Art Nap

Brenda Mabel Reid, Underlay, 2024, quilt installation, variable dimensions. Photo credit: M+E Photography.

Take a break in The Backyard at the RMG!

In partnership with the Convergence Festival in downtown Oshawa, the gallery is pleased to invite you to experience Underlay by Brenda Mabel Reid. Featuring a large modular quilt made of construction-grade materials, Underlay is an outdoor installation designed for rest and connection. It has toured across the country, including to Saint John, New Brunswick, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Kitchener and Cambridge, Ontario.

Installed in the shady serenity of The Backyard, participants are invited to join and leave our community nap at any time. The Nap Team will be present to support your nap experience.

Musical performances and guided relaxation will take place throughout the afternoon:

12:00-12:30pm – Durham Youth Orchestra String Quartet (Set 1)

12:45-1:15pm – Durham Youth Orchestra String Quartet (Set 2)

1:45-2:30pm – Guided Relaxation with Kate Carson (Session 1)

2:45-3:30pm – Guided Relaxation with Kate Carson (Session 2)

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

Please take note of the Convergence road closures when planning your trip to our community nap.

Brenda Mabel Reid is an emerging non-binary visual artist with a social practice. They have a background in architecture and are based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Their work explores friction between place, care and social expectation, often through means they find humorous. They often work through collage as a way of making and understanding, collecting snippets, reinterpreting pieces, and assembling spaces and places to exist in. Their practice includes textile, print-making, sculpture, installation and audio.

Brenda Mabel Reid, Underlay, 2024, quilt installation, variable dimensions. Photo credit: Phi Doan.

Brenda Mabel Reid, Underlay, 2024, quilt installation, variable dimensions. Photo credit: Phi Doan.

Underlay is a large-scale quilt made of construction-grade materials by the artist Brenda Mabel Reid. In this quilt, thread is replaced with sheathing tape, gromets, and reflective nylon rope to create a customizable quilt composed of individual hexagonal blocks. Thanks to the work’s durable materials and flexible scale, it has been installed both indoors and outdoors, in different configurations, and under variable weather conditions. Over the years, participants have been invited to lie under the quilt next to both friends and strangers. They rest, dose off, maybe even socialize. The installation is accompanied by live music and the hospitable care of the Nap Team who support diverse engagement with the project. Through their materials, Reid combines the visual languages of textiles and construction into their work. Doing so, they blur the lines between two historically gendered forms of labour, embracing the qualities of both in a creative and inclusive gesture of community care, which is highly visible, improvised, and playful.

Underlay will be on view at the RMG later this fall in Nightfall, a group exhibition exploring the passage of time, interdependence, and rest.

Established in 1993 by Oshawa violinist John Beaton, the Durham Youth Orchestra provides young musicians with the enriching experience of performing music by many great composers, including Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. The goal of the DYO is to nurture the artistic and personal growth of young musicians through the experience of playing orchestral masterpieces. The DYO provides the wonderful opportunity for young people with a passion for classical music to develop their musical skills and hone their talent in an orchestra setting! Membership is drawn from young musicians in the community taking private and/or school-based music instruction. 

The Durham Youth Orchestra performs in a minimum of three concerts each season. The orchestra’s involvement in the community includes educational concerts presented to Durham area students. Through these efforts, orchestra members gain valuable performing experience and help contribute to the musical culture of Durham Region. More information: dyomusic.com/about.

Kate Carson is a Yoga and Meditation Guide specializing in Yoga Nidra, Meditation, Heart Imagery®, and immersive sound experiences. With over a decade of experience teaching yoga rooted in deep rest and relaxation, Kate creates and facilitates transformative rest and sound experiences throughout Durham Region and Ontario.

Her work is guided by a simple purpose: to help people reconnect with themselves through relaxation practices, creative experiences, and heart-centred rituals that cultivate greater resilience, harmony, and a deeper sense of self.

Kate is also the founder of Vila —  a mobile meditation studio offering immersive rest and relaxation experiences designed to support stress regulation, nervous system restoration, and the rejuvenation of mind, body, and spirit. Kate brings thoughtfully curated meditation, rest, and sound experiences to individuals, organizations, retreats, and events throughout Ontario, Canada. You can follow her online @katemcarson or @vilamobilestudio and visit her website katemcarson.com.

“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.

Lunch will be served at 12pm.

The workshop is open to 8 registrants. We are prioritizing Indigenous participation. A confirmation email will be sent to participants prior to the workshop.

This event is free and open for ages 12+. 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.

Supported by:

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

On September 26th, 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.

Before the reception, join us for an Oil Pastel Workshop from 10am – 12pm. Cree and Metis artist, Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire, will teach an oil pastel workshop using natural materials. Participants will go home with their own oil pastel and contribute a sculpture to the exhibition.

Workshop registration is required. This workshop is open to all individuals age 12+; parents and guardians are welcome. We are prioritizing Indigenous community members for participation in this workshop. Registrants will be asked to self-identify in the form below. A confirmation email will be sent to participants prior to the workshop. Workshop RSVP form

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]

  1. Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire, Tante (Detail), dry earth pigments on raw canvas, 66”x 49”, 2026. Courtesy of the artist.
  2. Donna Ibing (Canadian, b.1947); Kitchen Window; 1973; acrylic on canvas; Purchase, 1995
  3. 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

Supported by

RMG Garden Party

You’re invited to the RMG Garden Party!

Join us in The Backyard at The RMG 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.

Learn from David Suzuki Butterflyway Rangers

Butterflyway Rangers are volunteers who lead local efforts to create pollinator habitat and bring people together around nature-based action. Learn about pollinator habitats, native plants, and nature-based community action with two guest Butterflyway Rangers.

The LivingRoom Community Art Studio

The Mobile Art Hive will be stopping by. Connect with community and express yourself creatively with art-making materials.

Sunprints with Artist
Haley Uyeda

Haley Uyeda works primarily in painting and print media. She takes inspiration from atmospheric conditions of weather, movement and light to both reference and engage with the temporal conditions of nature. Join her in the backyard to create Sunprints!

Pollinator Mural Activity with the RMG YAAC

Design pollinators to contribute to a community hand-painted mural created by the RMG Youth Art Action Council. Use watercolour and crayons to bring each bee and butterfly to life!

Live Music with
Adriano Clarke

Adriano Clarke (or Freetherevolution) is a colorful artist of Jamaican and Ecuadorian origin whose music is genre-bending, blending Pop, R&B, Funk, Soul, Reggae, Disco, and Latin into something that feels both ancient and contemporary.

Presented by CMI Courtyard Concerts.

Live Music with
Siobhan Bodrug

Indie-pop/rock artist Siobhan Bodrug is one of Canada’s most exciting young voices. At just 21, her vocal performances have been described as “impeccable” (Lemon Fresh Music) and “impressive” (Indie Music Center). Siobhan’s retro-modern indie-pop evokes the vulnerability of Billie Eilish, while channeling the commanding presence of Alanis Morissette.

Presented by CMI Courtyard Concerts.

Gabe + Pancha’s
Coffee Bar

Gabe + Pancha will be in attendance to serve fresh botanical lemonade and a special ice cream flavour. Enjoy these sweet treats while we celebrate our newly planted gardens.

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

Live Music Presented By

Community partners

Recent Acquisitions: Abstraction

Abstract art has always been part of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s story. The gallery was founded in 1967, and so too was the Permanent Collection, with an initial donation of 37 artworks from the personal collection of artist and beloved Oshawa resident Alexandra Luke. Of these, 21 were abstract works. This gift helped shape the RMG’s early focus on Painters Eleven and contemporary Canadian art, laying the groundwork for one of Canada’s most significant collections of abstraction.

This exhibition presents new acquisitions of contemporary abstraction to the Permanent Collection from the past five years. These acquisitions demonstrate the RMG’s continued commitment to telling the ongoing history of abstraction in Canada, and help 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 of ordinary objects and the moments that shape our daily existence. A simple meal, chores, and familiar household objects are often dismissed as mundane and given little aesthetic value.

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

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: Restructuring Echoes

In this exhibition, Lana Yuan shares new work inspired by her interest in the built environment and digital fabrication technologies. Oshawa is a suburban region well known for its industrial history, as well as its watershed landscape. The forests, swamps, and creeks flowing to Lake Ontario are as integral to the city’s social, cultural, and economic character as are the architectures dedicated to its manufacturing and energy sectors. Restructuring Echoes is the outcome of Yuan’s exploration of these natural and industrial features as an artist in residence. Using parametric design processes and 3D printers, Yuan transforms statistical data into seemingly abstract forms, exploring how sculptures can visualize municipal data related to population distribution and industrial land use in Oshawa.

As part of her engagement with Oshawa’s landscape, Yuan became interested in plant galls, which are produced by a variety of insects, parasites, fungi, and bacteria for nutrition and shelter. These organisms generate galls on branches and leaves by reforming external plant tissue. Yuan was inspired by this example of environmental intervention when she observed one on a tree in Lakeview Park, perceiving in this relationship between tree and insect a metaphor for Oshawa as an organic system. With this image of resource use and transformation in mind, she developed a method for processing municipal data through an algorithm, which could produce three-dimensional forms. Taking shape as plastic galls, the works become an echo of the data Yuan obtained from the City of Oshawa and a record of her momentary encounter with this place.

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.

Aaron Li Photography

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.

Beginning September 14, 2026 the RMG will have new operating hours! Learn more about Wellness Wednesdays.
Mon-Tue CLOSED
Wed OPEN 10 AM – 8 PM
Thu-Sun OPEN 10 AM – 4 PM

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