Access: Pay what you can event

Mauna Kea. Standing Rock. Kanesatake. Wet’suwet’en. These are a few of the many places on Turtle Island (North America) that are respected, honoured and continue to be safeguarded by Land Protectors in the face of extreme opposition. This exhibition pays tribute to the Indigenous artists and peoples who, since time immemorial, have protected something most precious to us all—the land. Works by Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, Robert Houle, Roy Kakegamic, Jane Ash Poitras, and other artists from Agnes’s collection, bring awareness to the consequences that arise if we over-exploit what Mother Earth provides.

Curated by Paige Van Tassel

This exhibition is supported by the City of Kingston Arts Fund, Kingston Arts Council and Celebrating Agnes Fund, Queen’s University. 

The ability of art to closely mimic nature formed a well-established trope in European painting of the early modern period. The intensified circulation of goods in trade-based empires such as the Dutch Republic therefore inevitably transformed illusionistic representation and its artistic and affective functions in art. Products and naturalia foreign or novel to early modern European audiences, such as shells, foodstuffs, and imported fabrics and gemstones provided artists with opportunities to represent myriad material qualities, yet were also coveted by patrons as items that signalled access and possession, and therefore wealth and status. Non-European textiles and forms of dress also fueled the artistic imagination in regards to the depiction of Biblical characters and ancient worlds, raising questions about the role of such uses in constructions of alterity.

This exhibition draws from a variety of Agnes’s collections to highlight how European painting genres such as still life, portraiture and history painting employed elements of an increasingly global material culture to new representational ends. In addition to realistically rendering a large variety of surfaces and textures, painters were advised to combine their skills in observation with their imagination to invent deceptively lifelike compositions. Representation, in this sense, takes on a double meaning—of artistic likeness as well as a complex process of signification. Works on display include recently acquired seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings by Carstian Luyckx, Pieter Claesz, Constantijn Verhout and Jan van Noordt.

Curated by Suzanne van de Meerendonk

Generously supported by the Bader Legacy Fund.

Through experimentation with sound, image, found texts and acts of counter-archiving of personal and political experiences, Where Were You in ‘92? brings forth the embodied archives of the ground-breaking legacy of Fresh Arts, a Black artist-led program that was born out of the fury of impassioned youth. Pamila Matharu, one of the mentees of Fresh Arts, returns not only to this pivotal moment but also to her mentor, Winsom Winsom, who’s more than decade-long activist history in Kingston ON is under-recognized. This research project begins with the basic premise that archives are manifested in living bodies, in repeated stories, in unfinished conversations, sparked by events of the past that persist into the present, and, importantly, in the healing practices of intergenerational connectivity. Interested in forms of feminist genealogies that cite what came before and using the archive as a forum for recognition, resilience and radical love, Matharu looks back to Toronto’s 1992 youth-led uprising on Yonge Street that gave rise to Fresh Arts. Where Were You in ‘92? traces new lines of connection across history and geography, drawing in those who inherit its legacy and holding up those who mobilized its centrifugal forces. A series of public and education programming is presented as an integral component of this exhibition.

The artists Nicolas Fleming, Sf Ho, Cindy Mochizuki, Lisa Myers, Laura Pitkanen, Camille Turner and Alize Zorlutuna in Fugitive Rituals examine belief systems embedded within institutional architecture and ask how we make changes with care to the systems that we have lived with for a very long time. The exhibition, as a discursive platform for a series of activations, offers intentional rituals to give palliative care to old systems that no longer work; to grieve and mourn what is lost; and to project into a speculative but collective future grounded in care and ecological considerations. Approaching the exhibition as an iterative ritual itself, where repeated acts of building, installing, disseminating, viewing and deinstalling transform the site, we might see the possibilities for escape from old colonial systems and seek sustenance through practicing each artist’s intentional ritual. The work in this exhibition engages with waste produced from previous exhibitions as well as selected objects from Agnes’s significant collection of cultural belongings as ways to consider ecological and relational concerns in art and exhibition-making.

Curated by Myung-Sun Kim

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario; David Bain Memorial Fund, Robert Sutherland Visitorship and the Inclusive Community Fund, Queen’s University.

The Masks We Wear is an installation made by Ashanti Maroon artist Winsom Winsom. She has a remarkable career as a multi-media artist with a background working in varied media: textiles, painting, video, installation and puppetry.

The installation includes Me Myself & I, a self-portrait of Winsom wearing a mask. In her notes for the I Rise exhibition (AGO, 2018), Winsom writes, “The covering mask that we wear, no one sees the real us due to all the hurts, oppression, disadvantage, that we experience in a lifetime, from generation to generation. The mask can change but to rid ourselves of it fully we need healing from the elements.”

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she immigrated to Canada in the 1970s and lived in the Kingston, Ontario area from 1974 to 1989. As the co-founder of Kingston’s Black Women’s Collective she worked with the Mayor’s office on issues of racism and attracted many Black activists to Kingston, including Angela Davis, Odetta, Dr Mavis Burke and Lincoln Alexander. Entwined with her career as an artist and activist, Winsom has a longstanding history as an art educator. She influenced the emergence of several Canadian artists, such as Pamila Matharu and d’bi.young anitafrikan.

This recent acquisition is on view, alongside Winsom’s mentee Pamila Matharu’s exhibition Where Were You in ’92?.

Mauna Kea. Standing Rock. Kanesatake. Wet’suwet’en. These are a few of the many places on Turtle Island (North America) that are respected, honoured and continue to be safeguarded by Land Protectors in the face of extreme opposition. This exhibition pays tribute to the Indigenous artists and peoples who, since time immemorial, have protected something most precious to us all—the land. Works by Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, Robert Houle, Roy Kakegamic, Jane Ash Poitras, and other artists from Agnes’s collection, bring awareness to the consequences that arise if we over-exploit what Mother Earth provides.

Curated by Paige Van Tassel

This exhibition is supported by the City of Kingston Arts Fund, Kingston Arts Council and Celebrating Agnes Fund, Queen’s University. 

The ability of art to closely mimic nature formed a well-established trope in European painting of the early modern period. The intensified circulation of goods in trade-based empires such as the Dutch Republic therefore inevitably transformed illusionistic representation and its artistic and affective functions in art. Products and naturalia foreign or novel to early modern European audiences, such as shells, foodstuffs, and imported fabrics and gemstones provided artists with opportunities to represent myriad material qualities, yet were also coveted by patrons as items that signalled access and possession, and therefore wealth and status. Non-European textiles and forms of dress also fueled the artistic imagination in regards to the depiction of Biblical characters and ancient worlds, raising questions about the role of such uses in constructions of alterity.

This exhibition draws from a variety of Agnes’s collections to highlight how European painting genres such as still life, portraiture and history painting employed elements of an increasingly global material culture to new representational ends. In addition to realistically rendering a large variety of surfaces and textures, painters were advised to combine their skills in observation with their imagination to invent deceptively lifelike compositions. Representation, in this sense, takes on a double meaning—of artistic likeness as well as a complex process of signification. Works on display include recently acquired seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings by Carstian Luyckx, Pieter Claesz, Constantijn Verhout and Jan van Noordt.

Curated by Suzanne van de Meerendonk

Generously supported by the Bader Legacy Fund.

Through experimentation with sound, image, found texts and acts of counter-archiving of personal and political experiences, Where Were You in ‘92? brings forth the embodied archives of the ground-breaking legacy of Fresh Arts, a Black artist-led program that was born out of the fury of impassioned youth. Pamila Matharu, one of the mentees of Fresh Arts, returns not only to this pivotal moment but also to her mentor, Winsom Winsom, who’s more than decade-long activist history in Kingston ON is under-recognized. This research project begins with the basic premise that archives are manifested in living bodies, in repeated stories, in unfinished conversations, sparked by events of the past that persist into the present, and, importantly, in the healing practices of intergenerational connectivity. Interested in forms of feminist genealogies that cite what came before and using the archive as a forum for recognition, resilience and radical love, Matharu looks back to Toronto’s 1992 youth-led uprising on Yonge Street that gave rise to Fresh Arts. Where Were You in ‘92? traces new lines of connection across history and geography, drawing in those who inherit its legacy and holding up those who mobilized its centrifugal forces. A series of public and education programming is presented as an integral component of this exhibition.

The artists Nicolas Fleming, Sf Ho, Cindy Mochizuki, Lisa Myers, Laura Pitkanen, Camille Turner and Alize Zorlutuna in Fugitive Rituals examine belief systems embedded within institutional architecture and ask how we make changes with care to the systems that we have lived with for a very long time. The exhibition, as a discursive platform for a series of activations, offers intentional rituals to give palliative care to old systems that no longer work; to grieve and mourn what is lost; and to project into a speculative but collective future grounded in care and ecological considerations. Approaching the exhibition as an iterative ritual itself, where repeated acts of building, installing, disseminating, viewing and deinstalling transform the site, we might see the possibilities for escape from old colonial systems and seek sustenance through practicing each artist’s intentional ritual. The work in this exhibition engages with waste produced from previous exhibitions as well as selected objects from Agnes’s significant collection of cultural belongings as ways to consider ecological and relational concerns in art and exhibition-making.

Curated by Myung-Sun Kim

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario; David Bain Memorial Fund, Robert Sutherland Visitorship and the Inclusive Community Fund, Queen’s University.

The Masks We Wear is an installation made by Ashanti Maroon artist Winsom Winsom. She has a remarkable career as a multi-media artist with a background working in varied media: textiles, painting, video, installation and puppetry.

The installation includes Me Myself & I, a self-portrait of Winsom wearing a mask. In her notes for the I Rise exhibition (AGO, 2018), Winsom writes, “The covering mask that we wear, no one sees the real us due to all the hurts, oppression, disadvantage, that we experience in a lifetime, from generation to generation. The mask can change but to rid ourselves of it fully we need healing from the elements.”

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she immigrated to Canada in the 1970s and lived in the Kingston, Ontario area from 1974 to 1989. As the co-founder of Kingston’s Black Women’s Collective she worked with the Mayor’s office on issues of racism and attracted many Black activists to Kingston, including Angela Davis, Odetta, Dr Mavis Burke and Lincoln Alexander. Entwined with her career as an artist and activist, Winsom has a longstanding history as an art educator. She influenced the emergence of several Canadian artists, such as Pamila Matharu and d’bi.young anitafrikan.

This recent acquisition is on view, alongside Winsom’s mentee Pamila Matharu’s exhibition Where Were You in ’92?.

Mauna Kea. Standing Rock. Kanesatake. Wet’suwet’en. These are a few of the many places on Turtle Island (North America) that are respected, honoured and continue to be safeguarded by Land Protectors in the face of extreme opposition. This exhibition pays tribute to the Indigenous artists and peoples who, since time immemorial, have protected something most precious to us all—the land. Works by Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, Robert Houle, Roy Kakegamic, Jane Ash Poitras, and other artists from Agnes’s collection, bring awareness to the consequences that arise if we over-exploit what Mother Earth provides.

Curated by Paige Van Tassel

This exhibition is supported by the City of Kingston Arts Fund, Kingston Arts Council and Celebrating Agnes Fund, Queen’s University. 

The ability of art to closely mimic nature formed a well-established trope in European painting of the early modern period. The intensified circulation of goods in trade-based empires such as the Dutch Republic therefore inevitably transformed illusionistic representation and its artistic and affective functions in art. Products and naturalia foreign or novel to early modern European audiences, such as shells, foodstuffs, and imported fabrics and gemstones provided artists with opportunities to represent myriad material qualities, yet were also coveted by patrons as items that signalled access and possession, and therefore wealth and status. Non-European textiles and forms of dress also fueled the artistic imagination in regards to the depiction of Biblical characters and ancient worlds, raising questions about the role of such uses in constructions of alterity.

This exhibition draws from a variety of Agnes’s collections to highlight how European painting genres such as still life, portraiture and history painting employed elements of an increasingly global material culture to new representational ends. In addition to realistically rendering a large variety of surfaces and textures, painters were advised to combine their skills in observation with their imagination to invent deceptively lifelike compositions. Representation, in this sense, takes on a double meaning—of artistic likeness as well as a complex process of signification. Works on display include recently acquired seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings by Carstian Luyckx, Pieter Claesz, Constantijn Verhout and Jan van Noordt.

Curated by Suzanne van de Meerendonk

Generously supported by the Bader Legacy Fund.

Through experimentation with sound, image, found texts and acts of counter-archiving of personal and political experiences, Where Were You in ‘92? brings forth the embodied archives of the ground-breaking legacy of Fresh Arts, a Black artist-led program that was born out of the fury of impassioned youth. Pamila Matharu, one of the mentees of Fresh Arts, returns not only to this pivotal moment but also to her mentor, Winsom Winsom, who’s more than decade-long activist history in Kingston ON is under-recognized. This research project begins with the basic premise that archives are manifested in living bodies, in repeated stories, in unfinished conversations, sparked by events of the past that persist into the present, and, importantly, in the healing practices of intergenerational connectivity. Interested in forms of feminist genealogies that cite what came before and using the archive as a forum for recognition, resilience and radical love, Matharu looks back to Toronto’s 1992 youth-led uprising on Yonge Street that gave rise to Fresh Arts. Where Were You in ‘92? traces new lines of connection across history and geography, drawing in those who inherit its legacy and holding up those who mobilized its centrifugal forces. A series of public and education programming is presented as an integral component of this exhibition.

The artists Nicolas Fleming, Sf Ho, Cindy Mochizuki, Lisa Myers, Laura Pitkanen, Camille Turner and Alize Zorlutuna in Fugitive Rituals examine belief systems embedded within institutional architecture and ask how we make changes with care to the systems that we have lived with for a very long time. The exhibition, as a discursive platform for a series of activations, offers intentional rituals to give palliative care to old systems that no longer work; to grieve and mourn what is lost; and to project into a speculative but collective future grounded in care and ecological considerations. Approaching the exhibition as an iterative ritual itself, where repeated acts of building, installing, disseminating, viewing and deinstalling transform the site, we might see the possibilities for escape from old colonial systems and seek sustenance through practicing each artist’s intentional ritual. The work in this exhibition engages with waste produced from previous exhibitions as well as selected objects from Agnes’s significant collection of cultural belongings as ways to consider ecological and relational concerns in art and exhibition-making.

Curated by Myung-Sun Kim

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario; David Bain Memorial Fund, Robert Sutherland Visitorship and the Inclusive Community Fund, Queen’s University.

The Masks We Wear is an installation made by Ashanti Maroon artist Winsom Winsom. She has a remarkable career as a multi-media artist with a background working in varied media: textiles, painting, video, installation and puppetry.

The installation includes Me Myself & I, a self-portrait of Winsom wearing a mask. In her notes for the I Rise exhibition (AGO, 2018), Winsom writes, “The covering mask that we wear, no one sees the real us due to all the hurts, oppression, disadvantage, that we experience in a lifetime, from generation to generation. The mask can change but to rid ourselves of it fully we need healing from the elements.”

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she immigrated to Canada in the 1970s and lived in the Kingston, Ontario area from 1974 to 1989. As the co-founder of Kingston’s Black Women’s Collective she worked with the Mayor’s office on issues of racism and attracted many Black activists to Kingston, including Angela Davis, Odetta, Dr Mavis Burke and Lincoln Alexander. Entwined with her career as an artist and activist, Winsom has a longstanding history as an art educator. She influenced the emergence of several Canadian artists, such as Pamila Matharu and d’bi.young anitafrikan.

This recent acquisition is on view, alongside Winsom’s mentee Pamila Matharu’s exhibition Where Were You in ’92?.