Stephanie Fortin: Field Notes

Stephanie Fortin, The cut of a downed Black Walnut Tree

Stephanie Fortin: Field Notes

November 25, 2025 – February 24, 2026
Opening Reception: November 29, 2025, 2 – 4pm
Grimsby Public Art Gallery

Grimsby Public Art Gallery (GPAG) is pleased to present the exhibition, Field Notes by artist Stephanie Fortin. Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, November 29, 2025 from 2pm to 4pm. Artist Stephanie Fortin and Guest Curator Alexandra Hartstone will be in attendance. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome.

The environments we inhabit are constantly changing; often so gradually that transformation slips past unsolicited. What feels stable or familiar today carries with it traces of alterations, quiet reminders of how the world continues to evolve. Stephanie Fortin’s new body of work grows from this awareness, offering a meditation on presence, process, and transformation within the living systems of The Arboretum at the University of Guelph.

Working closely within this environment, Fortin engages with trees and natural elements found on site: particularly black walnut and sumac, rich in tannins combined with rust-derived iron to develop colour markings. Using textile sources from thrift shops and donations, methods similar to frottage (a technique where a texture or surface relief is transferred onto another material by rubbing over it), and slow, site-responsive processes, her works register traces of an evolving landscape. Each textile becomes a point of contact: between human and more-than-human, past use and new life, stability and change.

The resulting works bear the impressions of time and weather—dampness softening a print, wind shifting a fold. These marks are not accidents but evidence. Evidence of duration, of proximity, of materials acting on their own terms. Fortin’s practice is one of attentive participation rather than control, allowing the living world to inscribe itself onto the fabric.

In Field Notes, Fortin invites us to slow down and attune ourselves to the subtle moments of colour, decay, renewal, and our relationships with the natural world. Each work holds the memory of a specific moment that continues to shift with time, offering a record of the present while reminding us that even what we think of as now is already in transition.

Curated by Alexandra Hartstone

Special thanks to The Arboretum at the University of Guelph and arborist Kellen Wood for their generous support and expertise.

About the Artist

Stephanie Fortin is a visual artist whose practice explores the relationships between human activity, materials, and the ecologies that shape our world. Working in situ with sites such as cars, trees, and wrecking yards, she uses reclaimed fabrics, foraged plants, and rust in processes of printing, dyeing, and transformation. Her work examines the social, political, and environmental histories embedded in materials and their potential to reflect the interconnectedness of nature and culture.

Fortin holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and a BFA from NSCAD University. She has been an artist-in-residence at Harbourfront Centre, Maison des métiers d’art de Québec, and Est-Nord-Est, and has received support from the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and other institutions. She lives and works in Guelph, Ontario, on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and the traditional lands of the Attiwonderonk and Haudenosaunee peoples.

About Grimsby Public Art Gallery

The Grimsby Public Art Gallery was founded in 1975 as a committee of the Grimsby Public Library Board, creating an active and accessible community art gallery in the lower level of the Grimsby Public Library. In 1999 the Gallery became a separate sub-department of the Town of Grimsby, although we still shared a building with the Library. In 2004 both Gallery and Library moved into a new purpose–built facility that has significantly enhanced our ability to fulfill all aspects of our mandate.

Forging and maintaining connections with our community is of primary importance and we do this through our careful selection and presentation of exhibitions and programs. We preserve art by our responsible care of the permanent collection. We encourage visual art by maintaining a gallery that is open and welcoming to all visitors and by offering a range of thought provoking art and related programs.

Grimsby Public Art Gallery
18 Carnegie Lane
Grimsby, ON L3M 1Y1
905-945-3246
www.grimsby.ca/Art-Gallery

Instagram @thegpag
Facebook @thegpag

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10am – 5pm
Thursday: 10am – 9pm
Saturday: 12 – 5pm

For more information please contact:
Sylvia Beben
Art Gallery Manager/Curator
Grimsby Public Art Gallery
905-345-3246 x 2079
sbeben@grimsby.ca

Accessibility:
Grimsby Public Art Gallery is wheelchair accessible.