Cartographies of Longing
Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich, In the Garden of Mardin, 2023. Oil on canvas. Photo by Alberto Porro.
Cartographies of Longing
Works by Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich, Nour Bishouty, Amanda Boulos, Deanna Bowen, Christian Chapman, Meryl McMaster, Arthur Shilling, Travis Shilling, and Shellie Zhang
Curated by Sandy Saad-Smith
September 15 – December 5, 2026
Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough
Cartographies of Longing brings together artists whose practices draw upon family histories, oral traditions, and archival fragments to map intergenerational relationships to land. Through painting, photography, film, installation, and mixed media, the artists engage with ancestral memory to reveal histories that are often beyond the limits of official archives.
Throughout the exhibition, past and present unfold simultaneously, shaped by migration, colonialism, environmental transformation, and the enduring legacies of displacement. Rather than presenting land as a fixed geography, the exhibition approaches it as a living archive, continually formed through memory, storytelling, movement, and lived experience.
By foregrounding cycles of return, rupture, and renewal, Cartographies of Longing considers how relationships to place are continually remade across generations. The artists create space to imagine new relationships with the lands they remember and inhabit, and longing becomes a generative force that restores memory and sustains cultural continuity.
Shellie Zhang, Gazing at a Waterfall, 2023. Resin, stone, water, glass, incense, smoke, water pump, atomizer, and paint. Photo by Darren Rigo.
Public Programs
All programming is free. Please see the DMG website for visitor information and contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca with any accommodation needs.
Public Reception
Saturday, September 19, 2 – 4pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery, U of T Scarborough
Join us to celebrate the opening of Cartographies of Longing at this drop-in public reception, with curator Sandy Saad-Smith delivering remarks at 3pm. Light refreshments will be served, all welcome.
Visiting Artist Lecture: Nour Bishouty
Wednesday, September 23, 1 – 2pm
AA204, Arts & Administration Building, U of T Scarborough
Registration required
As part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, co-presented with the Studio program, Department of Arts, Culture & Media, U of T Scarborough, Nour Bishouty will present on her artistic practice, with a focus on the way her work engages with the theme of Stories Held by the Land.
Curatorial Tour
Saturday, September 26, 1:30 – 2:30pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery, U of T Scarborough
Curator Sandy Saad-Smith will lead a drop-in exhibition tour of Cartographies of Longing, discussing the artworks and curatorial themes.
Artist Talk & Open Studio with Travis Shilling
Thursday, October 8, 1 – 4pm
Fool’s Paradise, 1 Meadowcliffe Drive
Registration required
Travis Shilling will reflect on his relationship to water, and its place within his practice and approach to painting. Following his artist talk, participants will head outside for an open-ended artmaking session that focuses on the lake and the pond at Fool’s Paradise, Doris McCarthy’s former home and studio on the Scarborough Bluffs. Presented in partnership with Ontario Heritage Trust.
Collection in Conversation: Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich and Emily McKibbon
Friday, November 6, 11am – 12pm
Student Lounge, U of T Scarborough Library
Registration required
Join artist Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich and award-winning writer and curator Emily McKibbon for an intimate conversation exploring family histories, inherited memory, and the ways art can give form to stories that have been lost, fragmented, or left unspoken. Drawing from Jaouich’s deeply personal painting practice, the conversation will consider how she turns to family photographs, oral histories, cultural symbols, and imagination to trace her Armenian, Egyptian, and Lebanese heritage and reckon with histories of migration and displacement. This event is presented in partnership with the U of T Scarborough Library.
Matrilineal Memory: Discussion with Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich and Amanda Boulos
Saturday, November 7, 2 – 3:30pm
Ralph Campbell Lounge, University of Toronto Scarborough
Registration required
This conversation will explore of the role of women as storytellers, knowledge keepers, and carriers of memory within their work. Considering how histories are carried across generations through matrilineal connections, Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich and Amanda Boulos will look at how these inherited narratives shape artistic practice and past, present, and future relationships to home, family, and belonging.
Sheniz Janmohamed, photo by Eva Tsai.
Cartographies of Longing Poet-in-Residence
As part of the U of T Scarborough Year of Poetry, the Doris McCarthy Gallery has invited Sheniz Janmohamed to respond to Cartographies of Longing as Poet-in-Residence. Drawing on her creative practice as a writer, artist, educator, and certified Forest Bathing Guide, Janmohamed will develop programming that expands on and contextualizes the exhibition. This will include a four-part workshop series exploring the works of the exhibiting artists through guided prompts and reflections, poetry writing, and nature reconnection activities.
Session 1 / Tracing Ancestral Lines: Earth
Thursday, October 1, 1 – 2:30pm
Session 2 / A Palimpsest of Remembering: Air
Thursday, October 22, 1 – 2:30pm
Session 3 / Honouring Diasporic Grief: Water
Wednesday, November 18, 9:30am – 11am
Session 4 / Regeneration & Reclaiming Joy: Fire
Wednesday, December 2, 11am – 7pm
Drop-in Creative Clinic & Indoor Forest Bathing
See the workshop program page for more information on each session and to register as required.
Doris McCarthy Gallery
University of Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4
416.287.7007
dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca
dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 11am to 4pm; Wednesday, 11am to 7pm; Saturday, 11am to 5pm. Admission is free. Open to the public. The gallery is wheelchair accessible.
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