Help us celebrate the opening of Karen Kar Yen Lawâs solo exhibition at the gallery! Inspired by diasporic narratives, and the flavour profiles of Chinese cuisine, this exhibition will feature multimedia artworks that incorporate Lawâs interest in bridging the languages of printmaking and painting.
At 1:30pm, the artist will reflect on her time in the RBC residency program and share insights into her new work in an artist-led walkthrough of the exhibition.
Roundtable Discussions: Press and Space Saturday, June 7, 2025, 2-5pm, followed by a reception, 5-7pm Co-presented with Art Metropole and the plumb Featuring: Vincent Bonin, Robert Fones, Peggy Gale, and Luis Jacob; Anthony Cooper, Suzy Lake, Nell Tenhaaf, and Adam Welch
Satellite Exhibitions at Art Metropole and the plumb Details below.
In 1970, a large piece of raw canvas was hung outside the window of artist Tom Deanâs studio on Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal. Measuring 23 feet by 6 feet, the canvas bore gigantic lettering fashioned from glittering blue and gold sequins spelling âGOOD-BYE.â This intervention marked the artistâs very first public presentationâan address of farewell that launched an art career spanning over five decades, exceptional and still evolving. Boundless and expansive, fluidly transcending media, style, space, and norms, Deanâs work continues to challenge conventional categories of artistic production and meaning-making.
Driven by two essential inquiriesâwhy âGOOD-BYEâ then, and why Tom Dean nowâthe exhibition GOOD-BYE revisits the artistâs life in early 1970s Montreal. It brings together a rarely seen body of workâearly conceptual artworks on canvas and in sculptural formsâand archival materials from that period, documenting the artistâs extensive and active engagement with the local alternative art scene and broader cultural milieu.
GOOD-BYE travels back in time to map and remap the vision and ambition projected by the artist at the time, while simultaneously standing in the presentâbehind the passage of historyâto reevaluate and reflect on its significance in todayâs context.
During the run of Tom Dean: GOOD-BYE at the RMG, two satellite projects will be exhibited by our programming partners Art Metropole and the plumb.
Art Metropole(AM) will feature a display of Tom Deanâs works drawn from their inventory, including several print and publication projects that highlight the many collaborations between the artist and AM over several decades.
Where: Art Metropole, 896 College St, Toronto, ON
When: May 20 – July 6, 2025
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm
the plumb will present an evolving exhibition of Tom Dean’s drawings. Spanning several decades, these works offer an intimate glimpse into Dean’s artistic practiceâone that is at once conceptual and playful.
Located in the lobby of the plumb, the exhibition will feature a rotating selection of Dean’s drawings, with a new body of work introduced each month until the end of 2025. Small publications produced by the RMG will be released and distributed throughout the exhibitionâs run. Many of these drawings, most of which have never been exhibited, were uncovered during the archival research leading up to his exhibition at the RMG.
Together with GOOD-BYE, this exhibition offers a layered exploration of Dean’s evolving thought processes and artistic methods.
Where: the plumb, 1655 Dufferin St, basement, Toronto, ON
Yan Wu is a curator, writer, and translator whose work explores the intersections of contemporary art, architecture, and public space. She is currently the Public Art Curator for the City of Markham and is pursuing a PhD at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Wu has co-translated Passages in Modern Sculpture by Rosalind Krauss, Six Years by Lucy Lippard, Rock My Religion by Dan Graham, and Formless by Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss into Chinese. Commissioned by M+ in Hong Kong, she co-translated John Cageâs Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel (2020) into Chinese and contributed the Chinese text for the online exhibition Marcel Duchamp: Lessons for a Creative Life from BoĂźte-en-valise.
Leila Timmins is the Senior Curator at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.
Bitterness is one of five essential flavours in traditional Chinese cuisine, along with salty, spicy, sour, and sweet. Each is regarded as necessary for achieving balance in the body and on the palette. With the goal of creating five corresponding bodies of work for each flavour, Beyond Bitter is Karen Kar Yen Lawâs most recent exploration of diasporic identity and intergenerational relationships through the language of Chinese cooking.
In this body of work, Law uses airbrushing, screen printing, painting, and collage to construct dynamic abstract compositions. She builds up the images in layers, applying her materials between coats of resin, suspending them beneath glossy surfaces. Crinkly motifs derived from the skin of a bitter melon repeat throughout the series as positive and negative shapes. Like a good cook, Law repurposes stencils of the bitter melon skin from other printmaking projects to extract all the flavour from her ingredients with inventive curiosity, applying her used stencils and cutouts on top of new screen-printed forms.
The exhibition is inspired by Lawâs observation that Chinese immigrants tend to swallow, rather than express, feelings of bitterness. Just as one might treat bitter melons in the kitchen, she considers the possibility of tending to bitter pain or truth interpersonally by devising methods that alleviate what is undesirable and draw out what is pleasurable. However, bitterness also arises in response to socio-cultural circumstances. Fraught with exploitation, exclusion, and racism, the history of Asian immigration in Canada has led to justifiable bitterness in a vast diasporic community. These are conditions that should not be ignored or accepted. Discerning the complex layers of bitterness in the Chinese diaspora, as she has experienced it, Law strives to imagine new recipes that value what bitterness has to offer and release what is beyond bitter and just gone bad.
Karen Kar Yen Law (b. 1997) is a second-generation Cantonese-Chinese artist based in Markham. With an interest in food and domestic culinary practices, Law utilizes printmaking and painting to explore cultural practice and diasporic identity. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) and Bachelor of Education from Queenâs University. Law was the 2021-2022 Emerging Printmaker Scholarship Residency holder at Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Centre where she now practices as an artist member. She was the winner of the 2023 Untapped Peopleâs Choice Award at Torontoâs independent artists fair, Artist Project. Lawâs artwork has been exhibited throughout Kingston and Toronto, including Union Gallery, the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts, Gallery 1313, Myseum Toronto, and Open Studio. She has provided educational programming for Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, St. Michaelâs Printshop, York Region District School Board, and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Installation of Karen Kar Yen Law: Beyond Bitter at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2025. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundationâs Emerging Artist Project.
This is a how-to workshop for artists! Part creative workshop, part career conversation, weâre excited to have Christina Leslie lead a two-part session on photo emulsion transfers and gallery representation. Inspired by her Sugar Coat series in Likkle Acts, Leslie will show participants how to lift a photographic image from one surface to another to create interesting visual effects. Following this interactive demonstration, Leslie will share reflections on and answer questions about her experience gaining gallery representation, including what it is, why it was the right fit for her, and how her relationship with Stephen Bulger Gallery began.
Is there anything we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].
The Artist Professional Development Workshop series is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundationâs Emerging Artist Project.
About the Artist:Christina Leslie is an artist based in Pickering, Ontario. She earned her BFA in 2006 at OCADU in Toronto and her MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, USA in 2022. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications and exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her latest series âSugar Coatâ has been exhibited virtually on Ainât Bad Magazine (2021), Featureshoot.com (2022), PetaPixel.com (2022), and in-person at BAND Gallery (2023). She has exhibited nationally and internationally at GAMU (2009), Royal Ontario Museum (2010), Pier 21 (201, Art Gallery of Windsor (2017), Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives (2020), Prefix ICA (2021), and McMaster Museum of Art (2022). Much of her photographic practice revolves around the themes of de-colonialism, identity, immigration, issues of marginalization, history, memory, race, and her West Indian heritage. She often utilizes text and alternative and historical photographic processes to produce her photographs. She is a member of an all-female photography collective, Silver Water Collective and is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.
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, theyâll discover new ways to unleash their creativity, whether it be through painting, sculpting, mixed media or something else!
Free drop-in: Please pre-register using this form if possible. Physical copies will be available at the program to complete.
Upcoming Sessions:
January 30, 2025 @4:30PM-6:30PM
February 27, 2025 @4:30PM-6:30PM
March 27, 2025 @4:30PM-6:30PM
FAQ
Do I need to sign up ahead of time?
As a drop-in program, you do not need to sign up, come on in! We will have registration forms available onsite to complete by an adult when you arrive to the program. An adult can pre-register using this form including emergency contact information ahead of time if they do not plan on dropping you off directly. It will be easier to pre-register!
If you would like to communicate with the organizer directly, please contact Farah at [email protected]
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. As a drop-in, you can come for a little time or a long time.
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.
Is the environment low-sensory friendly?
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 a pause from the art-making, the exhibition spaces offer quiet seating.
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.
Collage with us! Join us to create colourful stripes, funky blobs and wild splashes. Tie it all together with a fancy silhouette topping to make your masterpiece POP out!
Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generationâs Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.
Update: Due to weather, this program has been canceled
This family day, explore the portraits in Resistance, then join us in the studio to create your own! There are many ways to do things in a unique way. Your self-portrait will be weird and wacky.
Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generationâs Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.
Inspired by the bright bold colours in our current Permanent Collection Exhibitions Resistance,and Go BIG we will be creating BOLD textured abstracts to overcome the dull of winter.
Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generationâs Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.
