University of Waterloo Art Gallery

September 10 – December 5, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10, 5–8pm

Abraham O. Oghobase
Notes to Self: Offerings on History and Memory

Abraham Oghobase investigates the ways that photographic images shape memory and history. The artist’s mixed-media installation Onoriode (Who Knows Tomorrow?) references both his middle name and its translation from the Urhobo language. Exhibited in context with the large-scale print installation Notes to Self, these recent bodies of work are made in response to the tensions inherent to both the personal and historical archive. Historically, photography was routinely used as a tool to legitimize colonial dominance and reinforce Eurocentric ideology. Oghobase’s reconstruction of images suggests a restorative counternarrative. The artist explores his Nigerian heritage through family photographs and archival imagery culled from the Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University. He explores different image-making methodologies to edit, overlay and reframe these images using analog technologies ranging from photocopying to screen printing. Family photos are enlarged and paired alongside readymade furniture. Monochromatic silhouettes of figures and flora are printed on Kozuke paper banners alongside agricultural and industrial imagery. Oghobase excavates the socio-economic and historical associations found in these images, centering his intellectual curiosity and lived experience as a corrective against racism, exploitation, and cultural erasure.

Abraham Onoriode Oghobase (b. 1979 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a visual artist and researcher. He holds an MFA in Visual Arts from York University, where he is currently a PhD candidate. Recent exhibitions include All That Sustains Us, Medina Triennial, Medina, New York; Notes to Self, Smokestack, Hamilton, Ontario; Gallery TPW as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art 2024; as well as the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia International Art Exhibition. He has also exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; Pace Gallery, London, KADIST, Paris; and Art Twenty One, Lagos. He was the recipient of the inaugural Okwui Enwezor Prize at the 12th Rencontres de Bamako African Biennial of Photography in 2019, and his work is in the permanent collections of the AGO; MoMA; Art Institute of Chicago; Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma, Helsinki. Artist Website

Onoriode (Who Knows Tomorrow?) was commissioned as part of Precarious Joys, the Toronto Biennial of Art 2024, and first exhibited at Gallery TPW, Toronto.

Notes to Self was made possible with support from Smokestack and produced as part of their inaugural 2025 Analog Print Residency at Smokestack Studio in Hamilton, Ontario; alongside generous research support from Northwestern University’s Black Arts Consortium’s artists-in-residence program.

Laura Moore
Handheld

The multidisciplinary artworks in Handheld are rooted in Laura Moore’s fascination with obsolete technology and her commitment to repurposing materials. Having established a reputation for carving 1:1 scale vintage computer monitors and boom boxes out of stone, over the last few years her practice has expanded to include the making of quilts and mosaics. While the penchant for referencing obsolete consumer electronics remains central to her practice, this switch from smooth exteriors to the complexity of internal circuit boards has allowed the artist to expand her material and visual vocabulary. Culled from a personal collection of obsolete technology, she swaps the geometric patterns of the traditional quilt for that of a diagrammatic circuit board from a Nintendo game controller for instance. While the quilts elicit a degree of anxious comfort, the mosaics represent a further mash-up of past and present. Based on the guts of her collection of cell phones, each wall mosaic represents a circuit board enlarged to 1:12 scale suggesting an archeological relic. Thematically, Moore’s work invites us to consider the preponderance and disposability of consumer electronics and the troubling inheritance these artifacts represent for future generations.

Laura Moore is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in sculpture. Her work has been extensively exhibited across Canada and Europe. Recent exhibitions and outdoor installations include: Memories of the Future, a mid-career solo exhibition at McIntosh Gallery, London, ON (2025), Soft Internet Theory at the Art Gallery of Guelph (2025), Picture Stones in Bergen, Norway (2024), Love Languages at Art Windsor Essex, Windsor (2024), Erratic Behaviour at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener (2024), Memory Bathing at OpenArt Biennale, Örbero, Sweden (2022) and Memory Sticks at Baneheia & Odderøya, Kristiansand, Norway (2022). The artist is a transient member of Studio Pescarella in Pietrasanta, Italy and recently attended the USF Verftet residency in Bergen, Norway. Laura Moore is represented by ZALUCKY, Toronto. Artist Website

The artist would like thank Bruce Palmer and RBC for the loan of artworks, and acknowledge the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and Partners in Art for their generous support.

Admit Everyone
University of Waterloo Art Gallery
East Campus Hall, Room 1239
519.888.4567 ext. 33575
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Contact
Ivan Jurakic, Director/Curator
ijurakic@uwaterloo.ca

Hours
Wednesday to Saturday, 12–5pm
Or by appointment

Mobility
Ground floor entry
Automated doors available at west entrance to Fine Arts (ECH)
Wide pathways
Accessible washrooms on ground level

Driving
263 Phillip Street, Waterloo
East Campus Hall (ECH) is located adjacent to Engineering 6 (E6)
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Parking
Visitor Parking available in B Lot (E6) or Q Lot (EC1)
Pay via AMP mobile app, $10 Flat Rate
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Mailing
University of Waterloo Art Gallery
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1

Image Credits and Descriptions:
1) Abraham Oghobase, Onoriode: Family Tree 01 (detail), 2024, Inkjet prints on canvas, wooden objects (ironing board & stool). Photo by Darren Rigo, Courtesy Gallery TPW. Description: Overhead view of family photos collaged and overlaid on top of a vintage wooden ironing board.
2) Laura Moore, Gameboy & Ms. Pac-man, 2023, Hand-carved soapstone. Photo: Paul Cimoroni. Description: A pair of grey soapstone carvings reproduce a Ms. Pac-man cartridge sitting alongside a Nintendo Gameboy unit.