Thursday, October 16, 2025  |  7:00–9:00 PM (doors 6:30 PM)
Desautels Concert Hall, University of Manitoba

Light refreshments • Cash bar • Free admission • Registration required

The School of Art Gallery (SOAG) invites the UM community and the public to Exchange as a Symmetrical Gesture, an evening that celebrates the culmination of SOAG’s multi-year Visiting Curator Program with a reading, a curatorial panel, and the launch of three new publications.

The program begins with an opening reading by artist Erika DeFreitas, followed by a curatorial conversation featuring Grace Deveney, Shalaka Jadhav, and Lillian O’Brien Davis, moderated by Nic Wilson. A reception will follow, where guests can connect with the curators and artists and pick up the newly released publications documenting the exhibitions produced through the program.

Launched in Summer 2021, the Visiting Curator Program has helped shape conversations around contemporary art in the Prairies while creating meaningful opportunities for students, faculty, and community members to engage directly with curators working across Canada and the United States. The initiative was realized through three exhibitions at the School of Art Gallery: Open Structure (curated by Grace Deveney, Nov 3, 2022–Jan 28, 2023), The Performance of Shadows (curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis, Feb 16–Apr 29, 2023), and To Broadcast is to Scatter (curated by Shalaka Jadhav, Nov 30, 2023–Feb 10, 2024).

This capstone event recognizes the wide-ranging research, collaboration, and mentorship fostered by the program and highlights its lasting impact on artistic and curatorial practice at UM and across the region.

Register here to attend: showpass.com/exchange-as-a-symmetrical-gesture-visiting-curator-program-closing-celebration

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Featured Guests

Grace Deveney is the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago and an art historian with a PhD from Northwestern University. She previously served as Associate Curator for the Prospect.5 triennial in New Orleans and Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Shalaka Jadhav is a writer, researcher, and curator whose work bridges critical geographies, public memory, and queer ecologies. Trained in urban planning, they have curated exhibitions across Halifax, Winnipeg, Guelph, and Toronto, and co-direct Textile, a hyper-local arts collective in Waterloo Region.

Lillian O’Brien Davis is Associate Curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery. She has curated projects at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Susan Hobbs Gallery, and the School of Art Gallery, with writing published in BlackFlash, Peripheral Review, C Magazine, and RACAR.

Erika DeFreitas works across performance, photography, video, textiles, installation, drawing, and writing. Their practice examines loss, legacy, post-memory, gesture, and materiality, and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.

Nic Wilson is an artist and writer whose videos, performances, texts, and artist books explore time, queer lineage, and decay. They have exhibited nationally and internationally and were long-listed for the 2021 Sobey Art Award.

Accessibility and contact

The Desautels Concert Hall is accessible. For questions about access, ASL interpretation, or other accommodations, please contact the School of Art Gallery.

School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road, University of Manitoba (Fort Garry)
Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM (or by appointment; closed statutory holidays)
Email: gallery@umanitoba.ca | Phone: 204-474-9322

Originally led by Professor Grace Nickel, the project challenged students to explore the creative and technical complexities of working with raw materials, resulting in a collection of unique and innovative ceramic pieces.

Watch the full segment here: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/le-telejournal-manitoba/site/segments/reportage/2017158/fin-de-lexposition-de-ceramique-a-luniversite-du

Jon Sasaki: Homage & I Contain Multitudes
February 27 to April 26, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 27, 5:00–8:00 PM
Artist Talk: Thursday, February 27, 12:00–1:30 PM, 368 ARTlab
School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba

The School of Art Gallery is pleased to present two interconnected exhibitions by acclaimed Canadian artist Jon Sasaki. These thought-provoking works explore the intersections of art, history, and the unseen landscapes embedded within Canadian art legacies.

Jon Sasaki: Homage

Curated by Sarah Milroy

Organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Homage is a suite of large-scale photographs depicting petri dishes containing microbial cultures swabbed from the palettes and brushes of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson—artifacts housed in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection archives. Sasaki’s glowing bacterial landscapes reframe the genre of landscape painting through the lens of photography, offering a playful yet reverent engagement with the Group’s legacy. This iteration of Homage will debut a new commissioned work derived from holdings in the FitzGerald Study Centre Collection, further linking contemporary artistic practice with Canada’s art historical past.

Exhibition Sponsors: Richard and Donna Ivey
Supported by: Contact Photography Festival
Presented in Partnership with: FLASH Photographic Festival

Jon Sasaki: I Contain Multitudes

Curated by Blair Fornwald

Commissioned by the School of Art Gallery  

A newly commissioned body of work, I Contain Multitudes extends Sasaki’s exploration of Canadian art history by engaging directly with the extensive collection of Group of Seven artist and former School of Art Director Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. Inspired by FitzGerald’s delicate, strangely anthropomorphic tree renderings, Sasaki uses an endoscopic camera to document the hidden interiors of trees around FitzGerald’s former Winnipeg residence and driftwood from the beach near the FitzGerald family cottage on Bowen Island, British Columbia. These intimate and unsettling video landscapes challenge traditional notions of the artistic gaze, oscillating between scientific inquiry and aesthetic discovery.

Presented in Partnership with: FLASH Photographic Festival

Experience the Exhibitions

Join us for the artist talk and opening reception to experience these striking exhibitions firsthand. For more details, visit: umanitoba.ca/art/gallery

Contact Us:
School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2

Gallery Hours:
Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM
Or by appointment. Closed all statutory holidays.

Email: gallery@umanitoba.ca
Phone: 204-474-9322

Curated by Blair Fornwald, School of Art Gallery Director

Exhibition Dates: November 21, 2024–February 1, 2025
Location: School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba

Opening Events | Thursday, November 21

• Artist Talk: 12:00 PM–1:30 PM
  Location: 368 ARTlab, University of Manitoba (Live-stream on the School of Art Gallery UM YouTube channel)
  Accessibility: ASL interpretation and closed-captioning available.
• Reception: 5:00 PM–8:00 PM
  Location: Main Gallery, 255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba

Exhibition Overview

Filet lace, a meticulous craft introduced by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century, combines imagery and patterning on a gridded textile. With time, Filipino artisans developed a signature style, weaving pineapple leaf fibers into piña cloth, integrating lace with uniquely Philippine motifs. This textile craft evolved further during the American occupation, adapting to appeal to soldiers’ tastes and becoming a cultural bridge between continents.

Yumang’s work reinterprets this delicate medium, using it to recreate portraits of Filipino-American porn star Brandon Lee, originally known as Jon Enriquez. Lee’s mainstream “boyfriend material” roles in the 90s gay porn scene offered a subversive, non-stereotypical image of Asian masculinity. Interwoven into Yumang’s lace portraits are soft, sprawling textile sculptures, extending from bamboo frames, embodying themes of rupture, fluidity, and resistance against fixed identities and forms.

About the Artist

Jade Yumang was born in Quezon City, Philippines, raised in Dubai, UAE, and now resides in Chicago, IL. With a practice rooted in examining identity through craft and materiality, Yumang’s work has been featured internationally and supported by prestigious grants and residencies. They hold an MFA from Parsons School of Design and a BFA from the University of British Columbia and are currently an Associate Professor in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Additional Programming

Filet Lace Workshop: Meander in the Grid with Jade Yumang
Date: Saturday, November 23, 2024
Time: 12:30 PM–3:30 PM
Location: C2 Centre for Craft, 1-329 Cumberland Avenue

In partnership with the Manitoba Craft Council, this workshop will introduce participants to filet lace. Materials are provided, and all skill levels are welcome. Free registration required.

Contact Information
School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road, University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Email: gallery@umanitoba.ca
Phone: 204-474-9322
Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM (Closed on statutory holidays)

[School of Art Associate Professor Dominique Rey opens solo exhibition MOTHERGROUND at WAG-Qaumajuq]

“Mothers are often not featured in family photos.

They are the takers of the photos, the documentarians of their children’s lives. In Victorian-era photographs of toddlers, there are invisible mothers, propping up their children and keeping them still while disguised as pieces of furniture — or daubed out in black paint post-production — in what is now known as the hidden mother phenomenon.

Eight years ago, when Franco-Manitoban contemporary artist Dominique Rey was in Europe for an artist residency, her husband captured an indelible image of her playing with their daughter, Madeleine Coar, who was one and a half at the time.

They were in a dark tunnel in Brussels, golden-hour sunlight streaming in behind them, creating a backlit effect. But while both mother and daughter were cast as shadowy figures, Rey wasn’t a hidden mother. In that moment, she felt seen.” — Jen Zoratti, Winnipeg Free Press

To read the full story, please visit Winnipeg Free Press. 

MOTHERGROUND
By Dominique Rey with Madeleine and Auguste Coar
Opening Celebration: October 11, 2024, 7:00 p.m.
WAG-Qaumajuq
Free Admission
On view until March 31, 2025

To read the full story, please visit the Winnipeg Free Press.

The School of Art Gallery is excited to announce the opening of Sheila Butler: Other Circumstances, a compelling exhibition curated by Pamela Edmonds and Patrick Mahon, running from August 29 to October 26, 2024. This exhibition brings together a selection of paintings and works on paper that span 35 years of Sheila Butler’s extraordinary 50-year artistic career.

Sheila Butler: Other Circumstances explores the central themes that have consistently animated Butler’s practice, including figures in transition and conflict, mythological subjects reimagined through a feminist lens, and bodies suspended in water—a motif that has provided Butler with vast metaphorical possibilities. Her works often delve into the experiences of women, offering nuanced interpretations of the human condition from a gendered perspective.

The exhibition highlights notable works such as Female Icarus (1996) and Ophelia (1996), where Butler revisits and reinterprets archetypal myths. In Female Icarus, Butler offers an allegory of life’s cycles, depicting both falling figures and a rising swimmer, symbolizing transitional states between sky and earth.

Co-curator Pamela Edmonds emphasizes the relevance and complexity of Butler’s work, which addresses themes of chaos and boundary-challenging that remain pertinent today. Paintings like Black Walker (1978) and White Walker (1978) embody these themes, showcasing Butler’s ability to navigate and disrupt traditional boundaries in her art.

This exhibition was first presented at London, Ontario’s Satellite Project Space by Museum London and Arts & Humanities, Western University. Accompanying the exhibition is a richly illustrated 63-page catalogue, featuring essays by co-curators Edmonds and Mahon, as well as contributions from independent curator David Liss, artists Ed Pien and Julie Voyce, and an interview with Butler by emerging curator Sarah Charette.

About the Artist

Sheila Butler, born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and educated at Carnegie-Mellon University, has had a profound impact on the Canadian art scene since her emigration to Canada in 1962. Butler’s career includes significant contributions to the establishment of the Sanavik Arctic Cooperative in Baker Lake, Nunavut, and the founding of MAWA in Winnipeg, a mentoring organization for women in visual arts. Her work has been exhibited widely across Canada and internationally, and it is part of many public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

About the Curators

Pamela Edmonds is a renowned curator of contemporary art, currently serving as the Director and Curator of the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax. Her curatorial practice explores the intersection of social practice and visual arts, with a focus on Black diasporic cultures.

Patrick Mahon is an artist, writer, and curator, and Professor Emeritus in Visual Arts at Western University. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and his contributions to the Canadian art community include numerous curatorial projects that explore environmental and social themes.

Join us for the panel discussion and reception on September 19 to engage with the curators and celebrate the remarkable career of Sheila Butler. This is an exhibition not to be missed!

Among the stellar lineup of artists, this year’s exhibition proudly features and celebrates six BFA Honours graduates from the School of Art 2024: Mackenzie Anderson Linklater, Deinma David Iyagba, Sapphire Moon Moroz, Grete Drummond, and Matthew Wallbridge. These promising artists are making waves with their distinct styles and creative visions, promising to leave a lasting impact on the art world.

Selected School of Art Graduates:

Mackenzie Anderson Linklater
Mackenzie Anderson Linklater’s work focuses on intergenerational memory, familial narratives, and language, particularly through the practice of birch bark biting as a form of documentation. By incorporating contemporary materials and technologies, her laser-cut works transform and recontextualize traditional practices, creating a bridge between past and present.

Deinma David Iyagba
An artist from Southern Nigeria now based in Winnipeg, Canada, Deinma David Iyagba employs a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach in his art. Fascinated by the fluid and harmonious collaboration of various artistic mediums, Iyagba explores multi-dimensionality to delve into a diverse array of themes.

Sapphire Moon Moroz
Sapphire Moon Moroz’s work combines painting, sculpture, video, and installation to explore the intersections between viewer, subject, and space. By drawing on the history of the female image, the maker, and the audience, her work challenges viewer expectations and questions what it means to truly see and be seen as a woman, artist, and object.

Grete Drummond
Grete Drummond’s recent work “Colours of Nostalgia” is an autobiographical body of work that revisits her South African roots. Her paintings depict recurring objects and places from her life, serving as markers of moments shared with loved ones, encapsulating her personal experiences and heritage.

Matthew Wallbridge
Matthew Wallbridge explores the process of painting through a diverse range of styles, supports, tools, materials, and mark-making techniques. His instinctively reworked surfaces create complex layers that highlight the physicality of the painted object, inviting viewers into his dynamic exploration of the medium.

The Fresh Paint and New Construction exhibition is not just an exhibition but a powerful testament to the quality and relevance of emerging artistic practices in Canada and provides a platform for young artists to present their work to a wider audience, fostering a community of creativity and inspiration.

Exhibition Dates: July 20 – August 31, 2024
Reception: Saturday, July 20, 2024, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about the exhibition and the featured artists, please visit the Art Mûr website.

*Above images from the School of Art 2024 BFA Honours Graduating Exhibition

Opening Reception Details:

• Date: Friday, May 17, 2024
• Time: 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM
• Location: School of Art Gallery, 255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road, University of Manitoba

Exhibition Overviews:

Agata Garbowska: hauntings
hauntings leverages personal archives to delve into the phenomena of hauntings in relation to print media, memory, and time. Through the iterative processes of collage, printing, and reassembling, Garbowska investigates how past and remembered experiences shape our present. This exhibition invites viewers to ponder the decay of nostalgia and the transformation of built worlds into ruins.

• Public Thesis Defence: Thursday, May 23, 1:00 PM CT

Takashi Iwasaki: In My Living Room
In this exhibition, Iwasaki captures a moment of joy through the creation of tangible objects designed for intimate spaces like a living room. Working with clay, his works range from maquettes to functional pieces doubling as furniture, reflecting ongoing explorations of form and utility. This installation reflects Iwasaki’s indulgence in creativity and the ephemeral nature of pleasure.

• Public Thesis Defence: Wednesday, June 12, 10:00 AM CT

Benjamin Perron: What If the Sun Didn’t Rise
Perron challenges the conventions of photography by embracing alternative and experimental processes. Using materials like expired photographic paper and natural elements, his works encourage a slower, more contemplative engagement with art, aiming to reestablish a more embodied relationship with the world.

• Public Thesis Defence: Tuesday, May 21, 9:00 AM CT

We invite all art enthusiasts, students, and members of the community to join us in celebrating the achievements of these artists. Experience the power of new art and ideas that push the boundaries of traditional media and conceptual art practices. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to explore the latest in contemporary art at the University of Manitoba.

For more details about the artists and defence dates, visit https://umanitoba.ca/art/exhibitions-and-events#2024-mfa-thesis-exhibitions

A Historical Glimpse:

One hundred years ago, renowned author and Spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited Winnipeg to give a lecture on communicating with ghosts and spirits. In the audience that night were Winnipeg physician Thomas Glendenning Hamilton, and his wife, Lillian Hamilton, a nurse. The Hamiltons went on to conduct hundreds of controlled séance experiments investigating the possibility of personalities surviving corporeal death. These experiments resulted in a series of captivating photographs, which form the core of The Undead Archive. The Undead Archive and the accompanying anthology, The Art of Ectoplasm, contextualize the photographs from an art historical point of view, revealing attitudes to science and religion after World War I and the 1919 pandemic.

In the 1930s, Dr. Hamilton’s photographs were received in some international circles as scientific evidence of life after death.  In the early 2000s, they were digitized and circulated online, receiving a second wave of recognition, including by many artists. Featuring séance-related archival manuscripts, alternative scientific documents, and contemporary artworks in a variety of media, The Undead Archive highlights how contemporary artists from Winnipeg and around the world have responded to these photographs.

Showcased Talent:

Co-presented by the University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03, University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, and the University of Manitoba’s School of Art Gallery, the exhibition  features the work of twenty-two artists: KC Adams, Irene Bindi, Aston Coles, Celia Coles + Martin Finkenzeller, Teresa Burrows, Estelle Chaigne, Erika DeFreitas, Lily Despic, Chris Dorosz, Sarah Hodges-Kolisnyk, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson + Guy Maddin, Jodie Mack, Susan MacWilliam, Megan Moore, Michael Pittman, Paul Robles, Shannon Taggart, Tricia Wasney, Wendt + Dufaux, and Grace A. Williams, with historical photographs and documents from the Hamilton Family Fonds, housed at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections and the Survival Research Institute of Canada.

The Undead Archive is presented with the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council. The exhibition draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

When & Where?

• September 7 – November 10, 2023: Gallery 1C03, 1st Floor, Centennial Hall, The University of Winnipeg.
• September 21, 2023 to April 21, 2024: University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, 330 Elizabeth Dafoe Library, University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus.
• September 21 – November 10, 2023: School of Art Gallery, 255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus.

Opening Reception and Bus Tour:

Thursday, September 21

• 4:00-6:00 pm – The University of Winnipeg, Gallery 1C03
• 6:00-7:00 pm – University of Manitoba, Archives & Special Collections
• 7:00-9:00 pm – University of Manitoba, School of Art Gallery

Celebrate the opening of The Undead Archive at this one-night, three-part reception, starting at Gallery 1C03.

Need a ride? There will be a free bus transporting guests between venues. The bus will leave the University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 at 5:30 pm, delivering guests to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections and School of Art Gallery receptions. The bus will leave the School of Art Gallery at 8:45 pm, returning guests to the University of Winnipeg.

Events Not to Miss:

From opening receptions and workshops to online lectures and screenings, the exhibition promises a series of events that are sure to captivate and educate. 

• Tours with Dr. Serena Keshavjee: September 19, 20, 23
• Panel Discussion: Photographing Ghosts with Estelle Chaigne and Shannon Taggart: September 20, 12:00-1:30 pm
• Workshop: The 3rd Eye with Estelle Chaigne: September 20, 2:30-4:30 pm
• Performance: Estelle Chaigne: Surfaces sensible: September 21, 4:00-8:45 pm
• Online Lecture: Magick, Mediumship, and Contemporary Art by Dr. Grace A. Williams: September 22, 12:00-1:30 pm
• Symposium: Study of Psychic Phenomena: September 22-23, 7:00 pm – 5:00 pm
• Performance: Estelle Chaigne: Naï: September 26, 7:00 pm
• Panel Discussion: Unsettling the Spirits with KC Adams, Erika DeFreitas, Chris Dorosz, and Paul Robles: October 19, 4:00-5:15 pm
• Screening: Ceremonies of Light: The Films of Kenneth Anger: October 28, 7:00 pm
• Book Launch: The Art of Ectoplasm: Encounters with Winnipeg’s Ghost Photographs: November 1, 7:00 pm

For a detailed list of events and timings, click here.

Join us on a journey that blurs the lines between the known and the unseen, science and spirituality, art and history, as we explore The Undead Archive: 100 Years of Photographing Ghosts.