August 4th - September 6th
Artist Reception: August 23rd, 3 - 5pm
Monday - Friday, 3pm - 5pm & Saturday, 12pm - 5pm
Hours may be subject to change, and gallery is not available while classes are in session
This group exhibition showcases work from the individuals and groups who answered the call for our 2025 Creative Dissent award. Inspired by an exhibition of the same name at the Art Gallery of Guelph, which focused on protest banners, our award supports creative responses to issues around the environment, social justice, politics and human rights.
Click below to learn more about our individual artists, and see their work.
Ana PlatanosEmail: ana.platanos.art@gmail.com Ana Platanos (They/she) is a Queer Latina artist based in Guelph, Ontario. Ana is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in Honours Studio Art. They are a multimedia artist with a focus on performance and video. Her work stems from the of social stratification specifically trades labour as it pertains to Latino men and their families. Also silly stuff too.
Title: Paper Weight
Size: aprox 44" x 32"
Medium: Mixed Media
Price: NFS
Paper Weight is about my experience as a Latina person raised by and around Latino trades men. Construction sites are known for their unspoken segregation. Stories of prejudice and racist acts on job sites are something I've become accustomed to. Whether documented citizens or not, under the table jobs were frequently taken out of necessity by men in my community. Paper is a frail material, and yet it can carry so much weight when one’s situation is similarly delicate. Government papers carry a-lot of weight. |
Erik van MiltenburgWebsite: https://metrikstudio.com/ Email: erik@metrikstudio.com Erik, as a furniture design/maker, began the work by apprenticing with a European master cabinetmaker, and continues to be influenced by the Dutch design movement “de Stijl”. He was born in den Haag, Holland, and grew up in a multilingual household in about 18 locations in Quebec and Ontario, Canada. His furniture work is in daily use in Ireland, Greece, the United States, and Canada. All the craft “Playroom” pieces are made from diverted landfill, with the exception of necessary adhesives and the occasional use of hardboard or other backing materials. These ’Sunday afternoon’ diversions are generally themed by current issues which bug the maker, focused on consumer waste.
Title: 'Border Wall’ 2018 ‘Border Wall”: The hard line separating the have-nots and the haves, in this case between the maquiladoras and the swimming pools in the North - the bread tabs in these pieces generally represent humans.
Title: 'Exporting Democracy, or Winning Hearts and Minds' 2012
Title: 'Mandala - Come, Let Us Shop' 2010 Based on a standard Tibetan mandala layout - The usual mix of our repetitive shopping, most of which is briefly loved, rendered obsolete, then landfilled |
Gail Kiyomi BurginInstagram: @rescuedbears "Canada declared war on Japan in December 1941 and used the War Measures Act to force Japanese Canadians to live in internment camps until 1949. In 1943 the Canadian government liquidated all Japanese-Canadian real estate, businesses, boats and farms to pay for the cost of the internment. In 1942, my mother and her siblings were sent to an internment camp in Northern B.C., far from their birthplace of Surrey, a municipality of Metro Vancouver. My father joined the Canadian Army Intelligence Corps and served until the end of the war. My dad’s war experience reflected my own life of being on the cusp of two cultures and not being sure where you belonged. He was born in Canada and very proud to serve in the Canadian army. He was also very proud to be Japanese and fully embraced the Japanese belief of loyalty to country. But which country? His role was to translate Japanese wireless transmissions into English and deliver them to Army Intelligence. My parents rarely spoke Japanese and I absorbed only a few words. One phrase I heard often was “Shikata ga nai” — simply translated to mean “It cannot be helped” but more broadly reflecting a philosophy of acceptance and resilience. When I learned “Shikata ga nai” was said by the people in the camps to themselves and each other every day, I understood the body language that always accompanied the words. My parents would bow their heads and utter the words like a prayer."
Denim Shirt This shirt represents the trauma of having your rights as a Canadian citizen ripped away from you and turns “Shikata ga nai” into a question and answers back — “It could have been helped”
Dress with ties displayed from the back The torn maple leaf represents how a government given the power to enact the War Measures Act and use it against their law abiding citizens is a broken one. In 1942, senior members of the RCMP and the Canadian military stated Japanese Canadians posed no threat to national security and opposed the internment. The federal government overruled their recommendations. The ties with the text - “One Day You’re Living Your Life, The Next You’re An Enemy Alien” speak for themselves. |
Jasper SparrowEmail – birdsongwitchery@gmail.com Instagram - @birdsongwitchery Jasper Sparrow (they/them) is a queer, disabled visual artist and psychotherapist living and working in Dish with One Spoon Wampum Covenant Territory. Their artistic and therapeutic practices are rooted in empathy, curiosity, and care. Jasper’s work bridges the therapeutic and the artistic, offering layered reflections on humanity, decay, justice, and humility. Largely self-taught and currently pursuing a Diploma in Fine Art from the Dundas Valley School of Art, Jasper works with watercolour, pastel, ink, pencil crayon, and found materials to explore the tension between patience and urgency in both personal and collective healing.
Title: All of these trash birds All of these trash birds is a mixed media mobile that responds to a world where everything can be disposable, from packaging, to animals, to people. The piece incorporates discarded items into trash sculptures, that are then paired with drawings of birds that are considered to be undesirable including Canadian geese, sparrows, and seagulls. The gentle movement of the trash sculptures invites the viewer to contemplate what happens when you build a landscape that only allows certain types of creatures to thrive. Do you cherish what comes? Or do you call it trash and blame it for existing in your space? |
Karen LoganEmail: karen@karenloganart.ca "I hold a deep reverence for the interconnectedness of all living beings. Indigenous leaders remind us to honor the land, air, and water, cautioning that harm to the natural world inevitably affects humanity. I am driven to amplify this message, endeavoring to raise awareness of Hamilton's tremendous biodiversity. I hope to bridge the gap between urban dwellers and our natural world, igniting a sense of wonder and urgency for conservation efforts. To further emphasize the fragile nature of my subjects I work on semi absorbent Mulberry rice paper using Chinese Brush Painting techniques and materials. Each painting reminds me of the delicate beauty that surrounds us and the need to protect our precious ecosystems. Following the example of Hamilton’s Natural Areas Inventory I am creating a comprehensive digital resource highlighting many of the threatened and endangered species through a blend of artistic representation, informative descriptions and scientific content. The development of such a resource will allow everyone easily accessible information about what species and habitats we have, and are at risk of losing, in the Hamilton area. Combining my artistic passion and skill with my knowledge and love of nature and science I want to highlight the amazing biodiversity found in the Hamilton area and share it with others. My thanks go out to the City of Hamilton – City Enrichment Fund and the Hamilton Industrial Environmental Association for their support in helping to complete this project."
Title: Eastern Chipmunk – Tamias striatus
Title: Labrador Tea – Ledum groenlandicum
Title: Showy Lady Slipper – Cypripedium reginae
Title: Pitcher Plant – Sarracenia purpurea
Title: Red-headed Woodpecker – Melanerpes erythrocephalus
Title: Snapping Turtle – Cheyydra serpentina |
Katie Tonetti"I have spent the bulk of my career working with victims of violent crime; and more specifically, women who have experienced violence. I feel a duty and responsibility to explore ways in which women are marginalized and how women are experiencing that and taking back their lives. As an educated, straight white woman, I recognize my privilege. I work to be conscious of that privilege and how it has framed my world-view. I am in a position now to be able to explore and express by creative means, my thoughts on the world around me. Working mostly in fibre and mixed media, my goal is to explore the ever- changing social constructs imposed upon women and how these are manifested in the daily lives of women. For my purposes, mixed media and fibre allow me to interpret the historical notion of "women's work" and the ways in which we are taking back; renewing and celebrating women's lives. I use a lot of red thread in my art. It is symbolic to me of the power of women to give life. Conversely, it also represents the threat of violence women are constantly under simply for being; and the bond that ties us all together. My art is a deeply personal exploration and excavation. I currently engage found objects, fabric, natural elements, thread and metal into my work to create 3 dimensional pieces that encourage the eye to explore and the mind to wander. I have woven pieces in private collections across Canada and the United States."
This powerful work, "Call This What It is" represents 166 women and girls who were murdered in Canada during a single year, 2020 - and is part of an ongoing project that addresses femicide in Canada, with panels for 2021 and beyond, in progress. The names of these women and girls are embroidered along with their ages, a visual response to the fact that there is no limit to who and who is not vulnerable to femicide. Red threads left to dangle between the names interconnect the victims like a network of veins. The choice of embroidery as a medium lends layers of meaning - from the realm of women's traditional handwork, it is a contemplative and methodical process that underscores the piece as a memorial. The alarming volume of victims' names on these panels for a single year demands consider our failure as a society to address issues of misogyny, equality and patriarchy; and reinforces the fact that femicide is not a myth or an abstract concept. The war on women is alive and well in Canada. |
Lionel Street ArtWebsite: https://lionelstreetart.ca/ From selected activist interventions in Hamilton and Guelph, these large-scale ad-hack installations are rooted in direct action and local resistance. Engaging the global crisis in Palestine, they underscore the role of public art in moments of moral urgency. Legal scholar Matiangai Sirleaf has described Gaza as “the first ‘live streamed’ genocide in history.” Yet even as the violence unfolds in full view, public outrage is washed out by the endless scroll of digital media. These works act as interruption—disrupting the routine transit advertising experience with visual propaganda that demands both personal interpretation and ethical consideration. Produced using low-cost materials and hand finished for rapid distribution, each is part of a series, yet no two are exactly alike.
Title: Anti-Apartheid is Not Antisemitism (2023-2025) First installed across in Hamilton in October 2023 under the title Anti-Apartheid is Not Antisemitism, this work was created in solidarity with Ontario MPP Sarah Jama, who was expelled from the provincial NDP after referring to the occupation as apartheid and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Her removal followed intense political backlash, culminating in formal censure at Queen’s Park. The work challenges the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism and resists efforts to silence political critique through identity-based deflection. For this exhibition, Lionel presents a revised version, updating the language to reflect the escalation from apartheid to genocide.
Title: Happy Valentines (2024) Happy Valentines is a design by Lionel, created in support of community-led activism. By juxtaposing celebration of love with atrocity, the work critiques the dissonance between public festivity and distant suffering. On Valentine’s Day weekend 2024, shortly following the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling that Israel must prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, the piece appeared anonymously in nearly 100 vacant bus shelter ad spaces across Guelph as part of an intervention by ShowUpGuelph. Featuring the phrase Happy Valentines scrawled in blood, it evoked the ritual violence of a staged homicide. The artist’s proof on display (LOVE) represents an earlier iteration of the activist produced work, developed in advance of the final Valentines Day intervention. |
Nimra BandukwalaWebsite: nimrabandukwala.com
Title: Flowers For Falasteen
Size: 8" x 10"
Medium: Watercolours and pen on paper
Price: NFS
Nimra comes from a lineage of women who crafted with what they had, appreciated and grew plants, and valued the lives and stories of materials. She was born and raised in Karachi, and has resided on Turtle Island for the past 10 years. Nimra’s arts practice looks at reclaiming land-based and ancestral ways of crafting using earth pigments, plant dyes, shells, plant fibres, and other abundant materials in community. She simultaneously unearths stories of displacement, cultural appropriation, and dispossession from these ancestral ways of knowing and being due to ongoing colonialism and forced migration. The materials and motifs carry these stories with them and we recover this knowledge in embodied ways as we craft with our hands. Her arts practice draws from the wisdom of those before us to dream of anti-capitalist, liberatory, and life-affirming futures.
Nimra has facilitated community-engaged art workshops and projects within schools, universities, community groups, community arts organizations, art galleries, and mental health spaces. She is currently collaborating with two Palestinian artists on a Tatreez Quilt Project, where a group of dedicated participants gather bi-weekly at Waterloo Park to stitch and quilt reflections on the project theme "Killing the flowers will not delay spring." The quilt will be exhibited at various festivals, public spaces, and galleries and invite viewers to consider the impacts of genocide, forced displacement, and the use of ancestral practices such as stitching and quilting as tools of resistance. Her ongoing project Barkat برکت is in partnership with Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington. She invites individuals from deeply rooted communities (a term described by Iraqi-Canadian artist Sundus Abdul Hadi) to build kinship with plants and people from their homelands and the land we are on through crafting. Nimra has been an active organizer with Guelph4Palestine since 2023, bringing to life events including To Gaza, From Guelph (2024), where four Palestinian performers gathered for evening of music, storytelling, and poetry, the Palestine in The Park Festival in Guelph (2024) which brought together artisans, performers, food, and community, and the Solidarity Is Our Strength Auction in December 2024 and April 2025 where artists and makers came together and raised just over 50K in mutual aid for Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Sudan. |
Wild Queer Abolitionists CollectiveEmail: wqacollective@gmail.com The Wild Queer Abolitionist Collective is a group of Queer and Trans folks living near where ‘the two rivers meet’. We began gathering in summer 2023 to discuss and imagine ways to grow abolitionist practices locally amongst our Queer and allied communities. We leverage gatherings, dialogue, time in nature, and art making to build relationships, create culture and weave webs of kinship at the pace of trust. For us, care, mutual aid, accountability, healing justice, and non-disposability are at the root of Queer abolitionist praxis. We hope to contribute to abolitionist world making in ways that make prisons, police and carceral logics obsolete in the future.
Title: Liberation piece by piece This assemblage of artworks in process represent a journey of community engagement for abolitionist organizing using the arts to gather, spark conversation, cast spells and weave stories across time, space and relationships. In December 2024 we hosted a blocking printing skill share and community dialogue about abolition and transformative justice at Art Not Shame in Guelph. Community & collective members then imbued the discussion into block print designs. The framed print composition uses stamps made in this gathering as well as new pieces made in dialogue about queer abolition at the Tidal Change Makers writing and making retreat in March 2025. The ‘Liberation quilt’ uses stamps made in both previous gatherings as well as new stamps and creative contributions from a summer gathering where the two rivers meet - the textiles are repurposed and dyed with plant materials from Eramosa Herbals in collaboration with artist in residence Alia Fortune Weston. Each stage represents new and wider groupings of queer, trans and two spirit folks embedding abolitionist praxis into designs, graphics, words and compositions in order to imagine a world where disposability, carceral punishment, policing, incarceration and war are obsolete. Well over 100+ people have collaborated on these pieces at various stages of creation thus far. For more information about the natural plants used in textile dying or about Abolition please take a zine or pamphlet available in the Gallery Space, or download a digital version bellow: |
1 comment
pat eaves
really great show