This exhibition was produced in partnership with Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences.

In February, we partnered with Jordon Beenen, Ian Hakes, and Lori Lane-Murphy, Ambassadors of Hope for Ontario Shores Centre of Mental Health Sciences, to develop a community-driven Painters Eleven exhibition. At the RMG we believe partnerships create important opportunities to positively reflect the creativity and diversity of our communities, and help deepen engagement with our Permanent Collection.

A central part of the RMG’s Permanent Collection is a significant number of works by Painters Eleven, a collective of abstract artists, who founded their group at Alexandra Luke’s cottage located on the boundary of Oshawa and Whitby, not far from Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences. Abstract expressionist works are often created with a spirit of spontaneity and the bold use of colour and form can evoke different emotions. The immediacy and affective qualities of the work drew Jordon, Lori, and Ian to engage with Painters Eleven, allowing them to connect to the work through the lens of mental illness. They each chose works that resonated with them personally and creatively responded, expressing their stories, through writing, art, and performance.

Throughout this collaboration Jordon, Ian and Lori shared stories of their lived experience with mental illness, explored Painters Eleven, and participated in the exhibition development. The resulting exhibition, In Our Minds, includes personal reflections and highlights the power and importance of art to drive community conversation about mental illness. This partnership has been one of meaningful exchanges, relationship building, openness, and enlightenment—a journey that has left a lasting impression on participants and staff alike.

 

 

This exhibition was produced in partnership with the Oshawa Senior Citizen’s Camera Club

This exhibition marks the 5th installment of the Then and Now series, a collaboration with the Oshawa Senior Citizens’ Camera Club. This project focuses on the importance of local businesses and social services and how they contribute to a vibrant and flourishing community. Inspired by historical images from the Thomas Bouckley Collection that depict proud merchants posed by their businesses, members of the Camera Club have continued this tradition by photographing current business and service locations. These photographs will then be added to the Thomas Bouckley Collection in order to stay true to Bouckley’s vision of capturing the continued evolution of Oshawa.

The BIA describes downtown Oshawa as “a vibrant mix of business, culture, entertainment and academia; a place where people come to work, learn, live, enjoy art and music, watch live sporting events, meet for drinks and enjoy great food.” The various locations depicted in this exhibition captures the feeling and purpose of a downtown core, and highlights the people who make it possible.

Thank you to the businesses and services for their enthusiasm and participation in the project. Special thanks goes to the Oshawa Senior Citizens’ Camera Club for their dedication in telling the continuing story of Oshawa in their exploration of yesterday and today.

2019 marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War. Women were recruited en masse to fill vacated positions left by men who were oversea fighting, particularly within the ammunitions industry. This exhibition explores the trailblazing working women of Durham Region who worked in factories, as nurses, and everything in between.

This exhibition explores industrial imagery in visual art from the RMG’s Permanent Collection. Since the early 20th Century, artists have embraced industry as a subject for various reasons, from a fascination and commentary on an evolving society and workforce, to simply being drawn to the formal qualities of industrial and mechanical structures.

Industrial images in art reflect the robust and ever-changing nature of a country in transition. The art in this exhibition shows the evolution of society from rural to urban, and from agricultural to industry.

Industrial architecture offers a unique formal and technical challenge to artists working with traditional media. Buildings, both interior and exterior, present a visual complexity of pipes, ducts, silos, and chimney-stacks. In works that depict exterior rural scenes, such as Yvonne McKague Housser’s Mine Elevator, these forms and structures look out of place in the natural landscape, their towering presence a reminder of the industry’s importance to the community in which it exists.

Once called the “Manchester of Canada” and “Canada’s Motor City”, Oshawa has historically been associated with industrial growth. The artists in this exhibition found inspiration in the changing mechanization of society as reflected in industrial growth and the changing world around them.