2026 Spring Exhibitions at Glenhyrst Art Gallery

Laura Findlay, Drinker, 2026, oil on panel. Image courtesy of the artist.

Laura Findlay: Night Vision

March 28 – June 21, 2026
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 29, 2 – 4pm

Curated by Matthew Ryan Smith

This solo exhibition features recent paintings by Toronto-based artist Laura Findlay. Findlay’s sweeping, gestural brushstrokes capture a breadth of subject matter—from bats and butterflies to bramble bushes—habitating nocturnal ponds and gardens. These are often set against elements of the built environment in the city or suburb, creating dynamic tensions between flora, fauna, and human presence. Both a painter and a professional photographer, she maintains an evolving relationship with light, which materializes in paintings that capture momentary illuminations enveloping both creatures and plant matter. Each painting employs Findlay’s dynamic subtractive process, in which she quickly removes pigment and glaze layer by layer to build distinctive, high-contrast images. At once haunting and beautiful, her works reflect on the natural rhythms of the seasons and the renewing cycles of life and death.

The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

About the Artist

Born in Montreal and raised on Vancouver Island, Laura Findlay received a BFA from Concordia University in 2011 and an MFA from the University of Guelph in 2014. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario. Working primarily in gestural representational painting, Findlay is interested in the tension that emerges from encounters between the natural and built environments. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and internationally, including at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago; Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, AB; and Arsenal Contemporary, Toronto. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Annandale Artist Residency, the Banff Centre, and the Vermont Studio Center. Findlay is represented by Norberg Hall in Calgary, Alberta.

Chelo Sebastian, Near Sudbury, ON II, 2013, watercolour, graphite, and pastel on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

Chelo Sebastian: Something to Do with Spring

March 28 – June 21, 2026
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 29, 2 – 4pm

Curated by Matthew Ryan Smith

Spanning over four decades, this survey exhibition celebrates Chelo Sebastian’s career and her enduring relationship with Glenhyrst Art Gallery. Sebastian first exhibited her work at the Gallery in 1980 and later served on its Board of Directors. Known for her singular use of a wide range of materials and techniques, her paintings commonly feature rigorous brushwork and electric colour palettes. Sebastian’s early works from the 1980s looked to European modernists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and American Abstract Expressionists like Robert Motherwell, whose radical examinations of colour, line, and form she applied to watercolour. Her windswept pastoral landscapes of rural Ontario and gritty cityscapes of Hamilton demonstrate a wide-ranging curiosity and remarkable versatility. Later in her career, Sebastian began experimenting with collage and oil pastel, which presented new challenges while expanding her practice in unexpected directions. A creative force in Southwestern Ontario, this selection of her work reveals an artist uncompromising in her vision and whose impact continues to unfold.

About the Artist

Chelo Sebastian was born in Spain, and came to Canada in 1969. She began her artistic career in 1980, participating in a juried exhibition at Glenhyrst Art Gallery. She later served on the Gallery’s Board of Directors and managed the art rental service from 1983 to 1988. Sebastian took classes in fine art at the Dundas Valley School of Art and Mohawk College, and later taught studio art classes and workshops in Brantford, Hamilton, Cambridge, and London. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions across Ontario, including at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Lynnwood Arts Centre, as well as internationally in the United States and Japan. Her work is held in private and public art collections throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Sebastian is represented by Montserrat Contemporary Art Gallery in New York City.

About the Gallery

Glenhyrst Art Gallery is a public gallery mandated to serve the communities of the City of Brantford, Brant County, and Six Nations of the Grand River. The Gallery organizes exhibitions year-round, complemented by classes, garden and arboretum tours, workshops, lectures, special events, and an art rental and sales centre. It also holds a collection of over 600 pieces of historical and contemporary artwork by artists of local, regional, and national significance.

Glenhyrst is home to The Golden Teapot and Gift Shop, which offers high tea sittings, and Glenhyrst Gardens features an outdoor sculpture garden. The Gallery operates an educational and studio facility year-round in the Coach House, hosts performing artists on the Coach House Stage, and organizes an artist incubator residency program in the Gardener’s Cottage. We welcome between 55,000 and 60,000 visitors annually.

Admission is free, donations are appreciated, and everyone is welcome.

Glenhyrst Art Gallery
20 Ava Road
Brantford, ON N3T 5G9
www.glenhyrst.ca
info@glenhyrst.ca
(519) 756-5932

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Accessibility
Glenhyrst Art Gallery is fully accessible, with an elevator and an accessible washroom. The main entrance is reached by a concrete pathway and can be opened using an automatic door opener. For assistance or any accessibility-related questions, please contact the gallery.

Acknowledgements
Glenhyrst Art Gallery acknowledges that we are on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee Peoples. This land is part of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe peoples and symbolises the agreement to share, protect our resources, and not to engage in conflict. The City of Brantford and Glenhyrst is situated on the Haldimand Tract, land promised to Six Nations, which includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.