Nicolas Fleming, A Mudroom, 2022, materials from previous personal exhibitions, renovations, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, joint compound, pigment, varnish, and various household objects as well as construction materials. Photo: Christian Cantarutti

A Mudroom, by Nicolas Fleming, transforms the gallery’s lounge, formerly used as a reading room, into a domestic space, which is gradually covered with pigmented joint compound, or “mud.” As an artist and an exhibition installer, mindful of the waste produced in exhibition-making as well as his own contribution to this problem, the practice of upcycling and reusing wastes has become central to Fleming’s art practice.

For 16 weeks leading up to the opening of the exhibition, Fleming draws attention to the ways in which exhibition and gallery spaces are in a continual state of renewal, transformation, and redefinition, through the ritual of returning to the gallery, using the debris of past installations to create new work within the gallery walls. This project sources discarded materials and debris from his past art exhibitions, as well as renovation waste from his late grandparents’ house in Kingston—all materials that would have ended up in a landfill otherwise.

A Mudroom references the in-between space, often found between the interior and exterior of a home, where visitors are asked to leave behind dirt from the outside before entering the main house. In this installation, Fleming has relegated his accumulation of exhibition and renovation materials to the front of the gallery, along with the “mud,” an essential construction material that glues the gallery walls together, making imperfect seams disappear. Fleming’s approach to his work brings much humour, joy and playfulness.

Throughout the exhibition, various artists in conversation with Fleming are contributing their work as a part of A Mudroom.

On view in Fugitive Rituals, 30 July–4 December 2022.

Installation detail from Transformations. 

Oriah Scott, EronOne, HONE, HUNGR, AJ Little, Emily May Rose and guest graffiti artists from across the Montreal-Toronto corridor are Agnes’s Stonecroft Foundation Artist(s)-in-Residence. An extended research and design phase culminates in a site-specific commission for the exterior façades of Agnes’s current facility. Transformations remains until the construction for Agnes Reimagined begins in summer 2023.

Transformations is on view June 2022–June 2024.

Nobuo Kubota, Roctoc (from the Atonement series), 1986, photolithograph on paper, 23/30. Gift of Nobuo Kubota, 2006. 

Nobuo Kubota is a Canadian multimedia artist. He has degree in architecture from the University of Toronto. He practiced architecture for 10 years before becoming an artist. He is also a musician, sound artist and sound singer. As an artist, he tends to work in isolation and remains outside the mainstream. His current interest involves the development of a calligraphic style of notation for the depiction of sound which he calls ‘Sonic Calligraphy.’

He has been awarded the Allied Arts Award from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada; the Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from The Canada Council for the Arts; The Governor General’s Award and the Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from The Ontario College of Art & Design.

On view in a conversation in Collection Count + Care, 7–18 September 2022.

Maud Darling, Crazy Quilt, around 1900, silk and cotton. Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston. Gift of Margaret Cliff, 1990. 

The Queen’s University Collection of Canadian Dress and the Heritage Quilt Collection are two important, regionally-based decorative arts collections within the Canadian Historical Art Collection. The Collection of Canadian Dress comprises over 2500 fashion items that span the late 1700s to 1970s, offering a compelling material-based avenue to understanding the social and economic history of the period, as well as the evolution of fashion aesthetics, domestic life and textile labour. The Heritage Quilt Collection contains more than 80 quilts with outstanding variations on nineteenth- and twentieth-century traditional patterns, emphasizing the rich production of Eastern Ontario.

On view in a conversation in Collection Count + Care, 4–23 October 2022.

Carstian Luyckx, Still Life with Gilt Cup, Glass Holder, Silver Beaker, Nautilus Shell, Fruit and Oysters Arranged on a Draped Ledge, around 1650, oil on copper. Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Gift of Isabel Bader, 2021

Lavish displays of luxurious goods such as these were known as pronkstillevens: “ostentatious still lifes” designed to earn both artist and patron bragging rights—one regarding skill, the other wealth. They typically portrayed delicacies from a variety of regions, arranged on silver and Chinese porcelain dishes. Luyckx has included an ornate gilded grape cup decorated with a Knight of Christ and a goblet holder featuring the figures of Venus and Mars. Nautilus shells, sourced from the Indian Ocean, were scrubbed of their outer layer to reveal their pearly base.

On view in The Fabrics of Representation, 16 July–4 December 2022.

Roy Kakegamic, Survivor, 1982, acrylic on paper. Gift of David Clare, 2019

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. The exhibition, Land Protectors, 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.

Roy Kakegamic conveys the struggle to maintain his identity in an increasingly urban climate. In Survivor, the person’s feet are rooted in the land while their bag holds the medicines that give them the strength to carry on their traditions.

On view in Land Protectors, 2 July–4 December 2022.