From the collaborators of the four-part Anti-Indigenous Racism Panel Series, we are joining as a collective again for a one-night, in-person event!
We invite you to come celebrate the creativity of the local Indigenous community through music, poetry, and dance performances.
Presented in partnership with the Durham Region, Durham Public Libraries, Durham College, Durham College Student Association, Ontario Tech University, and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, with support from the Durham District School Board and the Durham Catholic District School Board.
Light refreshments will be provided for this free, drop-in event.
The RMG is wheelchair accessible. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Erin Szikora at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by October 20, 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.
The RMG strives to make our building, collections, exhibitions, and programs accessible to people of all abilities. If there are other ways we can support your participation, please reach out to Erin at [email protected] We welcome your feedback.
Guided by our talented Learning + Engagement Assistant, Farah Hoosain, you will be encouraged to explore new techniques, work with a variety of materials, and express your unique personality through art. Each week’s activity is influenced by the artistic trends of youth in the local community to provide a positive outlet in a safe and inclusive environment. We will play around with printmaking, sculpting, painting, and more!
As a pilot program, refreshments and materials will be provided at no cost to participants.
Feeling connected is a fundamental psychological need. In nature, ecosystems depend on interactions and connections in order to thrive. Similarly, humans flourish through connections that are physical, emotional, and social. However, the desire to connect can go beyond relationships. As we have seen through the pandemic, there are benefits to connecting to nature—it can calm your nervous system and help to experience the world around you more deeply. Exploring personal and collective histories can also connect us with our roots, and situate us within the wider community. It provides a sense of belonging and understanding that can help shape perspectives and a sense of self.
Sean McQuay (Canadian, b.1956), Island Pipes (The Maither/The Faither), 1992, oil on canvas. Purchase, 1993.
The RMG believes that art cultivates connected and caring communities, and engagement with the Permanent Collection plays an important role in fostering this. With over 4,700 artworks, the shape and understanding of the Collection is continuously evolving through the acquisition of new work and exploration within exhibitions. This thematic Permanent Collection exhibition takes inspiration from the title of a new acquisition by Shellie Zhang entitled The Ties that Bind.
Shellie Zhang (Canadian, b. Beijing 1991), The Ties that Bind, 2018, chromogenic print. Purchase of the RMG, 2021.
After two years of feeling disconnected, this exhibition pulls together artwork that reflects on the different ways we seek connections, whether through relationships, finding peace and perspective in nature, or exploring shared histories.
Celebrate the opening of the new Permanent Collection exhibition The Ties That Bind by renewing connections at RMG Fridays! Come with an old friend, make a new friend, and discover new musicians and filmmakers at the first indoor RMG Fridays since winter 2020.
7:00 – Doors open
7:30 – Performance by EQUAL
8:15 – Tour of The Ties That Bind
8:45 – Performance by L CON
Downstairs in the Lookout
Films from DRIFF will be playing throughout the evening at 7:15pm, 8pm, and 9pm.
Black Bag (10 mins)
Directed by Lee Foster
Two US Marines are trapped behind enemy lines with vague mission objectives, and an even more mysterious package.
The Other Side (8mins)
Directed by Jordan Settembrini
An enthusiastic hiker leads his city-boy friend through a strange forest, after claiming to have found the discovery of a lifetime. It is soon learned that some things are better left undiscovered.
Each screening features special Q&A time with the Filmmakers from both films!
Lisa Conway-Bühler (b. 1988, Canada) is a Swiss-Canadian composer, sound artist, songwriter, producer, and mix engineer. Her recordings have been described as “ethereal, minimalist, experimental, unnerving…and downright elegant” (AUX), with the Toronto Star claiming, “Conway is bound for greatness, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.”
An artist who continually tries to push herself into the unfamiliar, her multifaceted CV includes original scores and songs for documentaries, short films, and theatre productions, site-specific multi-channel sound and light installations, collaborations with contemporary dancers and performance artists, and an array of renowned creative residencies. She is an alumni of the final Red Bull Music Academy (2018, Berlin), as well as the Canadian Film Centre’s year-long Slaight Music Residency (2016).
Saleen and Chelsea, 20 and 22 years old, believe that having a platform means using it to do good – and what a platform it has become. With musical stylings evocative of First Aid Kit and Taylor Swift, the duo have caught the eyes of industry greats Kim Cooke, Dave Bashk, and Dan CLancy of Revolution Recording Studios, Sum 41, and Lighthouse.
Durham’s Best Band (2018) has been described as ‘lyrically sophisticated’, ‘raw and emotional’, featuring ‘excellent harmonies and songwriting’. Look for music that matters? You’ve found it. Meet Equal.
Special thanks to DRIFF in a Jiff and Canada Council and the Arts Reopening Fund for their support with this event. We acknowledge the financial support of Canada’s private radio broadcasters.
The Sire of Siresis a new video work by Jordan Elliot Prosser produced during his artist residency at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. A loose adaption of L’Après-midi d’un faune – first a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé (1876), then a symphony by Claude Debussy (1894), and then a ballet by Vaslav Nijinsky (1912) – The Sire of Siresis the latest chapter in Prosser’s expanding video series mapping personal and collective histories of Oshawa. In earlier works, Prosser turned to local landmarks such as General Motors and Parkwood Estate to reflect on the city’s precarious post-industrial identity. In this new work, he considers another performance-driven business that took root in Oshawa in the 20th century: Windfields Farm.
Through the late 20th-century, E.P. Taylor’s horse breeding enterprise at Windfields was the leading producer of Thoroughbreds in Canada, the most famous of which, Northern Dancer, was the first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby. He retired as a sought-after studding horse at Windfields in 1965, ultimately siring the dominant lineage of Thoroughbreds world wide and earning him the title “sire of sires.” Many of Northern Dancer’s descendants achieved success in both racing and breeding, including his son Nijinsky whose namesake, Vaslav Nijinsky, was a prominent originator of modern ballet in the 20th-century.
In 1912, Nijinsky dramatized Mallarmé’s poem L’Après-midi d’un faune in a lyrical tableau set to Debussy. The original poem takes the form of an erotic monologue written from the perspective of a mythological faun on a summer’s afternoon. In Prosser’s film, the central figure journeys through Windfields’ defunct farm buildings and its surrounding suburban landscapes in a plaster horse mask. They explore the transformed rural pastures in ways that are at times curious and searching, and in others, bored and languishing. In addition to capturing a sense of this place, Prosser is interested in considering the ways that lineage and reproduction are valued in Oshawa’s industrial histories and civic identity. By drawing on the creative lineages of Mallarmé, Debussy, and Nijinsky, Prosser awkwardly inserts himself within these traditions, exploring the relationship between reproduction, legacy, and identity.
Jordan Elliott Prosser (b. 1991, Oshawa, Canada) is a multi-media artist who uses documentary methods to study the architecture of subjective experience. He received a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Waterloo, and studied Literary, Musical, & Visual Thought at the European Graduate School. His work has been shown at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Hearth Garage, and Crutch CAC.
This exhibition is supported by the RBC Foundation’s RBC Emerging Artist Project.
Born in 1926 in Vancouver, BC, Kazuo Nakamura was interested in art at an early age. As a teenager, he would pour over his uncle’s Japanese art magazines and explore the city with a sketchbook in hand. In 1939, he began his formal art training at the Vancouver Technical Secondary School where he was taught by Jock Macdonald—an artist known for his modernist approach and a future fellow member of Painters Eleven. In 1941, his art training was cut short when he and his family were sent to a Japanese internment camp in Tashme, BC. Between doing labour in the camp and attending high school classes in the evening, Nakamura still found time to sketch and paint. He and his family spent two years interned before the Canadian government forcefully relocated them to Hamilton. Nakamura would eventually settle in Toronto where he picked up his formal art training again at the Central Technical School (1948-1951). In Toronto, he quickly became a part of the Toronto art scene thanks to his relationship with both Albert Franck and Jock Macdonald.
Photograph of Kazuo Nakamura at Painters Eleven in Retrospect exhibition opening, 1972, at the RMG.
Kazuo Nakamura was a founding member of Painters Eleven (1953-60), Ontario’s first abstract art collective. In 1953, he was approached by William Ronald to participate in the Abstracts at Home exhibition that played a central role in the formation of Painters Eleven that same year. Although sharing in the other members’ use of abstraction, Nakamura’s work was distinguished within the group by his use of more subdued brushstrokes, simpler structures and monochromatic palette. When reflecting on the influence of Painters Eleven to his art, Nakamura believed he benefited most from the opportunities for exhibition. He also developed lasting relationships that continued post the disbanding of the group.
Kazuo Nakamura (Japanese Canadian, 1926-2002), Number Structure 2, 1983, oil on linen. Courtesy of the Estate of Kazuo Nakamura.
Nakamura’s fascination with science and mathematics is evident throughout his career through his use of patterns, linear perspectives, and geometric forms. From the earliest landscapes and abstractions to his later mathematical explorations, Nakamura was seeking patterns in nature. He considered his most important work to be his Number Structure series, done later in his career, where he explored how the language of numbers reveal patterns and structures in the natural world. Curator Dennis Reid summed up what Nakamura was seeking: “Kaz was passionate about understanding the universe he lived in and conveying that understanding to others.” Nakamura’s Number Structure series connects all of his artistic explorations together, directly linking his interest in science and art. In 1956, Nakamura explained in an interview with art critic Robert Fulford his belief that science and art are deeply connected: “…I think there’s a sort of fundamental universal pattern in all art and nature… In a sense, scientists and artists are doing the same thing. This world of pattern is the world we are discovering together.”
Kazuo Nakamura (Japanese Canadian 1926 – 2002), Morning Landscape, 1953, ink wash on paper. Purchase, 1991.
Drawing primarily from the RMG’s permanent collection, this exhibition pulls together works that reflect the scope of Nakamura’s artistic career and his constant search for truth and understanding of the world around him.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is very excited to host our first artisan market of the year in partnership with the City of Oshawa and we’d like to invite you to join us as a vendor!
Our market will be conducted indoors, alongside the Oshawa Merry & Bright Festival, and will provide a spectacular view of the Tree Lighting ceremony.
Featuring high-quality artisans from across the GTA, we strive to provide a unique and local shopping experience this holiday season. If you are interested please fill out an application here. All vendors must complete our application package by October 12, 2022.
All questions regarding the application process should be directed to:
Emeraude Domingos-Mbuku Development & Membership Lead
Coming from Toronto? We have organized a bus to bring you to and from the opening! Pick up will be in front of OCADU at 100 McCaul St at 12:30PM. The bus will leave the RMG to return to OCADU at 3:45PM. Please fill out this form toreserve a spot on the bus.
On October 1, we are celebrating two new exhibitions at the RMG:
Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné, still from Communicating Vessels, HD Video, 2020.
The Beyond Within
Annie MacDonell
September 24, 2022 – February 12, 2023
Curated by: Crystal Mowry and Leila Timmins Organized and produced in partnership with the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery
At 2:15, Annie MacDonell will deliver a tour of her exhibition with Leila Timmins.
The Beyond Within is an exhibition of recent work by Toronto-based artist Annie MacDonell, exploring feminist conceptions of the everyday as a basis for political engagement with the world. In two videos made in collaboration with Paris-based artist Maïder Fortuné, pedagogical roles are underwritten by radical forms of intimacy. OUTHERE (For Lee Lozano) and Communicating Vessels consider the potential for dissolving an isolated sense of self through friendship and art making. MacDonell’s new film installation, Set and Setting, continues this exploration by juxtaposing animated drawings sourced from early psychedelic research trials with architectural sets that recall institutional examination rooms. The piece suggests that the boundary between subject and viewer is not only thin, but porous and continuously shifting. Through these collaborative video projects and new installations, MacDonell asks whether it is possible, within static institutions and other familiar containers, to follow radical detours that create possibilities to build our worlds anew.
The Sire of Sires
Jordan Elliot Prosser
October 1 – November 13, 2022
Curated by: Hannah Keating
Informed by the legacy of landmarks like General Motors, Jordan Elliot Prosser’s recent projects have documented Oshawa’s uncertain identity as a post-industrial suburban community. In The Sire of Sires, he turns to another performance-driven industry that took root in Oshawa: E.P. Taylor’s enterprise at Windfields Farm. As the leading producer of thoroughbreds in Canada, Windfields produced Northern Dancer, who was first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby and the most influential stallion in North America. Upon retirement, Northern Dancer became a sought-after studding horse with many of his descendants achieving success as both racehorses and sires. One of those sons, Nijinsky, was named after a famous 20th-century Russian ballet dancer who prophesized he would be reborn as a horse. This unusual and unlikely tie between Oshawa and Vaslav Nijinsky inspired Prosser’s new video The Sire of Sires, which he shot at Windfields Farm and features a character from Nijinsky’s ballet L’Après-midi d’un faune (1912). The ballet itself was created in response to two other works of art by the same name: a symphony (1894) by Claude Debussy and a poem (1876) by Stéphane Mallarmé. Accordingly, The Sire of Sires reflects on the theme of reproduction, as it relates to artistic inheritance and Prosser’s sprawling record of this place called Oshawa.
We’re going to squeeze in one more outdoor show! Lets mark back to school by extending the summer just a little bit longer. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and come experience the soulful song writing and warm melodies of Hunter Sheridan.
This is an all-ages event; pets will not be admitted. Please note that there is no smoking on City property, which includes the RMG’s backyard.
Films from DRIFF will be playing throughout the evening at 7:15pm, 8pm, and 9pm.
September’s Films:
BELLA
BY: KAYLEE LEBRETON
A beautifully distressing black and white film about a woman being followed by trauma that comes to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
MAYMAY
BY: BILL SHAWANDA
A daughter’s impromptu visit with her reclusive mother leads to revelations both past and present.
DIRTY HANDS
BY: GRETA CHEECHOO
Dirty Hands is a story of lost innocence when a young boy experiments with drugs. His older brother Norman, feeling anger and pain, takes matters into his own hands and sets out to get revenge on the one who is responsible for his brother’s overdose.
Hunter Sheridan is a Canadian musician whose music delivers introspective, soulful song writing with warm melodies that weave a euphoric atmosphere. Hunter’s writing highlights self-discovery, honest lyrics, and dynamic arrangements, connecting with listeners across music genres.
Special thanks to DRIFF in a Jiff and Canada Council and the Arts Reopening Fund for their support with this event. We acknowledge the financial support of Canada’s private radio broadcasters.
As a surface with only one side, the Mobius strip resists orientation. To trace its surface is to experience left becoming right, outside flipping in, and time assuming the shape of an infinite loop. While its perimeter is defined, it is the twist in the loop that prevents predictability. Within static institutions and other familiar containers, is it possible to experience a similar twist – a radical detour – that encourages us to build our worlds anew?
Underpinned by feminist conceptions of the everyday as a basis for political engagement with the world, The Beyond Within proposes strategies for reorientation. In two videos made in collaboration with Paris-based artist Maïder Fortuné, pedagogical roles are underwritten by radical forms of intimacy. OUTHERE (For Lee Lozano) incorporates documentation from a 1971 lecture at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design alongside archives and an astrological reading to give form to an influential recluse: the late conceptual artist Lee Lozano. In Communicating Vessels, friendship and artmaking become productive, if precarious, portals through which to escape the isolation of the self.
Psychedelic experience as a means to dissolve the ego and yield new models of collectivity is central to the new installation, Set and Setting. This work is informed by historical and contemporary psychedelic trials performed within research settings. Juxtaposing animated drawings sourced from early trial documents and architectural sets that recall institutional examination rooms, Set and Setting suggests that the boundary between subject and viewer is not only thin, but porous and continuously shifting.
By making use of radical and lateral modes of thinking and storytelling, MacDonell affirms how art can be both a necessary clarifier and serve as an essential tool in world building.
Annie MacDonell is a visual artist and filmmaker. Her early training was in photography, and the image continues to play a central role in her projects. Her work also includes installation, sculpture, writing, and performance. In recent years, film has become a focus. Her films (sometimes produced with collaborator Maïder Fortuné) are shaped by feminists principles of politics as a daily practice. .
She received a BFA from Ryerson University in 2000, followed by graduate studies at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in France. Her films “Book of Hours” (2019) and “Communicating Vessels” (with Maïder Fortuné, 2020) have screened extensively internationally. Recent solo shows have been held at Gallery 44, Parisian Laundry, the AGO, and the Art Gallery of Mississauga. She has participated in group shows at The Art Museum of the University of Toronto, CAG Vancouver and Mackenzie Art Gallery. Recent performances have been presented at Nuit Blanche Toronto, le Centre Pompidou and the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2012 she was short-listed for the AGO AIMIA prize for photography, and she was long listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2012, 2015 and 2016. In 2020, she and Maïder Fortuné won the Tiger Award for Best Short Film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, for their film “Communicating Vessels”.
