Wally Dion: a thousand tiny prayers

November 6, 2025 – February 14, 2026
Curated by Blair Fornwald
School of Art Gallery, 255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 6, 5:00–8:00 PM

Dion’s textile-based portraits and star blankets examine the generative and communal power of plaiting, stitching, and assembly—processes that bind individual elements into something stronger and more beautiful than their parts. Drawing on the interwoven nature of communities and ecosystems, Dion’s works also reflect on Indigenous identity, cultural resistance, and solidarity across global struggles for justice and self-determination.

Vibrant, luminous, and intricately detailed, Dion’s quilts and composite portraits merge synthetic fabrics, floral scarves, and translucent papers into layered reflections on care, strength, and connection. His recent works incorporate rose motifs—symbols shared across Indigenous, Ukrainian, and Palestinian communities—as gestures of empathy and unity.

Dion, a member of Yellow Quill First Nation (Saulteaux), has exhibited widely in Canada and the United States. His work is held in the public collections of the Remai Modern, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the Portland Art Museum, and the Autry Museum of the American West, among others.

Related Events

Quilting Workshops with Wally Dion
November 1–6 | Studio 460 (460 ARTlab)
Drop in throughout the week to design and create patchwork quilt faces using the bright, iridescent fabrics featured in Dion’s work. Artist-led sessions: November 1, 3, and 5. All supplies provided. No experience necessary — just curiosity and creativity.
Register to attend

Artist Talk with Wally Dion
Thursday, November 6 | 12:00–1:30 PM | 468 ARTlab
Join the artist in conversation about his practice, cultural influences, and the ideas behind a thousand tiny prayers.
Also live-streamed on the School of Art Gallery YouTube channel.
ASL interpretation and YouTube closed captioning available.

Wally Dion: a thousand tiny prayers invites viewers to imagine a world strengthened by connection, compassion, and collective care.

School of Art Gallery

255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba
Free admission | All are welcome

Monday-Friday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm or by appointment

Reception & Keynote with Robert Harrison: Thursday, October 30 | 5:00–8:00 PM
(Keynote Presentation & Slideshow: 6:00 PM | Room 366 ARTlab)

The University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery is pleased to present Robert Archambeau: One Leads to the Next, a retrospective exhibition honouring the life and work of one of Canada’s most influential ceramic artists. Featuring a selection of key works in clay and on paper, the exhibition traces Archambeau’s six-decade career as an artist, educator, and mentor whose impact continues to resonate in studios across Canada and beyond.

Working in clay for more than sixty years, Archambeau developed a body of work recognized for its refinement, restraint, and technical mastery. Deeply influenced by the ceramic traditions of Japan, Korea, and China, his vessels reveal a devotion to form and process that merges discipline with intuitive experimentation. One Leads to the Next brings together groupings and variations that illuminate his ongoing investigation of the vessel—its endless potential for reinvention—and the quiet dialogue between surface, shape, and fire.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Archambeau served in the U.S. Marine Corps before completing his BFA at Bowling Green State University and an MFA at Alfred University. He taught at the Rhode Island School of Design before joining the University of Manitoba’s School of Art in 1968, where he shaped generations of ceramic artists until his retirement in 1991. His contributions to the field earned numerous accolades, including the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2003), the Manitoba Arts Council Award of Distinction (2014), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (2008). Archambeau was named Professor Emeritus in 2004 and passed away in Winnipeg in 2022.

About the Keynote Speaker

Robert Harrison is a practicing artist based in Helena, Montana, whose 40-year career spans large-scale architectural sculpture and studio ceramics. A graduate of the University of Manitoba (BFA) and the University of Denver (MFA), Harrison is a Fellow of NCECA and a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, the World Association of Brick Artists, and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. His projects, exhibitions, and publications—including Sustainable Ceramics: A Practical Guide (Bloomsbury/ACS, 2013)—reflect a sustained commitment to material innovation and environmental consciousness.

About the Curator

Candice Ring is a studio potter from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the Ceramics Studio Technician at the University of Manitoba. A former studio assistant and longtime friend of Archambeau, Ring brings a personal perspective to this exhibition. She holds a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Manitoba and an MFA in Studio Art from Arizona State University, and has exhibited her work throughout North America, Australia, and China.

Exhibition Details

Robert Archambeau: One Leads to the Next
October 16 – November 14, 2025
Curated by Candice Ring
School of Art Gallery – Collections Gallery, 255 ARTlab
Reception & Keynote with Robert Harrison: Thursday, October 30 | 5:00–8:00 PM
Keynote Presentation and Slideshow: 6:00 PM | Room 366 ARTlab

umanitoba.ca/art/robert-archambeau-one-leads-next

Free admission · Everyone welcome.

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

Valmestad’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in an intimate engagement with nature, shaped by personal history and philosophical reflection. From the sweeping expanses of the Prairies to the elemental terrains of Norway, Iceland, and Newfoundland, Valmestad seeks out open vistas as emotional and contemplative spaces. Her paintings probe the interplay of light, spatial tension, and atmosphere (Stemning), drawing on the aesthetics of the Sublime to evoke awe, unease, and introspection. 

For Valmestad, Nature is not merely a subject but a force. Its rawness and immensity serve as a catalyst for emotional resonance and a profound sense of place. Artist residencies in Iceland (Iceland Up Close, UM Today) and Newfoundland have furthered this inquiry, offering her access to coastal landscapes that mirror the rugged spirit of northern geographies. These experiences continue to shape her visual language and deepen her exploration of space and water. 

In this latest series, Liv Valmestad explores the raw beauty of Newfoundland’s Atlantic coast, continuing her inquiry into Nature’s emotional and spatial presence. Influenced by the aesthetics of the Sublime, her paintings evoke both awe and unease, capturing the elemental force of coastal landscapes. 

Inspired by her residency at Bareneed Studios on the traditional territories of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit, Valmestad reflects on our deep ecological connection to place. Fishing nets appear as abstracted forms, symbolizing human impact and the enduring rhythms of coastal life. Guided by Deep Ecology, her work calls for reverence toward Nature and a renewed awareness of our place within it. 

Beyond her studio practice, Liv Valmestad currently serves as the second Canadian President of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), a leading international organization representing over 1,000 art information professionals across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Founded in 1972, ARLIS/NA includes Canadian founding member Peter Anthony, then Head Librarian of the Architecture/Fine Arts Library at the University of Manitoba. 

Visitors of St John’s College are encouraged to stop by the Quiet Room to experience this powerful body of work. 

Representing the Prairies region, Ukaigwe joins a distinguished shortlist of six artists selected from across the country, each chosen for their exceptional contributions to the visual arts in Canada. This year’s shortlist, announced on June 3, 2025, by the National Gallery of Canada and the Sobey Art Foundation, highlights the diversity and strength of Canadian artistic practice today.

Born in Nigeria and currently based in Winnipeg, Ukaigwe is an artist, curator, and writer whose interdisciplinary practice spans painting, installation, video, and performance. His work explores semiotic dissonance, shared authorship, and fractured time, drawing on influences such as experimental music, speculative fiction, and diasporic histories. Through immersive audiovisual environments, he challenges traditional subject-object divides and seeks to create new sociographies rooted in community and collaboration.

Ukaigwe is also a founding member of the curatorial collective Patterns Collective, and has participated in residencies and exhibitions across Canada and internationally. His art is held in public collections, including the School of Art Gallery.

“His work is a way of annotating, augmenting, defacing, transposing, and rewriting in the margins of history,” notes the National Gallery of Canada.

As part of the Sobey shortlist, Ukaigwe will receive $25,000 in prize money and will be featured in the 2025 Sobey Art Award Exhibition, which opens at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on October 3, 2025, and runs through February 8, 2026. The overall winner, who will receive $100,000, will be announced during a special celebration on November 8, 2025.

Ukaigwe joins a remarkable cohort of shortlisted artists:

• Tarralik Duffy (Circumpolar region)
• Tania Willard (Pacific region)
• Sandra Brewster (Ontario region)
• Swapnaa Tamhane (Quebec region)
• Hangama Amiri (Atlantic region)

Each artist was selected by an independent jury of leading curators and arts professionals from across Canada and abroad.

We’re thrilled to see Dubem’s work recognized on a national stage and can’t wait to see his contributions in the fall exhibition. Congratulations!

Learn more about the Sobey Art Award: gallery.ca/whats-on/sobey-art-award

Maryam Bagheri | Laila Fazal | Xianghui Guan | Frankie May | Netsanet Shawl | Lisha Wang

This spring, the School of Art and School of Art Gallery proudly present the thesis exhibitions of graduating MFA students from the University of Manitoba. Featuring six individual exhibitions, the series highlights the range and diversity of contemporary art practice—spanning performance, painting, sculpture, ceramics, video, and installation.

Each exhibition represents the culmination of two years of rigorous studio research. Together, these works offer layered reflections on memory, identity, materiality, gender, place, and politics—contributing new perspectives to contemporary art discourse.

Exhibition Dates: May 23–June 20, 2025
Reception: Friday, May 23, 5:00–8:00 PM
Location: School of Art Gallery, 180 Dafoe Road, University of Manitoba

Thesis examinations are open to the public and held at the School of Art Gallery.

Featured Exhibitions & Thesis Examinations

Maryam Bagheri — Unwinding Complexity: Reflections on Disentanglement
Bagheri’s work merges painting, sculpture, and weaving to explore memory, diaspora, and feminism. Drawing from Iranian heritage and feminist craft histories, her pieces challenge the boundaries between fine art and traditional women’s labour.
Thesis Examination: Friday, June 6, 2025 | 9:00 AM

Laila Fazal — Woven Roots
Fazal’s vibrant mixed-media works draw from Bengali scroll painting and post-colonial histories. Her paintings and performances reflect on immigration, tradition, and the transformation of identity across diasporic experience.
Thesis Examination: Thursday, May 29, 2025 | 1:00 PM

Xianghui Guan — The Protagonist
Through painting and graphic narrative, Guan examines memory, trauma, and identity formation. Drawing from themes of childhood, migration, and familial loss, his fragmented visual storytelling resists linearity, invoking emotional and perceptual depth.
Thesis Examination: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | 1:00 PM

Frankie May — Everyday Life Revolution
May’s provocative practice combines performance, photography, and video to critique societal norms and ideological conditioning. His absurdist approach offers a radical reimagining of perception and daily life as political acts.
Thesis Examination: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | 1:00 PM

Netsanet Shawl — From Earth to Art
Shawl’s sculptural vessels made from clay and natural grasses explore cultural identity, migration, and ancestral knowledge. Rooted in Ethiopian and Indigenous traditions, her interdisciplinary work investigates how materials embody memory, land, and labour.
Thesis Examination: Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 1:00 PM

Lisha Wang — L.I.F.E.
Wang’s conceptual practice engages with the representation and reconfiguration of life through text, video, photo, sound, and performance. Her minimalist approach is grounded in philosophical questioning and interdisciplinary research.
Thesis Examination: Friday, June 6, 2025 | 1:00 PM

Contact & Info
Donna Jones
204.474.9322
donna.jones@umanitoba.ca

School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
204.474.9367 | umanitoba.ca/art

Gallery Hours:
Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Closed on statutory holidays

Accessibility & Parking:
ARTlab is wheelchair accessible. Accessible parking is available; contact Parking Services at 204.474.9483 or parking_services@umanitoba.ca. Visitor parking is available in lots ACW and AC (free after 4:30 PM on weekdays and all day on weekends).

Toronto interdisciplinary artist Jon Sasaki is much more concerned with the micro landscapes we don’t see.

For Homage, on view now at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art Gallery, Sasaki swabbed the palettes and brushes used by Thomson and members of the Group of Seven — objects belonging to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection archives — and allowed the microbial cultures to bloom in petri dishes. He then photographed the results and blew them up.

To read the entire article, please follow the link to The Free Press.

Jon Sasaki’s I Contain Multitudes, presented in conjunction with the Flash Photographic Festival, can be seen as a responsorial exhibit to the works of Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald, the former director of the School of Art and member of the iconic Group of Seven. 

Read more and catch the full interview here: Classic 107. 

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

The Maryon Adelaar Donation

Exhibition Dates: December 4, 2024 – January 17, 2025
Opening Event: December 10, 2024, 2:30 PM (Reception, Panel Discussion, and Exquisite Corpse-athon)

School of Art Gallery: 255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba

The School of Art proudly presents Kidult Club: The Collaborative Kinetics of the Royal Art Lodge, ca. Y2K, an exhibition showcasing a generous donation of Royal Art Lodge works from around the year 2000, gifted by Maryon Adelaar of Vancouver. This unique collection, curated collaboratively by students of the Introduction to Curatorial Studies course under the guidance of Professor Oliver Botar, captures the playful and inventive spirit of one of the most influential artist collectives to emerge in contemporary art.

About the Exhibition

The Royal Art Lodge, founded by School of Art alumni in the mid-1990s, rose to international acclaim during the early 2000s, celebrated for their distinct blend of humor, dynamic hybrid creatures, and collaborative energy. Through whimsical yet complex works, the collective blurred the boundaries between structure and rebellion—an exploration of the so-called “kidult” phase bridging adolescence and young adulthood.

This exhibition delves into the Royal Art Lodge’s profound influence on contemporary art, celebrating their playful approach to collective creation and the way their work continues to inspire School of Art students today. Visitors will encounter a vibrant array of pieces showcasing the dynamic interplay of ideas between collective members and their ability to reimagine artistic collaboration.

Special Opening Event: December 10, 2024 at 2:30 pm

The exhibition’s opening event promises an engaging afternoon, featuring:

• A Reception celebrating the exhibition and the Maryon Adelaar donation.
• A Panel Discussion with curators and special guests, offering insights into the Royal Art Lodge’s creative process and cultural impact.
• An Exquisite Corpse-athon, a collaborative drawing activity inspired by the Lodge’s signature techniques.

Join us for this exciting opportunity to explore the creative kinetics of the Royal Art Lodge and celebrate their enduring legacy.