The gallery is currently closed to the public as we are preparing for our spring exhibitions: Prince Sîpihko, Sailor Wâpakwiniy by Jasmine Piper (Curated by our Artistic Director, Sanaa Humayun) & Dreams to get you through the night by Abby Nowkakowski and Rania Haider. Our opening reception for these exhibitions will be on Friday, February 20th from 7-9pm. Come & join us!
You’re laying in bed, covers drawn over your face with the glow of your phone hurting your eyes as you watch one last video, hear one more shortform thinkpiece about the state of the world. Shut off your phone, close your eyes, pull one foot out of the blanket to keep cool. Push all of it out of your head - think about the fantasies you hold close to your heart, your curated imaginings that carry you until you sleep, until consciousness rests and real dreams can take over. What tender hopes and wishes for the future carry you to sleep? Uncertainty that mars your footsteps as you move through a hard world. No game plan, no safety net. But that is for tomorrow. Right now your bed is soft, and your dreams are sweet. What do you dream about?
Abby Nowakowski is a queer interdisciplinary artist and art educator currently living and working in Central Frontenac. Through printmaking, illustration, and handpoke tattooing, they spread advocacy for care, share stories, and make space for radical softness. Driven by curiosity and kindness, their practice extends into art facilitation with a range of collaborations, workshops, and performances that radiate from queer ecologies and friendships. In their practice, they are constantly questioning how their artwork can be used as an activist tool and contribute to the collective creative building of sustainable futures. Abby explores themes of transformative justice, belonging, and hopefulness. Learning lessons from the natural world, Abby often leans towards local flora and wildlife as powerful examples of community building and resistance.
Abby enjoys backcountry camping with her wife and pup, planting alongside the family of blue-tailed skinks that reside in the garden, and caring for her small flock of laying hens
Rania Haider is a Pakistani interdisciplinary artist working primarily in painting, mixed media, and photography. She often incorporates cultural, social, and traditional symbolism, exploring the fluidity of personal identity. Her work focuses on the intricacies of language and text by utilizing Urdu script rendered unreadable as a medium to explore the themes of language loss and the erasure of multicultural histories. Rania engages with a text-based practice, delving into how language, once rich with meaning, can transform into something abstract, fragmented, and open to interpretation.
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