musket shot from the shoreline, the environmental implications (past, present, future) of locating nuclear generating stations in close proximity to Lake Ontario, and the ways the nuclear regime is simultaneously visible (material and architectural) and invisible (unseen radioactivity and secretive) and sometimes a weird hybrid/paradox of the two.

Informed by research and thinking on these topics, which also includes significant fieldwork, I intend to produce an audiovisual installation and pursue several lines of sculptural experimentation which poetically bring together a range of ideas and processes that address the symbols, spaces, and socio-natures of the region’s constantly changing environment… But more on that later. For now I wanted to sign off by expressing my gratitude for the opportunity to embed within the community of Oshawa and by inviting anyone with an interest in visual art, film, ecology, energy, infrastructure, fashion, rocks, baseball, and swimming to visit the RMG and drop by the incubator lab to chat about life and see what I’m working on. My project is not so much about being pro- or anti-nuclear, but rather motivated by a desire to reflect on the rich constellation of issues that attend this major development in the history of the earth. It is a challenge to myself and others to consider the nuclear regime beyond reductive and binary arguments of, for, or against, and instead focus on how it intersects with systems of power and the long-term health of the places where it materializes.