Fragments: An Artist Talk with Hangama Amiri, Preston Pavlis, and Jagdeep Raina

This event is free, but registration is required.

Gathering to discuss family histories, migration, and home in the context of their expansive textile-based practices, the RMG invites you to join us for an online conversation with HangamaAmiri,Preston Pavlis, and Jagdeep Raina. The artists will share how they created their works of portraiture currently on view in Piecework and reflect on what it means to weave fragments into visual stories as textile artists.

Piecework is on view at the RMG until September 3, 2023.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Hangama Amiri holds an MFA from Yale University where she graduated in 2020 from the Painting and Printmaking Department. She received her BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a Canadian Fulbright and Post-Graduate Fellow at Yale University School of Art and Sciences (2015-2016). Her recent exhibitions include A Homage to Home (2023) at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (2023), Sharjah, UAE; Reminiscences (2022) at Union Pacific in London; Henna Night/ Shabe Kheena (2022) at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO; Mirrors and Faces (2021) at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Wandering Amidst the Colors (2021) at Albertz Benda, New York, NY; Spectators of a New Dawn (2021), Towards Gallery, Toronto; and Bazaar: A Recollection of Home (2020) at T293 Gallery, Rome, Italy.

Amiri works predominantly in textiles to examine notions of home, as well as how gender, social norms, and larger geopolitical conflict impact the daily lives of women, both in Afghanistan and in the diaspora. Continuing to use textiles as the medium, Amiri searches to define, explore, and question these spaces. The figurative tendency in her work is due to her interest in the power of representation, especially of those objects that are ordinary to our everyday life, such as a passport, a vase, or celebrity postcards.

Preston Pavlis’ work on canvas and fabric represents his interest in the fusion of painting and textiles as a means to explore narrative, form, and colour. Focused on poetic association and metaphor, the resulting works in oil, embroidery, and collage are personal charts for time and memory. The works situate solitary figures on often non-descript grounds, their gazes shifting between the viewer and somewhere beyond their space. Whether their expressions are pensive, ebullient, or intentional– they possess a palpable interiority. Pavlis’ figures convey a subtle energy and a deep sense of presence that is enhanced by their imposing scale.

Preston Pavlis currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he is completing his studies at the Nova Scotia College of Arts and Design. Pavlis has presented his work in exhibitions at Half Gallery (New York), Guts Gallery (London), and at Spurs Gallery (Beijing). His work was also included in recent art fair presentations, notably Frieze New York and NADA Miami. Pavlis has recently been featured in publications including Esse and C Magazine, and is the most recent recipient of the 2021 Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize.Jagdeep Raina (b. 1991, Guelph, Ontario, Canada) received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Grice Bench, Los Angeles; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis; and the Art Gallery of Guelph. Raina’s work has been included in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; RISD Museum of Art, Providence; and the Rubin Museum of Art, New York. In 2016, he was included in the 11th Shanghai Biennale. Raina is a 2019 recipient of the Textile Museum of Canada’s Melissa Levin Emerging Artist Award, and a 2020 recipient of the prestigious Sobey Art Award in Canada.

Artist Residency Information Session + Application Workshop

This event will be held on Zoom. It is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Register here.

In this virtual gathering, RMG Associate Curators, Hannah Keating and Erin Szikora, will provide an overview of the RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program application, sharing tips for preparing your own application and talking through strong samples from past applicants. This guidance will be applicable to the RMG’s active call for residency applications, but will also have broader relevance for other exhibition or grant opportunities. Following a short presentation, we’ll answer questions from the audience.

Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by May 16, 2023. 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.

Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].

Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné in conversation with Daniella Shreir

This event is free but, registration is required.

The RMG invites you to join us for an online conversation with Annie MacDonell, Maïder Fortuné, and Daniella Shreir, founder and co-editor of Another Gaze.

Sharing an interest in experimental film, narrative structures and feminist perspectives, our three guests will engage with some of the central themes of MacDonell’s exhibition The Beyond Within, including autobiography, archival research, art of the late 1960’s, radical pedagogy, psychedelic experience, and friendship. They’ll explore in more depth two films that MacDonell and Fortuné made together, Communicating Vessels (2020) and OUTHERE (for Lee Lozano) (2021).

This program is offered alongside The Beyond Within, a touring exhibition curated by Crystal Mowry and Leila Timmins. It was organized and produced in partnership with the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery where it was on view from October 8, 2021 to February 6, 2022. It is currently installed at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery until February 13, 2023.

About Annie MacDonell

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 Toronto Metropolitan 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” and OUTHERE (2021) both with Maïder Fortuné, have screened extensively internationally. Recent solo shows have been held at Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, the Audain SFU 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. 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. And in 2021 she was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Photography Prize.

About Maïder Fortuné

Maïder Fortuné, studied literature and theatre at L’École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris before entering Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts, where she developed a performance-related practice of the technological image. With great formal rigor, Fortuné’s work commands all the viewer’s attention for a genuine experience of the image and its processes. Recently, her practice turned to more narrative preoccupations. Lecture performances and films deeply rooted in writing are the mediums she proposes to open up new narrative strategies. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Europe, Brazil, Canada, China, and Japan. In 2010 she won the Villa Medicis fellowship in Roma, Italy. Recent shows and performances have been held at Gallery 44 (Toronto), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Toronto International Film Festival.

About Daniella Shreir

Daniella Shreir is the founder and co-editor of the film journal Another Gaze anda translator of literature, non-fiction, art writing and subtitles, from French. Her translation of Chantal Akerman’s My Mother Laughs (Silver Press) won a PEN prize in 2019. Elsewhere, she has translated for publications and institutions including The Paris Review, Granta, the Palais de Tokyo. She is currently working on translations of two books. Together with Missouri Williams, she has just launched Another Gaze Editions, a new imprint dedicated to writing by women about film. She also associate produced ‘Maria Schneider, 1983’, which premiered in the Quinzaine des réalisateurs (2022). Since 2022, she has been on the selection committee of Director’s Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes) and is the creator and sole programmer of Another Screen.

What I’ve Learned Selling My Artwork

A panel discussion with Shahrzad Amin and Raoul Olou

Let’s chat about selling artwork! For this workshop, we’ve invited two practicing artists to share some of their experiences selling works on various platforms, including Instagram, art fairs (in-person and online), and their own virtual shops. The moderated conversation will cover a range of practical topics, including:

Maintaining an online presence
Dealing with customers
Assessing shipping strategies
Paying yourself and reinvesting in your practice
Managing work-life boundaries

This workshop will be hosted as a 70-minute Zoom meeting. The panel will run for 45 minutes with 15-25 minutes reserved at the end for questions and conversation with the audience.

This event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Raoul Olou is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. He creates work that references personal experiences, which reveal concepts of nationality, citizenship and race, through the depiction of everyday environments. Formally trained as filmmaker and currently practicing as a self-taught painter for over 10 years, Raoul has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mark Christopher Gallery, and the Run Gallery. He has received several grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Art Council, Ontario Arts Council, and received the Mayor’s Award and the Honorable Painting Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (2019 and 2022). He has been commissioned on several large scale mural projects all over the Greater Toronto Area, working with Mural Routes, KJBit Collective, and through his own independently led projects including a recent City of Toronto commissioned mural. Raoul has also been commissioned on significant private works for the Drake Hotel, the Gladstone, and the Sheraton Hotel. His work has been collected publicly and privately—by the City of Toronto, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the Wedge Collection and has been invited for artist residencies at the Museum of Contemporary Art x Akin Collective, Drake Devonshire, and Annandale Artist Residency.

Shahrzad Amin is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist who exhibits her works nationally and internationally. She creates socially engaging art pieces that invoke thoughts and encourage conversations about socio-cultural issues that surround us. Shahrzad makes original pieces that truly move people to feel intense emotions. Her interest in fundamental social issues such as democracy, equality, and migration has informed an art practice examining diasporic and socio-cultural subjectivities through the lenses of art practice, sensory ethnographic filmmaking, architectural design, gender, and language. Her works also highlight a social openness and necessity for global international connectivity by applying the historical eastern architectural figures such as arch bridges and combining cultural motifs as a metaphor for overcoming cultural distances. She received a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from Tehran University of Art (2010) and an MFA in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design from OCAD University (2020). Notable awards include Research-Creation Grant (Canada Council for the Arts), Exhibition Assistance Grant (Ontario Arts Council), Artscape Foundation Launchpad Bursary, and more.

Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by October 26, 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.

Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].

The RMG would like to acknowledge the RBC Foundation for their generous support of the Artist Professional Development Workshop Series.

Post-Production Artwork Documentation

With Laura Findlay

Hosted on Zoom

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ktNs4Tm_RceDkt3BG3-kTA

This event is free and open to everyone.

Learn how to put your best foot forward with images! In this workshop, we’ll look at editing tools and processes that are relevant to the post-production side of artwork documentation. Whether you’re uploading examples of your work to a grant application, a call for submissions, or your online portfolio, this workshop will help you share accurate and polished images of your work with funders, curators, and others who rely on photo documentation to make important decisions about you and your work.

Topics include:

A review of digital files – what you need to know about resolution and file size
An overview of fundamental photo-editing techniques
An introduction to preparing image files for applications with a discussion about why good quality images matter and how to meet expectations

Please note: This workshop does not cover how to take good pictures, so it won’t cover camera types or settings, accessories, or techniques for capturing accurate colour or lighting. This workshop also isn’t about preparing digital files for print. The goal of this workshop is to provide an overview of post-production tactics for creating high quality digital images that can be used in grant or exhibition applications, or like settings.

This workshop will be hosted as a 70-minute Zoom webinar with an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by September 21, 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.

Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].

About the presenter:

Laura Findlay (she/her) is a Toronto based artist and the owner of LF Documentation. Originally from Montreal, she received her BFA from Concordia University in 2011 and MFA from the University of Guelph in 2014. She’s exhibited work and participated in artist residencies throughout Canada, the US, and Europe and she is represented by Norberg Hall in Calgary, Alberta. Laura has professionally documented artwork and exhibitions for clients throughout southern Ontario, Montreal, and abroad since 2009. Clients include the AGO, RBC Visual Arts Collection, Scotiabank Fine Art Program, Superframe, C Magazine, Oakville Galleries, Scrap Metal Gallery, Daniel Faria Gallery, Bradley Ertaskiran, Arsenal Contemporary, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Galerie Antoine Ertaskaren, Franz Kaka Gallery, and Aargauer Kunsthaus, among others. Her photographs of artwork have appeared in print in Artforum, Border Crossings Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine, C Magazine, Vogue Paris, and Chatelaine, among others. She has served on the juries for international residencies and scholarships.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected].

The RMG would like to acknowledge the RBC Foundation for their generous support of the Artist Professional Development Workshop Series.

Canadian Artists Abroad

This complete exhibition can be found on our Google Arts and Culture page.

Canadian art has been shaped by generations of artists finding inspiration and perspective in their life experiences. For many artists, travelling to new places is an exciting avenue to find new perspectives and discover something that sparks their imagination.

This exhibition features a variety of Canadian artists who travelled abroad to develop their artistic skills or find inspiration. Their travels often shaped their art, introducing new ideas and styles to Canadian audiences.

T. Mower Martin (Canadian, b. England, 1838 – 1934), Landscape Near Canterbury, Kent, England, 1905/07, watercolour on paper. Donated by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, 1988, gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Theodore Lande.

Alexandra Luke and Isabel McLaughlin: Painters and Patrons

This complete exhibition is available on our Google Arts and Culture page.

Canadian artists Alexandra Luke and Isabel McLaughlin were instrumental to the history and development of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG). Their invaluable support helped shape the gallery, including substantial financial support for the building and donations of artworks. Pulling together works by Luke and McLaughlin from the RMG’s collection, this exhibition celebrates these two incredible women as not only influential benefactors, but also important artists in their own right, who contributed greatly to modernist painting and abstraction in Canada.

Alexandra Luke (Canadian, 1901 – 1967), Observance to a Morn of May, c. 1957, oil on canvas. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. S. McLaughlin, 1979.

The Durham Catholic District School Board Virtual Art Exhibit 2022

The RMG is pleased to share the Durham Catholic District School Board (DCDSB) Virtual Art Exhibit 2022. This exhibition showcases art made by elementary and high school students from across Durham Region. Congratulations to all of the participating students and teachers on your incredible work.

Story and Song: Intro to Anishinaabemowin with Melody Crowe

This event is free and open to everyone. Registration required.

Join us virtually or in-person at Oshawa Public Libraries – Delpark Homes Centre Branch on Saturday June 18th from 10:30 – 11:30 am for a morning of stories and songs with Anishinaabekwe Melody Crowe. Learn the Anishinaabemowin names for the animals living around us. This event is hybrid with limited in-person capacity. Our in-person capacity is now full. To participate virtually, please register with the link above. Each participant will receive a printable colouring book.

This event is for all ages and is presented in partnership with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and Oshawa Public Libraries.

This program is presented as part of Mamanaw Pekiskwewina | Mother Tongues: Dish With One Spoon Territory, the second of four locality specific iterations of the Mamanaw Pekiskwewina project, and was developed in tandem with the presentation of Taskoch pipon kona kah nipa muskoseya, nepin pesim eti pimachihew | Like the winter snow kills the grass, the summer sun revives it at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Mamanaw Pekiskwewina | Mother Tongues: Dish With One Spoon Territory is co-curated by Missy LeBlanc and Erin Szikora.

Melody Crowe is a Michi-Saagiig Anishinaabe Woman from Alderville First Nation which is located on the South Shore of Rice Lake, Ontario. She has dedicated her life to creating a deeper understanding and appreciation of First Nation culture, knowledge, language, and history, and has more than 25 years of teaching the Ojibway language to children, youth, adults, and Elders. She works from the place of honouring her Ancestors and honouring the importance of Indigenous Peoples and ways of knowing. In 2007, Melody received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in the preservation of language and culture from the Union of Ontario Indians, and in 2015, the Honouring Our People Award from the Ogemawahi Tribal Council. Melody is also an eagle feather carrier, a jingle dancer, and a photographer.

Mamanaw Pekiskwewina | Mother Tongues: Dish With One Spoon Territory is presented in partnership with TRUCK Contemporary Art.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Trillium Foundation for this project.

Tim Whiten in conversation with Erika DeFreitas

Registration required. A link to access the talk will be sent to you via email on the day of the event.

Join us for the premiere of an online programme featuring a conversation between Tim Whiten and Erika DeFreitas at Whiten’s Toronto studio. During this recorded talk, both discuss their creative process, reflect on influences, and share recent work related to their shared interests in metaphysics, art and ritual practices.

Co-presented by the McMaster Museum of Art (M(M)A) and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG), this special event is hosted in conjunction with the collaborative survey Elemental currently on view at their respective venues.

Elemental is a multi-venue collaborative retrospective bringing together four Ontario presenters, including the Art Gallery of Peterborough (AGP), Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), McMaster Museum of Art and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Celebrating Tim Whiten’s broad and prolific career as an image maker and educator, the exhibitions draw on over fifty years of Whiten’s creative production devoted to studying the nature of consciousness and the human condition through material transformations. Curated by Chiedza Pasipanodya (AGP), Liz Ikiriko (AGYU), Pamela Edmonds (M(M)A) and Leila Timmins (RMG), and showing between 2022 and 2023, this series of separately curated exhibitions are thematically united by the classical elements of air, water, earth, and fire – referencing Whiten’s interest in alchemical processes.

Elemental: Ethereal is on view at the McMaster Museum of Art until May 13, 2022 and Elemental: Oceanic is on view at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery until August 28, 2022. The exhibitions at AGP and AGYU are forthcoming.

About Tim Whiten

Tim Whiten was born in Inkster, Michigan in 1941. In 1964, he received a B.S. from Central Michigan University, College of Applied Arts and Science, and in 1966 completed his M.F.A. at the University of Oregon, School of Architecture and Allied Arts. After immigrating to Canada in 1968, he taught in the Department of Visual Arts at York University for 39 years. An award-winning educator, he was also Chair of the University’s Department of Visual Arts where he is currently Professor Emeritus. Since 1962, he has had work presented in exhibitions throughout North America and internationally and it is included in numerous private, public, and corporate collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (both the de Young and the Legion of Honor/ Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts). Based in Toronto, Tim Whiten is represented by Olga Korper Gallery.

About Erika DeFreitas

Erika DeFreitas’s multidisciplinary practice includes performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, drawing and writing. Placing emphasis on gesture, process, the body, documentation and paranormal phenomena, DeFreitas mines concepts of loss, post-memory, legacy and objecthood. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery; Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, Winnipeg; Gallery TPW, Toronto; Project Row Houses and the Museum of African American Culture, Houston; Fort Worth Contemporary Arts; and Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita. She is a recipient of the 2016 Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Finalist Artist Prize, the 2016 John Hartman Award, and was longlisted for the 2017 Sobey Art Award. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.