Winter Exhibitions Opening Reception

Join us as we celebrate the opening of three exciting installations at the gallery with guided tours, musical performances, and refreshments. Artists and curators will be in attendance.

Inside, we’re pleased to present Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok, a solo exhibition touring from The Art Gallery of Mississauga. In The Backyard, we’re excited to launch two public art projects: Scott Rogers: Mutualism (Fixed Assets), an ambitious temporary public art installation, and the permanent installation of Couzyn van Heuvelen’s Arctic Char Steaks (2021-2023), which were featured in Couzyn van Heuvelen: CAMP at the RMG.

Come celebrate these amazing artists with us!

Let us know you’re coming!

1:30pm – Formal remarks with artists and curators and a musical performance by Missy Knott

Missy Knott, an Anishinaabe woman from Curve Lake First Nation, is a talented award-winning singer-songwriter. Performing under the name Singing Wild Rice Girl, her music and artistic voice are deeply rooted in her Indigenous culture. Her passion for supporting fellow Indigenous artists led her to found Wild Rice Records, an independent record label based in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough). Through her label, Missy collaborates with community members to help artists at every step of their creative path, from building a strong foundation to developing their unique sound. In addition to her work as a musician and label founder, Missy has used her voice to amplify others. She previously hosted the afternoon drive program on ELMNT FM and even hosted her own pre-recorded show, Pass the Mic. This program highlighted the work and voices of Indigenous community members and artists from across Turtle Island. She is also a board member for the Ontario Arts Council. Beyond her musical endeavors, Missy is a dedicated mother, ricer, educational assistant, and philanthropist who remains an active and proud member of her community.

2:15pm – Join Olivia Whetung (artist) and Mona Filip (curator) in the gallery for a tour of inawendiwok

A member of Curve Lake First Nation and citizen of the Nishnaabeg Nation, artist Olivia Whetung draws upon her experience working on and with the land to create artworks that speak of the interdependence and relationality within our ecosystem. Researching land-based and food de-commodifying movements, Anishinaabe knowledge, and the ecology of her home territory, Whetung presents a series of sculptural installations, digital prints, and three-dimensional beadworks that articulate the vital connectivity between woodland, wetland, and garden environments.

Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok installation at AGM, 2024.

Mutualism 07, discarded Perspex display, metal components, steel rope, nylon
line, bird seed, 2021, 60cm x 18.5cm x 10cm, photo: courtesy of the artist

3:00pm – Join Scott Rogers (artist) and Leila Timmins (curator) in The Backyard for a tour of Mutualism (Fixed Assets)

Mutualism (Fixed Assets) is a new temporary public artwork for the backyard at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. This ambitious new installation builds on Rogers’ interest in human- built infrastructures for the care and support of non-human beings. Taking the form of a site-responsive bird feeding station, the work is assembled from broken automobile parts scavenged from roads and highways. This reuse of discarded materials connects with the industrial history of Oshawa, while proposing possibilities of ecological renewal out of the wreckage.

In Arctic Char Steaks, Couzyn van Heuvelen renders a staple of Inuit cuisine at an exaggerated scale, creating thick slices of Arctic char from solid steel. The rusted surface coloration mimics the rich orange of the fish’s flesh, while the patina of the metal suggests both preservation and the passage of time.

Beneath the char steaks, the cardboard references the makeshift seating used at summer hunt camps on sea ice—where cardboard offers insulation and a clean surface for processing food. This gesture evokes moments of community, shared labour, and nourishment central to Inuit life on the land.

By combining industrial materials with culturally significant imagery, van Heuvelen blurs boundaries between contemporary sculpture and traditional practices. The work honours food as a site of connection and memory, recontextualizing an everyday necessity within a sculptural language that is both reverent and inventive.

Installation of Couzyn van Heuvelen, Arctic Char Steaks, 2021-2023, steel and cardboard at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2023. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.

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

OPG Sunday: Sleepy Animals

In the Studio
This month we explore the works in Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok. We will take note of the artist’s experience working on and with the land. The artworks speak of the interdependence and relationality within our ecosystem. We will be using acrylic paint to mimic textured bark on paper. The studio activity and lobby activity will then be pieced together to create one artwork showing cozy hibernating animals, showing the importance of woodland environments.

In the Isabel Gallery
We will create sleepy animals, curled up in hibernation using oil pastels. Hibernating animals in Ontario include foxes, squirrels, skunks, snakes and more!

About Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok
Whetung’s poignant works solicit our attention and reconsideration of spaces and species that are crucial to biodiversity and to sustainable food production. Tenderly foregrounding our more-than-human neighbours, they remind us that we are not the only ones to benefit from the land’s gifts, nor to suffer from ecological ruin. The exhibition’s Anishinaabemowin title, inawendiwok, loosely translates as “they are related to each other,” emphasizing the ways in which coexistence within the ecosystem is mutually linked.

Click HERE to learn more about this exhibition, and view related events!

Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generation’s Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.

Closing Activities: We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds

Installation of We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2025. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Free admission. Everyone is welcome.
Dive deeper into the themes, histories, and techniques behind the group exhibition We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds. Learn from the artists directly, enjoy a delicious lunch, and experience the exhibition before it closes on October 6.

11am-1pm – “Mapping with Embroidery”
Hands-on workshop with exhibiting artist Sharmistha Kar 16+
This workshop has limited registration, so please save your spot here!

12:30pm-2pm – Lunch
Join us for delicious food from local restaurants! Enjoy RMG’s backyard and meet the artists and curator.

2-4:30pm – “Sounds of Resistance”
Sound Talk + Listening Session with exhibiting artist Soledad Fatima Muñoz
All ages
Drop-in! No registration required.
Refreshments provided.

Sharmistha Kar, Soft Shelter IV (detail), bunka on tarpaulin, 2018.

Mapping with Embroidery
Hands-on workshop with Sharmistha Kar
11am-1pm
Ages 16+
Register here.

While learning the slow and meditative technique of Bunka embroidery, workshop participants will consider ideas of memory, mapping, migration, and movement. Together we’ll ask: how does it feel to experience a new place or to imagine a familiar place in a new way? Sharing stories, and travelling by way of thread across fabric, participants will encounter a unique pace of making, with support from artist Sharmistha Kar.

Sounds of Resistance
Sound Talk + Listening Session with exhibiting artist Soledad Fatima Muñoz
2-4:30pm
All ages
Drop-in! No registration required.

Led by artist Soledad Fatima Muñoz, let’s dive into the sounds of South American resistance. Featuring selections from her personal record collection, the session will focus on the groundbreaking Chilean label, Discoteca del Cantar Popular (DICAP). Founded in 1967 by the Communist Youth of Chile, DICAP became a vital voice for politically engaged musicians whose work was often silenced by mainstream outlets. It played a central role in the Nueva Canción Chilean (New Chilean Song) movement, offering a sonic platform for anti-capitalist expression and cultural resistance. Even after the 1973 military coup and the destruction of its Santiago offices, DICAP’s mission lived on—operating from exile in Paris and Madrid and continuing to release music under the sub-label Canto Libre for Chilean artists in diaspora.

Through an afternoon of shared listening, Soledad Fatima Muñoz will guide us through this sonic history—tracing threads of resilience, memory, and artistic defiance that resonate deeply in her own creative practice.

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

Co-presented with SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre).

OPG Sunday: Creative Castles

In the Studio
Let’s take inspiration from Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships by creating our very own treasure maps. Using the ideas of voyaging and fantasy, we will create our own diverse and epic worlds.

In the Isabel Gallery
Inspired by the fantastical architectural landscapes evident in Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships, we will craft our own castles using paper collage techniques.

Ekow Nimako, Wawa Aba, The Sunrise Dancer (circa 1358), 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

About Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships
The projects this month are inspired by the exhibition, Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships. Combining architecture, historical accounts, and fantastical possibilities, Ekow Nimako transcends the geometric form of LEGO® to recreate the 14th century sea voyage of Abu Bakr II.

Learn more about the exhibition, the artist and view related events HERE.

Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generation’s Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.

OPG Sunday: Vibrant Music

All ages. Free admission.

In the Isabel Gallery
This month we are joining forces with Making Music Together!

They will be bringing a live, interactive activity into our gallery space. Children will explore music with instruments and props, engaging with trained specialists for a fun morning filled with tunes. Please register ahead of time using the form below.

Registration form

In the Lobby
Inspired by Georgia Fullerton’s watercolour abstract art we will try our hand at creating expressive and vibrant patterns! Paint using the wet on dry technique, then cut your art into a leaf shape to commemorate the season.

In the Studio
Using gelli-plate leaf printing with real preserved leaves, we will take imprints of their texture capturing the essence of fall with warm colours!

About Making Music Together
Making Music Together is a recognized, research-based early-childhood music program with over 20 years of experience. We specialize in bringing the joy of music, movement, and education to children from birth to 8 years old. Our mission is to foster musical growth, essential life skills, and a lifelong love of music in young learners through engaging and developmentally appropriate activities.

Registration form

About Georgia Fullerton: Being In and Moving Through
This exhibition showcases Fullerton’s well-known abstract expressionist watercolours and collages as well as invites viewers into her creative process. For Fullerton, the act of artmaking is just as significant as the final piece, with both working together to illustrate how art serves as a vital tool for processing and moving through emotions. Learn more about this exhibition, and view related events HERE.

Georgia Fullerton, Candy Coated 2019, watercolour and mixed media.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generation’s Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.

Scott Rogers: Mutualism (Fixed Assets)

Mutualism (Fixed Assets) is a new temporary public artwork for the backyard at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. This ambitious new installation builds on Rogers’ interest in human- built infrastructures for the care and support of non-human beings. Taking the form of a site-responsive bird feeding station, the work is assembled from broken automobile parts scavenged from roads and highways. This reuse of discarded materials connects with the industrial history of Oshawa, while proposing possibilities of ecological renewal out of the wreckage.

Bio
Scott Rogers was born in Mohkinstsis Calgary Treaty 7 and lives in Tkaronto, Canada. His practice negotiates the complex relationships between humans, other living beings, and land. Notable recent projects include Ormston House (Limerick, IR), ATLAS Arts (Skye, SCO), Pink Snow (Berlin, DE), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Koraï Project Space (Nicosia, CY), Kunstverein München (DE), Ivory Tars (Glasgow, SCO), Kamias Triennial (Manila, PH), and Franz Kaka (Toronto). In 2017 Rogers co-edited “Recognition”, the 14th issue of the journal FR DAVID, in collaboration with Will Holder and published by KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin, DE). Scott’s audio installation Songs to the Sun was recently acquired for the Circulating Public Art Collection of Markham (CA). In 2025 he organised Affinities, an exhibition with two seven two gallery (Toronto), and presented Between Leaf & Light, a new site-specific sound installation for the Cancer Program at Barrie Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre.

Opening Reception: Ekow Nimako: Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships

Join us in celebrating the opening of Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships, a solo exhibition by Toronto-based artist Ekow Nimako curated by Alyssa Fearon. We’re pleased to align this exciting event with Convergence 2025 in downtown Oshawa, featuring a performance by our very own artist in residence, Pixel Heller.

Please RSVP using this form.

Event details:

Remarks at 2pm
Artist Talk + Tour at 2:15pm
Hands-on LEGO activities for all ages
Light refreshments provided

Coming from Toronto? We’ll pick you up! Save your seat on the art bus
shuttle using the RSVP link. The bus will collect guests from the
ROM (100 Queens Park, Toronto) at 11:30am and return around 5pm.

RSVP

About the exhibition:
Continuing his afrofuturistic reimagining of ancient African kingdoms in the medium of LEGO bricks, Ekow Nimako explores the mysterious fourteenth century sea voyage of Mansa Abu Bakr II in Journey of 2,000 Ships. Combining architecture, historical accounts, and fantastical possibilities, Nimako transcends the geometric form of LEGO to recreate the epic voyage, presenting an uninterrupted and unco-opted narrative of Black civilizations and liberated futures. Visit the exhibition page for more information.

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

Organized and circulated by Dunlop Art Gallery.

RMG Teen Art Zone: Fall 2025

Ages 13-17
Come hang out at the art gallery! These sessions offer a welcoming space for teens to express their individuality, share new ideas, and try out a variety of art materials in a low-pressure environment. With a new theme each month, they’ll discover new ways to unleash their creativity, whether it be through painting, sculpting, mixed media or something else!

September Session
Sep 25, 2025
6 – 7:30pm

Teens will gain a deeper understanding of the exhibition, We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds and through thoughtful consideration of the artworks, teens will be encouraged to discuss the symbols of their own culture and community.

Teens will then create cross stitch bookmarks using icons important to them. Using pixel art techniques, they will create bookmarks imbued with their own meaningful designs.

October Session
Oct 30, 2025
6 – 7:30pm

Teens will create imprints of leaves using gelli plate printing techniques. Then, the prints they create will be cut and used in a painted background inspired by Georgia Fullerton: Being In and Moving Through, which features abstract watercolour, ink and gouache works. Teens will have a variety of mediums to apply to their background, creating expressive and unique abstract creations.

November Session
Nov 27, 2025
6 – 7:30pm

Teens will explore fantasies depicted in the exhibition Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships. After considering castles, ships and expansive worldbuilding elements, they will create imaginative treasure maps. Teens will experiment with dip pens, ink, and watercolour techniques, as well as paper dyeing with tea and coffee to turn their map into a relic of the past.

December Session
Dec 11, 2025
6 – 7:30pm

We will be inspired by the attention on environment and ecosystems in the exhibition Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok. Teens will consider biodiversity in nature, thinking of a variety of natural elements in an ecosystem of their choice. Using air dry clay, teens will sculpt a tile that is both decorative and meaningful.

REGISTER

FAQ

What is the space like?
You are encouraged to either come alone or with friends! Plug into your own music or listen to the chatter. Materials and refreshments are provided.

We tend to keep the lights dimmed but they are still on. We play music on a medium volume, however this can be turned off upon request. The noise level in the room is about medium.

For more details on accessibility, visit this link: https://rmg.on.ca/visit/accessibility-and-accommodations/

Where is it happening?
The studio on the lower level. The gallery is free to visit. Walk in through the front doors, turn right and go down the stairs, turn right again once you see the door to the studio. Or, take the elevator near our gift shop to level 1.

Do I need to know how to do art ahead of time? Do I need to be an artist?
No! The art activities are beginner friendly. We offer all the necessary materials and instruction to complete a project. We also value abstract art, ugly art, and silly art. Feel free to try new things.

How do I contact the organizer?
Email [email protected] or call (905) 576-3000 ext.108

Saturday Studio: Fall 2025

This 8 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!

Ages 5 to 7 10:30am – 12pm
Ages 8 to 12 1 – 2:30pm
$100 Members/$120 Non-Members
8 Weeks: September 20 -November 15 (no class October 11)

Sign up!

*Cancellation requests received prior to the start of the program will receive a full refund minus a $15 administration fee. We do not issue refunds (partial or full) after the start of the program.

The RMG reserves the right to cancel programs if the minimum enrollment is not met. In the event of a program cancellation, a full refund will be given. If a program is cancelled, registrants will receive notice one week prior to the beginning of the program.

Homeschool Art Class: Fall 2025

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.

Ages 5 to 7
10 – 11am
$75 Members/$95 Non-Members (8 weeks)
Dates: September 16 – November 18 (no class Sept 30, Nov 11)

Ages 8 to 12
11:15am – 12:45pm
$100 Members/$120 Non-Members (8 weeks)
Dates: September 16 – November 18 (no class Sept 30, Nov 11)

Sign up!

*Cancellation requests received prior to the start of the program will receive a full refund minus a $15 administration fee. We do not issue refunds (partial or full) after the start of the program.

The RMG reserves the right to cancel programs if the minimum enrollment is not met. In the event of a program cancellation, a full refund will be given. If a program is cancelled, registrants will receive notice one week prior to the beginning of the program.