“Lac La” Oil Pastel and Tin-Can Sculpture Workshop

Join us in the art studio for an oil-pastel making workshop with Vancouver-based artist, Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire.

As part of her expanded painting and sculpture practice, Cardinal Cire creates her own pigments, paints, and oil pastels using foraged, organic and synthetic materials. Working with pigments on raw canvas, her gestures bind to the warp and weft of the canvas rather than sit atop the surface. These works resist painting conventions, positioning Cardinal Cire’s work within a personal and inherited framework wherein a canvas is a shelter, a painting is a textile, and pigment is the land.

In this workshop, Cardinal Cire will share what she has learned about lake and raw pigments, and provide a hands-on demonstration with linseed oil and beeswax to create oil pastels. Each participant will go home with their own oil-pastel stick and contribute to a sculptural work called “Lac La,” on display in the artist’s exhibition In Plains Air.

The artwork, “Lac La”, is composed of oil-pastel sculptures cast in tin cans. These sculptures refer to food eaten in the bush, and more poetically, to recipes, forms of sustenance, and vessels for berries and medicine from Cardinal Cire’s experiences in the bush on her ancestral homelands on Treaty 6 Territory.

Registration is open to 8 participants. Lunch will be served at 12pm.

This event is free. Please register to attend. If there is anything we can do to support your participation, please reach out to greta hamilton, TD Assistant Curator at [email protected]

Register

Following the workshop, participants are invited to stay for an opening reception of In Plains Air, from 1-4pm, which will feature an artist-led tour of the exhibition.

Facilitator Bio Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire is a visual artist born and raised on Treaty 6 territory of central Alberta. Cire’s work talks with the culture that raised her: her kokom’s lineage of Beaver Lake Cree Nation and her moshom’s Métis lineage. These conversations oscillate between the terrains of paint, beads and textiles, focusing on place and enlivening material associations. Here, relations speak about language and memory, where it can be found, and what it says when it reaches.

Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire, Tante, dry earth pigments on raw canvas, 66”x 49”, 2026. Courtesy of the artist.

Fall Exhibitions Opening: Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire: In Plains Air, Everyday Matters, and Recent Acquisitions: Abstraction

On September 26^th, join us to celebrate the opening of Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire: In Plains Air, and two new permanent collection exhibitions: Everyday Matters, and Recent Acquisitions: Abstraction.

An official welcome will be delivered in the lobby at 1:30pm, followed by an artist talk with Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire in the exhibition In Plains Air, and a curatorial tour in the exhibition Everyday Matters, with Sonya Jones.

Refreshments will be served.

Prior to the opening, Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire will host a workshop focused on the process of making oil pastels from raw pigment. From 10am -12pm, participants are invited to learn alongside the artist in this theoretical and hands-on workshop. Limited to 8 registrants; lunch will be provided. Register for the workshop here. This event is free and open to everyone. To better support your participation and access needs, please contact greta hamilton, TD Assistant Curator, at [email protected]

Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire, Tante (Detail), dry earth pigments on raw canvas, 66”x 49”, 2026. Courtesy of the artist.
Robert Bourdeau (Canadian, b.1931); Ontario, Canada (Detail); 1978/1985; silver gelatin print on paper mounted on mat board 3/30; Gift of Sean Bourdeau, 2016
Julia Dault (Canadian, b. 1977); Jazz Hands (Detail); 2014; acrylic and oil on canvas in painted wood frame; Gift of Robert Desjardins and Pamela Dinsmore, 2024

RMG Garden Party

You’re invited to the RMG Garden Party!

Join us in the RMG Backyard on Sunday, August 9, from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM for a day of art, nature, live music, planting, pollinators, and community connection.

Activities will be hosted by Oshawa Garden Club, who have also planted beautiful planters throughout the Backyard, including a sensory garden for visitors to explore. Guests can learn about native plants, pollinator habitats, and garden care while enjoying hands-on creative activities, artwork, and a magic kaleidoscope.

We will also be joined by two David Suzuki Butterflyway Rangers, who will be on site to answer questions about pollinator habitats, native plants, and nature-based community action.

Presented with support from TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, with activities from Oshawa Garden Club and The LivingRoom Community Art Studio. First 10 guests will receive a special gift bag.

Bring your own lawn chair or blanket and settle in for the afternoon.

Come spend the day with us in the Backyard.

About the Butterflyway Rangers

Butterflyway Rangers are volunteers who lead local efforts to create pollinator habitat and bring people together around nature-based action. Rangers organize small teams, support garden projects and help establish a Butterflyways in their communities.

Rangers are community builders, educators and habitat creators. They don’t need to be gardening experts — just people who care, are willing to learn and are excited to work with others. Rangers receive online training from David Suzuki Foundation staff and guest experts and have access to online toolkits, resources and seasonal guidance. Rangers also can connect to a national network of Rangers through webinars, online meetups and regional gatherings.

Learn more here.

Supported by

Community partners

Recent Acquisitions: Abstraction

Abstract art has been a part of the RMG’s Permanent Collection story from its foundation. The collection was founded in 1967 with an initial donation of 37 works by Alexandra Luke. The artworks included in this gift shaped the RMG’s early focus on the abstract collective Painters Eleven and contemporary Canadian art and laid the groundwork for one of Canada’s most significant collections of abstract art.

This exhibition presents contemporary abstraction acquired over the past five years that demonstrate our continued commitment to telling the ongoing history of abstraction in Canada. These acquisitions broaden that history by embracing a wider range of voices and perspectives, demonstrating how abstraction is an evolving and dynamic genre of art.

Everyday Matters

In our busy lives, it is easy to overlook the beauty found in ordinary objects and moments that shape our daily existence. A simple meal, daily chores, and familiar household objects are often dismissed as mundane and given little aesthetic value.

This exhibition explores how artists capture the aesthetics of everyday life through depictions of common objects, quiet moments, and scenes of daily life. Some of the selected works are examples of the art historical traditions of still life and genre painting. Still life painting focuses on inanimate, everyday objects, often using them symbolically to reflect on themes of mortality, abundance, and the passage of time. Genre painting, meanwhile, celebrates scenes of domestic life and labour, revealing the significance of ordinary human experience. Both artistic traditions use the familiar to explore deeper truths about life and society. Contemporary artists continue this exploration, using everyday subjects to reflect the complexities and nuances of human experience.

Drawn from the Permanent Collection, the artworks in this exhibition invite viewers to reconsider what is worthy of notice and to reflect on how everyday matters shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Lana Yuan: RBC Emerging Artist Residency Exhibition

During her residency, Lana Yuan will develop a new sculptural project that examines how loneliness, routine, and displacement are inscribed onto the body through the patterned behaviours of urban life. Working across digital fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and laser cutting, alongside hand assembly and lathe work, she will construct installations that oscillate between rigidity and softness, conveying the tension she has observed in urban environments between emotional distance and physical closeness. Drawing material inspiration from Oshawa’s industrial history and social rhythms, she will salvage and repurpose found objects into sculptural forms. This new work will explore the unintentional connections we form with each other through repetition and proximity overtime.

Artist Bio:
Lana Yuan is a Critical Making and Makerspace Assistant at York University’s Markham Campus Library, and an artist working across sculpture, kinetic works, and interactive installation. Her recent interests focus on combining sculptural practice with digital technologies such as parametric modeling and 3D printing. Her work explores patterned behaviours within urban environments, with attention to how quiet intimacy, routine, and proximity shape human experience. She recently began incorporating digital fabrication processes to translate datasets and systems into material forms. Lana graduated from the University of Toronto and has exhibited at venues including the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, and Red Head Gallery. She is the recipient of the 2022–2023 401 Career Launcher Prize, and her work has been supported by the Toronto Arts Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council.

Annual General Meeting

Join us for The Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, June 17, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m.

This year’s AGM is an opportunity to gather as a community, celebrate the work of the RMG, and reflect on a meaningful year of exhibitions, programs, partnerships, and public impact. Guests are invited to enjoy refreshments, take part in a brief curatorial tour of Sukaina Kubba: Not Soft by Nature, hear staff presentations highlighting our work in 2025, and help us welcome new members to the RMG Board of Directors.

To celebrate the occasion, we are pleased to offer 20 free RMG individual memberships to the first 20 guests. These memberships may be used to renew your own membership or, for current members, gifted to someone else. RMG membership also includes participation in the Galleries Ontario / Ontario Association of Art Galleries reciprocal membership program, providing access to many public art galleries across Ontario at no cost.

Schedule

5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Refreshments in the Lobby

6:00 to 6:20 p.m.
Curatorial Tour of Sukaina Kubba: Not Soft by Nature

6:40 to 7:15 p.m.
Annual General Meeting and Staff Presentations in Arthur’s

Installation of Sukaina Kubba: Not Soft by Nature at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2026. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.

We look forward to welcoming you, sharing our story, and celebrating the gallery’s continued role as a vibrant public art gallery for Oshawa and Durham Region.

Mother’s Day Tea 2026 with Farm and Wild

We are pleased to present Farm and Wild, hosting Mother’s Day High Tea in Arthur’s this year.

Join us for a delightful weekend to celebrate the mothers and caretakers in our lives. Chef Daniel Bresca will present for you a curated selection of treats and beverages, in a beautiful setting waiting for you.

Whether you’re gathering with family or treating someone special, we invite you to relax, indulge, and make lasting memories together.

Spots limited.

Register on their website

On the day of the event, ticketholders will receive 10% off a purchase in our gift shop on regular priced items. Not including books or member pricing, in store only.

Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition 2026: Opening and Awards Reception

Join us at 2:30pm for the opening reception of That Summer: Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition. Prizes will be awarded in three categories: Novice, Hobby, and Open.

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

The Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition is co-hosted by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa Senior Community Centres, and the Oshawa Public Libraries. Seniors programming has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Sienna for Seniors Foundation.

Backyard Story Time at the RMG

Experience the magic of outdoor story time at the art gallery! Through books, songs, games, and creative activities, storytellers from Oshawa Public Libraries will spark your imagination in The Backyard at the RMG!

This event is free and no registration is required.

Backyard Story Time at the RMG is hosted by, and offered in partnership with, Oshawa Public Libraries.