A Rift in the Valley 

December 11, 2024 to February 14, 2025

Kyle Vingoe-Cram and GHY Cheung have been collaborating since 2015 as artist collective NO and NO. They are currently working on A Rift in the Valley, a graphic novel and speculative fiction about a mysterious sinkhole and its effects on two queer Asian friends living in a small university town.

In A Rift in the Valley, the opening of a sinkhole shakes a sleepy university town. Against this backdrop, artists Oliver Leung and Basil Jung navigate tensions in their friendship after the latter decides to move for new career opportunities. As the sinkhole swallows streets and cuts across parks towards the town's beloved art gallery, it starts to have a mysterious effect on Oliver.

This exhibit is supported by the Articipate Endowment Fund, which has given more than $1 million in grants over the past 15 years to support local artists and organizations. These artists exhibit and present their work in professional spaces at Shenkman Arts Centre.

MAC-CAM - discontinuous, heterogeneous and pluriverse 

September 7 to October 3, 2023

Discontinuous, Heterogeneous, and Pluriversal is a visual arts exhibition curated by Alejandro Salgado Cendales and organized by the Multicultural Artists’ Coalition that invites the viewer to reflect on contemporary social, political, and cultural issues through the prism of immigrant and first-generation-Canadian artists.

Sarah-Mecca Abourahman, a Somali-Indian and first-generation Canadian artist, explores themes of identity, family, and land occupation inspired by her heritage through her visual artwork. She informs her artistic practice through the tradition of oral storytelling, shining light on impactful moments in her familial and community’s history. Abdourahman’s work takes on a decolonial approach, using her practice to reconnect with her homeland from a first-generation Canadian perspective.

Iryna Merkulova is a Ukrainian artist living in Canada. Through her painting of seemingly ordinary everyday objects, she reflects on deeper issues regarding the place of women in contemporary society, consumerism, sustainability, and urban life. Her visual narratives straddle between personal and interpersonal experiences and memories, challenging and comforting the viewer through distant togetherness.

Jon Stuart - Stillwater

October 5 to 31, 2023

Stillwater is a selection of fine art photographic prints depicting the rehabilitation of a wetland area within the National Capital Greenbelt. Alongside the photographs will be interpretive text written in consultation with the National Capital Commission and Rideau Valley Conservation Authority. The images are presented as a mystery tale, illustrating the subtle departures from a ‘normal’ Ontario landscape that can be observed through a close reading of the land. Together with the interpretive text, viewers will be able to reperceive the apparently banal land surrounding them on a day-to-day basis.

Aaron Daniels and Liana Miles - Inscriptions

November 2 to 28

In “Inscriptions” mixed media artists Liana Miles and Aaron Daniels Casey combine their past bodies of work “Weaving of Fables” and “The Discovery Series” into a new collaborative venture, in which the words of lost folktales run amok within scenes of paint and pyrography. By this, the artists allow viewers the ability to connect and spin new tales of their own.

The three large scale works present new tales contextualized by words taken from folktale collections. The stories are laid out in random watercolor inkblots by Liana. The shapes are then used by Aaron to prompt wood burning illustrations. After that, the duo uses a process of chance to choose random words from literary collections which form the poetic passages that can be found on each wooden panel and function as titles.