Upcoming exhibitions to explore Lake O’Hara, Caribbean ceramics and more
Lake O’Hara and the High Country: A Painter’s Journey at the Canada House Gallery
This exhibition presents a new body of work inspired by the landscapes of Lake O’Hara, the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, the Yukon, and the remote wilderness regions that have shaped Dominik J Modlinski’s artistic vision for more than 30 years. Featuring monumental studio paintings alongside select plein air works, the collection reflects a lifetime devoted to exploring, experiencing, and interpreting the Canadian landscape.
Renowned for his adventurous painting expeditions into some of North America’s most remote and rugged environments, Modlinski has built his career around direct engagement with the land. Whether hiking deep into alpine terrain, painting from wilderness camps, or traveling through the northern reaches of Canada, his creative process begins with immersion in the landscape itself. These firsthand experiences become the foundation for expressive studio paintings distinguished by dynamic brushwork, rich colour harmonies, and a powerful sense of atmosphere and place.
At the heart of the exhibition is a series of major new paintings inspired by Lake O’Hara and the surrounding alpine wilderness. Long regarded as one of Canada’s most celebrated mountain landscapes, O’Hara has provided Modlinski with inspiration through hiking and plein air journeys. The resulting works move beyond topographical description to capture the emotional resonance, changing light, and profound sense of wonder found in the high country. The exhibition also features new paintings from the broader Rocky Mountain region, as well as works inspired by the Yukon, Western Canada and Alaska, reflecting the artist’s continuing fascination with wilderness, exploration, and the enduring relationship between people and the natural world.
The exhibition will open on September 19, 2026.
After the Island: Caribbean Canadian Ceramics at the Gardiner Museum
This fall, the Gardiner Museum and Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue (BAND) present After the Island: Caribbean Canadian Ceramics, bringing together four artists who use clay to explore memory, migration, labour, protection and belonging. On view from October 9, 2026 to April 25, 2027, the exhibition features PJ Anderson, Eddy Firmin, Manuel Mathieu and Sharon Norwood, artists with distinct connections to Canada and the Caribbean spanning anglophone and francophone perspectives.
Moving beyond traditional ceramics, the exhibition encompasses sculpture, installation, painting, scent and even an interactive video game. Highlights include Eddy Firmin’s interactive ceramic punching bags and life-sized digital rendering of the artist’s body, PJ Anderson’s armour-like Claw Forms and smoke-fired vessels adorned with beads and jewels, Manuel Mathieu’s immersive, scent-based installation exploring memory, ritual and refuge, and Sharon Norwood’s installation incorporating historic bricks made through the labour of enslaved people, some retaining visible hand and finger impressions. Together, the works consider the body as an archive, one that carries cultural knowledge, displacement, colonial histories, and connections across generations.
In October, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery will present the first major solo exhibition in Ontario of Vancouver-born, UK-based artist Zadie Xa, made in collaboration with long-term collaborator, artist Benito Mayor Vallejo.
An immersive installation that responds to the specific context of the gallery, the exhibition will combine new and existing works, including paintings by Xa, murals, sound, and a mobile sculpture made of over 600 brass bells, suspended from the gallery’s ceiling in the shape of a conch shell, co-created by Xa together with Mayor Vallejo. Visitors will experience a vibrant, multi-sensory environment that connects Xa’s ongoing exploration of storytelling, Korean mythology, folklore, diasporic identity, and marine ecology to the shores of Lake Ontario.
Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything is organized and developed in partnership with Esker Foundation, Calgary.
The exhibition will be on view from October 24, 2026, until March 21, 2027.