In November 2024, the gallery was honoured to receive funding from Partners in Art (PIA) to support Pickering-based artist Christina Leslie’s first major museum solo exhibition Likkle Acts and its related programming. Featuring four series of photographs, the exhibition delves into themes of memory and migration, as well as looking at the history of the transatlantic slave trade and its ties to the sugar industry. Set in Jamaica, each body of work explores the artist’s familial relationships and the complex history of the Caribbean. The RMG is proud to present this powerful exhibition by a local artist, and grateful for the support of PIA to allow us to share this work with our community.
The financial support from PIA was also instrumental in allowing us to activate the exhibition with a range of public and private events. The exhibition’s programs have created opportunities for visitors to celebrate Caribbean and diasporic identities, confront the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, and to engage with the materiality of Leslie’s innovative and experimental practice. As a springboard for important conversations, these talks, tours and workshops enable children, adults, and artists to explore important questions and insights, from the artist and one another.
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 “Sugar Coat” has been exhibited virtually on Ain’t 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.
About Partners in Art
Partners in Art is a Canadian charitable organization that funds and champions contemporary visual art through philanthropy, volunteerism and education. Since 2002, PIA’s model of collective philanthropy has funded bold, innovative, contemporary arts projects to champion thoughtful perspectives on our world and drive social change. PIA actively collaborates with Canadian curators, educators, art organizations and museums. Having raised over $6.1 million and supported over 146 different projects, PIA focuses on funding projects featuring contemporary artists with challenging works. Annual member donations, fundraising events and public donations make PIA’s work possible. Learn more here.
