RMG Fridays: International Women’s Day

We’re celebrating International Women’s Day at the RMG! This is the night to hear leading voices in Durham Region of women owned businesses and see performances of young and dedicated talent. Come to buy locally owned food prepared with passion and perseverance.

Order of Events

7:00pm: Doors open. Art Activity with Farah in the Art Studio and yoga class with Kimmel Alcide in Arthur’s

7:15pm: DRIFF screening in the Lookout

7:30pm: Wise Women with Liz Oke, Mathilda Irawan, and Georgia Fullerton

8:00pm: First session of Chair’ography Workshop with Inferno Pole Studio

8:15pm: DRIFF screening in the Lookout

8:30pm: Tour with Associate Curator, Public Programs, Hannah Keating. Learn more about our exhibitions that feature female and queer artists.

8:45pm: Let’s DANCE! DJ Lynz’s crew will be spinning tunes to raise your hands, sing along and feel the joy!

9:00pm: Second session of Chair’ography Workshop with Inferno Pole Studio

Upstairs in Arthur’s, Inferno Pole Studio will be hosting a Chairography Workshop! In a 45 minute session, learn a flow and have some fun dancing your way around a chair. Friendly for all levels! Bring knee pads if you have any! Wear leggings or something stretchy to move in. Tighter clothing is preferred. Wearing socks or shoes is recommended.

These sessions are free but registration is required. Sign up here.

As the Director of The Everyday Yogi Inc., Kimmel Alcide curates unique wellness experiences with the primary goal of cultivating peace.  She is deeply committed to guiding individuals, teams and communities toward self-discovery through yoga and mindfulness practices. Additionally, she serves as a lead Yoga Trainer for LifePower Yoga, offering 100hr and 200hr trainings in Durham region. With over 10 000 hours in the wellness industry, she has collaborated with notable brands such as lululemon, Team Canada, Hershey’s Chocolate, Canada Goose and Uber Canada integrating yoga and mindfulness into their work and professional environments.

Her core values are centered around personal responsibility, connection, inclusivity and contribution. Beyond her practice and profession, Kimmel enjoys connecting people, hiking in nature, and playing scrabble.

Georgia Fullerton is a Jamaican Canadian visual artist, expressive arts therapist, arts educator,
and public speaker. Educated in visual arts at Red Deer College in Red Deer, Alberta she
earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1991 at York University in Toronto, Ontario.

Building arts-based relationships with community partners such as The Royal Ontario Museum,
Station Gallery, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and Durham District School Board
(DDSB)and others, Georgia has created 4 major public art pieces since 2012. One of her most
recent public artworks, titled: ‘For the Win and the Wonder’ was commissioned by the Toronto
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Corporation and launched in late 2023 as part of the new
Scotiabank Arena permanent Art Collection.

Engaging all sides of her creative prowess, Georgia deepens her understanding and practice of
arts in health as an expressive arts therapist with a small private practice and facilitates healing
arts workshops online. Georgia is the founder of the Durham Black Artists’ Collective (DBAC)
and is a faculty member of the School of Media, Art and Design at Durham College in Oshawa,
Ontario.

Liz Oke designs and implements marketing/sales plans and creative strategy for businesses that want to change direction, optimize their digital presence and brand, and align their marketing efforts with their revenue goals. She has over 20+ years of experience in delivering successful projects for clients in various industries, including e-commerce, financial services, food services, manufacturing, education, retail, music, insurance, law, consulting, banking, real estate, and cultural institutions. She is currently following the ever-changing opportunities with AI.

Mathilda Irawan is an Indonesian born Chinese woman who immigrated to Canada 22 years ago. Her education background is psychology, gerontology, hypnotherapy, finance, and yoga therapy. She is the chef and owner of Mathilda’s Restaurant in downtown Oshawa where we supply meals, desserts, and baking mixes to other retailers across the province. She also owns Mathilda’s Sauces Inc. with all sauces being vegan, gluten free, and oil free.

She is on a mission to get people moving their body, reprogram their subconscious mind, take control of their health and heal themselves, and unite body, mind, and spirit. This is possible by practicing compassion towards ourselves, the animals, and nature. When we align our actions with our beliefs and values, we will heal at a deeper level. 

The Fading | 15 mins

Directed by Rafaël Beauchamp

French, with English subtitles

In the heart of a foggy and rural Quebec winter, Luce, a grieving mother faced with the disappearance of her son, is taken aback when three local hunters track down the alleged killer, a seemingly harmless young man. When it is proposed to her to take revenge on the latter, the spirit of the masses slowly takes possession of her tragedy as the group sinks into the forest. “Les battues” (The Fading) blurs the line between victim and persecutor in a dreamlike and anxiety-inducing thriller.

Tour with Associate Curator, Public Programs, Hannah Keating, through the gallery and learn more about our exhibitions that feature female and queer artists such as World-builders, shapeshifters, Kenatentas, and Commonplace.

We will be making wearable art led by Farah! Make marbled polymer clay beads, strung together to make a necklace or keychain.

Teen Art Studio Spring 2024

Ages 13-17

4:30pm to 6:00pm

Come hang out in our onsite art studio! Guided by our Youth and Family Programming Assistant, 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, animation, sewing, and more!

Materials will be provided at no cost to participants.

Upcoming Sessions

April 25: Mixed Media Blackout Poetry

May 9: Open House

May 23: Underpainting with Acrylic Paint Landscape

June 6: Oil Pastel and Watercolour Still Life

Please register ahead of time using the online form or by email at [email protected].

Presented by The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation.

Homeschool Art Class Spring 2024

Tuesdays, March 26 to May 14 from 10am to 11:30am

Ages 5-8 (this class is full)

Ages 9-12

$80 Members / $90 Non-Members

We program to streamline programming suitable for students of vary abilities and skills development. These programs are inspired by our exhibitions and personal responses to the art on the walls! We foster a multi-dimensional approach that encourages individuality and imaginative problem solving skills using quality fine art materials. Spaces are limited.

Saturday Studio Spring 2024

Saturdays, April 6 to May 11

Ages 5-8             10:30am-12pm (this class is full)

Ages 9-12            1-2:30pm

$70 Members/ $80 Non-Members

This 6 week class is filled with art making that inspires creativity and imagination! Each week will be a new adventure with sculptures, paintings, drawings, printmaking, and more using artist quality materials!

OPG Sunday: Beautiful Bugs

Suitable for ages 3+

We’re getting fancy this month by bringing in glittery, gold and other sparkles to honour bugs. Have you ever seen a rainbow beetle or a sparkly butterfly? Design and decorate your bug in the studio and then finish a background fit for your bug in the gallery exhibitions.

Free admission, no registration required.

This event is generously sponsored by Ontario Power Generation.

Kendra Yee: Exhibition Opening + Artist Talk

Please join us to celebrate the opening of, Commonplace, a new exhibition by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence, Kendra Yee. Let us know you’re coming with an RSVP.

Refreshments will be served. Join us in the exhibition space at 2pm for an artist talk with Kendra Yee.

Kendra Yee’s residency exhibition features an installation of over 100 clay tiles inspired by memories. During her time at the RMG, Kendra Yee put out a call for collaboration, inviting her friends, supporters, and RMG community members of all ages to share a personal story with her in the medium of their choice. Her tiles represent the way she received, and will continue to hold, each memory, while the installation, which takes the form of a large dining table, points to the spaces where we gather and share stories with one another.

Seating will be available. If there is anything else we can do to support your participation, please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].

The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts for this exhibition.

This program is supported by the RBC Foundation’s RBC Emerging Artist Project.

Durham District School Board Bi-Annual Exhibition: For Art’s Sake

The bi-annual For Art’s Sake exhibition celebrates the artistic talent of students in the Durham District School Board. Showcasing works from nearly every high school in the district, this event recognizes local budding young artists.

Friends and family are invited to join us for the opening celebration on Thursday, February 29 from 6-8pm.

Presented in partnership with the Durham District School Board.

Kendra Yee: Commonplace

Opening + Artist Talk: March 3, 2024, 1-4pm (Artist Talk at 2pm)

Ceramic tiles have been used in architectural and interior design for thousands of years. They are found in the most private of spaces and where we gather with others. In this exhibition, Kendra Yee adopts clay tiles as a medium for expressing reverence for the ways memories function in our private and public lives. In particular, Commonplace explores how the memories we hold onto make us who we are and how sharing those stories with others binds us together.

During Yee’s residency at the RMG, community members gifted her their personal memories through online and paper submission forms and in-person workshops. In the studio, she spent time with each memory – observing how she felt, what she saw, what she read – before decorating each tile using a variety of surface design techniques inspired by the submission’s mood or event. After translating well-over 100 ethereal recollections into unique physical engravings, Yee has placed them on a long table draped in a white cloth in an archive of sorts. Laid side by side, the tiles invite remembrance and infinite speculation; they might even spur new stories as you wander from one to the next.

Making this work, Yee was curious about how we remember events from our past. She asked questions like: What does it mean to make a memory? What happens when you tell a story over and over? What about the things you can’t remember? Naming the exhibition Commonplace, Yee reflects on the power of storytelling to produce common ground for seeing and taking care of one another. She also points to the way common, everyday objects can act as souvenirs, reminding us of special people and places, or evoking vague or visceral feelings. Translating the memories she received through her personal lens, she also now holds the story fragments in herself, along with the embodied experience of making the tiles in clay. This creative act of translation is an homage to the mysterious, illusive, and persistently transformative nature of memory.

Kendra Yee (b. 1995, Tkaronto/Toronto) is an arts practitioner who seeks to materialize the truths and fictions of memory. Yee pulls tales from personal stories, lived experience and collective narratives to develop site-specific installations that carve alternative archives. Yee has programmed and exhibited with: The Art Galley of Ontario, MOCA (Toronto), Art Toronto, Patel Brown (Toronto), Heavy Manners (Los Angeles), The Artists Project (Toronto), Juxtapoz (NYC), The Letter Bet (Montreal), and Xpace Cultural Centre (Toronto).

This program is supported by the RBC Foundation’s RBC Emerging Artist Project.

The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts for this exhibition.

Installation of Commonplace at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2024. Images by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Painters Eleven: The Greenberg Effect

Clement Greenberg was an influential American art critic who helped define twentieth century art. At the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s, Greenberg helped establish abstract expressionism as the popular art form, making artists like Jackson Pollock a household name. Members of the Ontario abstract collective, Painters Eleven, wanted to invite Greenberg to Toronto to evaluate their work. This exhibition pulls together artworks produced after this visit and considers the effect, if any, the American critic had on their individual art practice.

It was William Ronald who suggested inviting Clement Greenberg to do studio visits at a Painters Eleven meeting on May 9th, 1957. While some members were keen on the idea, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood were staunchly opposed, with Town stating: “I refuse to show my paintings to any damned American art critic.” Town did not like the idea of an American influencing what Canadian abstract painters were doing and did not want his validation. He believed that abstraction in Toronto was different and just as significant as their New York contemporaries. Despite the opposition, the group made the arrangements and the visit occurred in June 1957 without the participation of Town, Yarwood, and Oscar Cahen who had tragically died the year before.

Greenberg spent half a day each in their studios, and developed lasting relationships with some of the artists. Alexandra Luke’s notes from the visit said that Greenberg believed that the group was “on fire”. He was impressed by what they were doing and was eager to see where each of them would go in their careers. Greenberg told the group: “…you can all paint excellently – what you have to do is to realize that within yourselves you have the personal abilities to say something as profound as anywhere in the world.”

Whether directly influenced by Greenberg’s comments or not, this was a time of change for the group. Some were already moving away from abstract expressionism and pushing their own individuality as artists. Painters Eleven members were indeed “on fire” in 1957. Gaining the attention and respect of a critic of Greenberg’s stature is an important part of their history.

Who were Painters Eleven?

  • Painters Eleven was the first abstract artist collective in Ontario, founded in 1953 at the cottage of Oshawa artist Alexandra Luke on the Oshawa/Whitby border.
  • Painters Eleven banded together around their shared desire to support abstraction and exhibit.
  • They were a collective from 1953-1960 and included the following artists: Alexandra Luke, William Ronald, Jack Bush, Oscar Cahen, Walter Yarwood, Kazuo Nakamura, Hortense Gordon, Harold Town, Jock Macdonald, Tom Hodgson, and Ray Mead.
  • The RMG has the largest collection of artworks by Painters Eleven in the world.

Who was Clement Greenberg (American, 1909-1994)?

  • Greenberg was one of the most influential art critics in the 20th century, and championed modernism and abstraction, helping to define Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting.
  • Greenberg believed abstraction was superior to realism because of the focus on form rather than content. He thought art should focus on the medium used and not tell stories or comment on the world.
  • He wrote extensively about modern art. Some of his most important essays are : Avant-Garde and Kitsch (1939), Abstract Art (1944), and The Crisis of the Easel Painting (1948)
  • Greenberg was also an art collector. He amassed a huge collection that was donated to the Portland Art Museum by his widow Janice Van Horne. His collection included works by Kenneth Noland, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, William Ronald and Jack Bush.
  • Greenberg was not without controversy. Most notably he had a rivalry with fellow art critic Harold Rosenberg. Greenberg never swayed from his belief that art should be flat, abstract and focus on formal qualities, while Rosenberg argued that art should focus on content and action.
  • Like the painters Eleven, Greenberg visited other Canadian artist’s studio by invitation. He travelled to Northern Saskatchewan where he connected with artists like Kenneth Lochhead, Dorothy Knowles, and William Perehudoff. 

Curatorial Tour: About Time + Painters Eleven: The Greenberg Effect

Join Senior Curator Sonya Jones for a casual guided tour of the exhibitions About Time and Painters Eleven: The Greenberg Effect, featuring a range of artworks from the RMG’s permanent collection. Everyone is welcome!

If there is anything we can do to support your participation, please reach out to Sonya at [email protected].