. Land Bodies, Decomposing Mass 21 February to 28 June 2026 Maria Simmons, Fabian Lanzmaier, Ingrid Bjørnaali, Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel Land Bodies, Decomposing Mass is a cross-Atlantic, audio-visual collaboration that explores the embodiment and translation of peatland knowledge through blending physical engagement with digital interpretations. As part of their collaboration, the artists have visited peat bogs in Finland, Estonia, Norway and Canada. Through recordings of those landscapes they find and interpret naturally created monuments like dead, standing trees held in place by the mires, and portals that connect past and present, the bubbles on the surface, and the subterranean world. Sculptures, sound, scent and photogrammetry-based methods of digital gathering, depict sites that form new virtual spaces, seeking a re-mystification and a non-quantifiable approach to peatlands. The exhibition juxtaposes a generative sound installation, moving image and sculpture into various combinations, offering alternative perspectives of the translated sites. Throughout the installation, scent unlocks other memories and relations, nudging the installation further into a site of transformation and translocation.  Installation + construction by Lawrence Salza, Soroush Dabiri, Maria, Simon, Fabian, and myself. With special support from the Office of Contemporary Art Norway (@oca_norway ) and the Austrian Embassy Canada. @rattsarina @piggsopp @fabianlanzmaier @ingridkbjorn

. Jenine Marsh: HARBINGER 18 October 2025 to 1 February 2026 On view at @kwartgallery with commissioned text by Alex Turgeon in limited publication, edition / 300 Those who know me best know that I love a solid installation, and this was definitely one of the most involved ones so far. Others have had more paint, or more build-outs, or more tech, but none have involved extensive trenching into the concrete floor or the circular drains cut into the floor that HARBINGER brought. Or the engineering reviews and approvals to make it happen. Jenine, Lawrence and Soroush did all of the heavy lifting. HARBINGER collides modes of excavation and construction, examining histories of sacrifice and utopic hope which emerge from the familiar ritual of throwing coins into fountains and wells to make a wish. The installation confronts coin-wishing as a subtle yet illicit expression of post-capitalist desire, explored through a tactile and temporal alteration of public space.  Thinking about coins and counterfeits, Turgeon writes: "Tethered to the central basin of HARBINGER, these counterfeits invite touching and holding, but never possession. Their worth is tied to their performance of being bound to their context as a wholly communal sacrament. As a false promise or an ultimate ruin, these mementos stage a form of future-past where currencies persist only as shared memory, a lost residue of geologic time."  I also get excited thinking about this exhibition in relation to Miles Rufelds 'Salvage Archives' as two concrete examples of ruining the gallery... that is, turning it temporarily into a somewhat ambiguous form of contemporary urban ruin. Ive been thinking a lot about the implications of this work and the themes emerging out of this Eastman space at KWAG. We are going to continue to complicate this narrative with some other substantial and dreamy installs coming up in 2026. Also, the difference between pretending to be within the floor via illusion or other technicality and literally cutting into the surface is substantial. Images by LF Documentation, other than the construction images which are my own. @jeninemarsh @celleryprix @lfdocumentation

. From 22 June to 20 October 2024, @kwartgallery hosted Billy Gauthier: Sila. Sila was the first mid-career survey by renowned sculptor @billy.l.gauthier outside of his home province of Newfoundland & Labrador. As an artist and activist of Inuit ancestry, Gauthier’s inspiration comes directly from an intimate connection with the land and culture of his home in North West River, Labrador. It remains the largest institutional exhibition of his work ever organized, with nearly 40 works from 10 public and private collections in Labrador, British Columbia and Ontario. In May 2024, I had the opportunity to visit Billy at home. We drove around North West River together, with Billy taking me to some places that were important for him. We shared a meal down by the river before Billy took his kayak out for a spin. We talked about the changing seasons, hunting for food, life in the community, the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, and so many other things. This project was special for a number of reasons. Not only is Billy one of the most generous artists that I’ve had the pleasure to work with, it was also an opportunity to deliver on a past promise to do a publication. The result, exceptionally designed by Mark Bennett (another absolute gem to work with) will definitely be submitted for various GOG award categories next year. It features commissioned texts by Logan MacDonald, Nigel Reading, Martha and Natascha Cerny, and myself. It also includes some medium format photography that I made while in Labrador - a few of those shots are included here too. This was a massive project. After organizing all of the loans, and producing an incredible catalogue (that is nearly sold out in Ontario), KWAG also built almost every single display case from scratch, all new plexi, a custom paint scheme, laser-etched labels (by Jeff Costa) and more. After all of that, we were able to purchase A Beautiful Struggle for the Permanent Collection with an incredible community campaign of 32 individual donations and with support from Elizabeth L. Gordon Art Program. The work graced the cover of the catalogue, and is included in our upcoming 70th anniversary collection exhibition in 2026.

. I haven't posted since Nov 2024. Mostly because I don't like it here. But, recently, I have been feeling bad about not using this platform as an opportunity to share some of the really amazing things that have been happening in terms of art and music over the last year. With that in mind, this is me trying this out again and maybe sharing some things here more often than never. A good place to 'start' again might be here... the dream collaboration with @milesrufelds that led to the exhibition Salvage Archives at @kwartgallery was recently recognized by @ontartgalleries for Installation and Design of the year, and I'm so happy for him and the very small team that made it happen at the gallery. For the Joyce Wieland project in 2023, we built some additional walls in the Eastman space. This created a sort of corridor, a transitional space between the lobby and the true inner sanctum of the gallery space proper. Since then, 8 other exhibitions have interpreted this space in different ways - for historical surveys, traditional medicines, hand painted murals - with each totally changing the feel of the space. Miles had a great feel for this room from the beginning, bathing it in fluorescent light and bookending it with the plastic curtain from the chilled warehouse. Miles also made the most of a temporary installation space behind the front desk, making an extra derelict office into a scheming bunker of the films protagonist. And the third room of the install - the piled pallets, organic debris, and garbage, the pristine digital projection and 4 channel audio soundscape - was truly transformative. I'm proud of what we did and it feels nice to have the recognition too, of course. This was the first ruination of the gallery, something that is echoed currently in a present installation (though w vastly different results and intents... another post to come) and foregrounding a latent theme in our curatorial programming since 2021. Receiving the installation award is extra nice, not only because I take a lot of pride in raising the bar every single installation, but because the team of Lawrence and Soroush work so hard and this award looks good on them.

. SOS: A Story of Survival, Part III – The Planet 9 November 2024 to March 9 2025 Ari Bayuaji @aribayuaji Ashley Beerdat @ashleybeerdat Claire Greenshaw @mrs_woman Dan Hudson @danhudsonart Jennifer Murphy @me.and.melie Ludovic Boney @ludovicboney Maggie Groat @mother_colour Melissa Doherty @melissamdoherty Michael Belmore @michaelbelmore Nestor Krüger Robert Houle Roshan James @roshan_james Curated by Darryn Doull @kwartgallery OPENING: Friday 15 November 7-10P w DJ Charlie Star ARTIST TALKS: Dan Hudson, Saturday 16 November 2P Nestor Krüger, Thursday 20 February 7P CURATORIAL TOURS: Sunday 1 December 2P Thursday 27 February 7P More programming TBA SOS: A Story of Survival is a three-part exhibition exploring what survival is, what it looks like and what it means to survive. Part I – The Image launched the series from a place of cultural history in the art museum, as artists brought images and histories together to survive in new forms and contexts. Part II – The Body brought issues, frameworks, struggles and successes of local and global significance alongside one another and looked to the body as a tool of survival while interrogating the forces that threaten it. The exhibition series has never pretended to have the answers to solve global climate collapse. We are already past many of the tipping points. There is no going back for the living generations. Instead, the series offers alternative and hybrid nodes, relations and techniques as pathways into the future and of recuperating hope, juxtaposing the individual with community and emphasizing mutual aid. Part III – The Planet draws attention back to the matter of our world: to the rocks beneath our feet, the air in our lungs and the water throughout and all around us. Or, as Roshan James poetically reminds us: "we are all connected by marrow and air." Photos courtesy of KWAG, by Toni Hafkenscheid.

. My week in big beautiful Labrador, spent bouncing around between Goose Bay, North West River, Shesh, and Muskrat Falls, is coming to an end. I was here to spend some time with Billy Gauthier (carrying the kayak) in advance of the opening of his exhibition, Sila, at @kwartgallery on June 21. We are also working on Billy's first monograph, so we did an interview on Tuesday and checked out the new work that will make its debut in this exhibition. I also got to visit the Labrador Interpretation Centre for the first time, where I curated the exhibition 'I Went to Hebron Once...' with work by Chris Sampson, Gerald Squires, Josephina Kalleo, Marlene Creates, Samantha Jacque and Sarah Feltham for @therooms_nl in 2019. The super welcoming and generous staff made my visit even more memorable. Most of these photos are from Monday, the only day without rain, but still can't wait to come back sometime and make it up to Torngat. Was pretty surreal to come to HVGB and see people riding dirt bikes across sand dunes.

. FASTWÜRMS: #VOLCANO_LOV3R soft opening and artist talk today at @kwartgallery . Get there for 1:00 pm, talk starts at 1:30 pm. On the heels of their GG award, their first exhibition post-retirement, and our third time working together on a project (so far), there's been a lot coalescing around this project. Not that there's relations between all of that, but I also can't separate it all entirely. Some of these works are brand new, while others were included in projects that I was a part of back in 2016. FASTWÜRMS also understood the corridor within Eastman Gallery in a beautiful way, turning it into the Relic Room, with works from the early 90s through to the present, establishing a sort of visual and iconographic trajectory to the current vocabulary. So cool to unwrap these works and wipe them down for the first time in many moons. I couldn't be happier with how the exhibition came together. I hope you can make it to the talk today and if not, the artist will be back on Friday June 21 at 7:00 pm for our full Summer Cycle opening celebration. A huge thanks for Jennifer B, Lawrence S, and Soroush D - the exhibition wouldn't have happened without you.

. 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘓𝘶𝘫𝘢𝘯: 𝘜𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 14 October 2023 - 28 January 2024 @kwartgallery Dreamy perfect exhibition documentation by @lfdocumentation From the website: 𝘜𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 addresses the process by which different cultures approach each other as a result of travel and communication. Sidestepping identity to focus on transnational experiences and aesthetics, the work relates the ways in which culture is exported and diffused into nations. The possibilities and limitations of the exchanging of ideas, meanings and values is centered while questioning concepts of authenticity and authorship. Lujan draws attention to transitive zones where processes of the unfamiliar become familiar, and the familiar becomes destabilized beyond expectation. @jason_texas_canada

. Buffalo AKG ... is looking fine!

. SOS: A Story of Survival, Part II - The Body 26 August 2023 to 7 January 2024 @kwartgallery Adad Hannah @adadhannah , Amy Smoke @amysmoke , Arjuna Neuman #arjunaneuman, Bangishimo @bangishimo , Denise Ferreira da Silva @livingcommons , Erik O'Neill #erikoneill, FASTWÜRMS @kimkozzi @daiskuse , John Marriott @johnmarriottstudio , Kim Dorland @kimdorland , Karine Giboulo @karinegiboulo , Mary Kavanagh #marykavanagh, Paul Roorda @paul_roorda_artist , Stephen Andrews @stephenandrewsartist , Wendy Coburn #wendycoburn, Will Gorlitz #willgorlitz, and objects from the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum SOS: A Story of Survival is a three-part exhibition exploring what survival is, what it looks like and what it means to survive. For Part II – The Body, issues, frameworks, struggles and successes of local and global significance are brought together. Subjects include the absolute destruction of war and conflict, comfort with death as a way of living more fully, migration, food and housing insecurity, and the raucous collapse of our shared environment. The exhibition is a quietly contemporary project in that it does not pretend to find solutions to these extreme circumstances. We are past all of the tipping points. There is no going back. Instead, the works and artists gathered together here each propose and embody alternative frameworks, relations and possibilities. These are tools for survival amongst the gently falling ashes gathering on the ground and in our lungs. If we must warm our feet on the fires of the Anthropocene, how might it become possible that the distinct geological change that marks the epoch be inverted to one that is positive, recuperative and community-led? It seems that change takes time, but Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges reminds us: Centuries and centuries and only in the present do things happen. Our generation(s) must contrast our origins and find footfall upon unknown terrain, buoyed by care and mutual aid, so that our 81.1 years of expected corporeal survival are something more than running, relocating and rebuilding from the latest collapse and disaster. This is a story of survival. 📸 Documentation by @lfdocumentation . #SOS

. 𝘓𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦𝘺: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘺𝘱𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 (𝘐) The Met rooftop commission 18 April - 22 October 2023 Amazing installation on the roof, baking in the sun, details everywhere. From the website: American artist Lauren Halsey (b. 1987, Los Angeles) has been commissioned to create a site-specific installation for The Met's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Halsey will create a full-scale architectural structure imbued with the collective energy and imagination of the South Central Los Angeles Community where she was born and continues to work. Titled the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I), the installation is designed to be inhabited by The Met’s visitors, who will be able to explore its connections to sources as varied as ancient Egyptian symbolism, 1960s utopian architecture, and contemporary visual expressions like tagging that reflect the ways in which people aspire to make public places their own.

. 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘪 𝘔𝘶𝘵𝘶: 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 2 March - 4 June Curated by Margot Norton and Vivian Crockett with Ian Wallace The New Museum Quite possibly my favourite exhibition from my recent trip to NYC. A magical, otherworldly escape throughout the entire New Museum. Really nice install details too - the risers and lighting are all on point + incredible wall treatments throughout the facility, including the fade in the last image from the fourth (?) floor. From the website: The New Museum presents a major solo exhibition of the work of Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972, Nairobi), which will bring together over one hundred works from across her twenty-five year career.  Representing the full breadth of her practice, the presentation will encompass painting, collage, drawing, sculpture, film, and performance. Mutu first gained acclaim for her collage-based practice exploring camouflage, transformation, and mutation. She extends these strategies to her work across various media, developing hybrid, fantastical forms that fuse mythical and folkloric narratives with layered sociohistorical references. “Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined” will trace connections between recent developments in the artist’s sculptural practice and her decades-long exploration of the legacies of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions. At once culturally specific and transnational in scope, Mutu’s work grapples with contemporary realities, while proffering new models for a radically changed future informed by feminism, Afrofuturism, and interspecies symbiosis.