Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) Spring Exhibitions Public Opening & Block Party

Saturday, May 10, 2025 | 1 – 5pm
1333 Lakeshore Road & Brock Park
Free

You’re invited to the AGB’s 50th Anniversary! Join a massive Block Party and the opening of Spring Exhibitions: Leila Fatemi’s A Vessel to Bend Water and permanent collection exhibition, A Curve, Not A Line on Saturday, May 10, 1 – 5pm. The party will spill out into Brock Park and include family art activities, demonstrations, live music, and tasty treats!

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Leila Fatemi, 88 Vessels that cannot contain, 2021. 16.5″ x 22″ Collage on Cotton Rag. Courtesy of the artist.

Leila Fatemi: A Vessel to Bend Water

May 2 – August 31, 2025
Perry Gallery

Leila Fatemi’s A Vessel to Bend Water draws from digital archives and physical postcards to explore the connection between photographic representation and props. Fatemi critically engages with the historical representation of women from the SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) region in photography, particularly in Orientalist imagery, by focusing on the vessel—a recurring motif that reinforces colonial ideologies and constrains women’s roles.

The project spans various mediums, including collage, textiles, cyanotypes, lenticular prints, ceramics, and photolithography on clay, reinterpreting and disrupting conventional forms of photographic representation. These interventions challenge the objectification of women by questioning the power dynamics and limitations imposed on their bodies. Through images drawn from Fatemi’s personal collection and the Getty Institute’s Ken and Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Photography Collection, the work engages in a dialogue with historical visual artifacts, emphasizing the need to deconstruct and reinterpret oppressive narratives. Using collage techniques like redaction, tearing, and erasure, Fatemi disrupts the preciousness of these images, forcing viewers to reconsider their implications.

During a residency in the AGB clay studios from January to April 2025, Fatemi explored new methods of making and presenting her work. Working alongside the studio technicians and artist-educators, she further experimented with integrating printmaking techniques into her practice, merging photography with ceramics.

In addition to testing image manipulation, Fatemi began reimagining the idea of the vessel itself by pulling the form, as depicted in archival images, and re-constructing it into a living object. Over the course of the exhibition, unfired clay vessels will slowly disintegrate under the weight of water, returning them to a raw state. Water vessels, once muted in photographers’ studios, now become active agents in their own story. By erasing the utility of the physical vessel, Fatemi underscores its futility in the original archives, breaking down what constitutes a photographic prop to erode the historical narrative.

Sunmi Jung, Dinner Table, 1993. Hand built low fire talc-based clay, commercial glazes. 1995.054.0.1. Purchased through a donation from The Pioneer Group Inc., 1995.

A Curve, Not A Line: 50th Anniversary Permanent Collection Exhibition

May 9 – August 10, 2025
Lee-Chin Family Gallery

A Curve, Not A Line, is the result of a dynamic collaboration between AGB’s curatorial and education teams, bringing together different perspectives to create a multi-sensorial experience. Designed to highlight key works from the AGB’s collection of Canadian contemporary ceramics, the exhibition explores thematic and material connections that speak to slowness, playfulness, resourcefulness, and “timefulness” with historical and ancestral traditions, and contemporary innovations. By integrating curatorial research with educational insights, we hope this anniversary exhibition will foster deep engagement, inviting visitors to connect with the artworks through multiple lenses and positions—whether artistic, cultural, or social. This collaborative approach ensures a rich and accessible exploration of the ceramic practices of Canadian artists, inspiring dialogue, and discovery for all audiences.

Artist Talk: Brendan Lee Satish Tang
Thursday, May 15, 6:30 – 7:30pm | Free

In conjunction with the exhibition is an Art as Research residency with artist Brendan Lee Satish Tang. The Artist Talk is free and open to the public on May 15 at AGB. Brendan will discuss his creative process, influences, and the evolution of his work.

AGB is supported by the City of Burlington, Ontario Arts Council, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. AGB’s learning programming has been sponsored by The Burlington Foundation and the incite Foundation for the Arts. The Block Party is generously sponsored by SB Partners and Cintas Canada. 50th Anniversary Exhibitions are sponsored by the J.P. Bickell Foundation.

AGB is located on the ancestral territory of many Indigenous Nations including the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and Métis peoples. The territory is mutually covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy, the Ojibway, and other allied Nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We acknowledge that the land upon which we gather, to create and learn, is part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Accessibility Information
The AGB is wheelchair accessible, and wheelchairs are available for loan within the Gallery. The Lakeshore and Brock Lobby entrances are equipped with automatic doors. Ramps facilitate access throughout the Gallery, and an elevator is available for access to the second level studios. The AGB ceramic studios are partially accessible; please contact us with your requirements so we can accommodate access as required. Service animals are permitted in the Gallery. The Gallery has gender-neutral washrooms.

Art Gallery of Burlington
1333 Lakeshore Road
Burlington, ON L7S 1A9
www.agb.life
info@agb.life

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