As winter softens into spring, one exhibition season gives way to the next. Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 16, 1 – 3pm as we gather at the Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) to celebrate the opening of Celina Eceiza’s A material called Earth, Volume 1: The life of corners and the closing of Phuong Nguyen’s she died a death by a thousand cuts. RSVP for the Spring Opening & Closing Reception.

Jump on the roundtrip bus to Burlington departing from the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto, or arrive in time for an artist and curator talk and tour with Celina Eceiza and Sylvie Fortin. Enjoy free all-ages family programming with Camila Salcedo. RSVP for the Contemporary Art Exhibition Opening Bus.

Celina Eceiza, Ofrenda (Offering), 2024. Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires. Photo: Josefina Tommaso.

Celina Eceiza
A material called Earth, Volume 1: The life of corners

Curated by Sylvie Fortin
May 16 – August 16, 2026

Volume 1: The life of corners, the first manifestation of Argentinian artist Celina Eceiza’s ambitious, itinerant project, A material called Earth, transforms the Art Gallery of Burlington’s main gallery into an immersive, ephemeral architecture. Hand-dyed, stitched, and embroidered textiles and large-scale drawings cover walls, redraw ceilings, muffle floors, and generate new forms, inviting visitors to linger, rest, explore, and let their imagination roam.

Spun from the inside out and produced in collaboration with local makers, the installation carries the visible traces of many hands, with stitches and folds acting as traces of shared authorship. The installation also brings together sculptures ranging from intimate to near-monumental. Some offer themselves to the body, while others cradle ceramic works drawn from the AGB’s permanent collection. Oversized fabric books sewn into the floor bring image and text into play. One of them entitled, El artista nunca piensa solo (The Artist Never Thinks Alone), maps Eceiza’s artistic influences and entanglements. Each page paying homage to those who have shaped her understanding of art’s purpose and potential. Through this careful inclusion of other artists’ works, Eceiza challenges the myth of the individual artistic “genius,” proposing instead that every exhibition and creative act is inherently collective.

Today, when social contracts are often seen as broken, if not entirely obsolete, The life of corners offers a vibrant alternative rooted in interdependence. It invites us into a living network of relations where meaning, beauty, and connection emerge collectively, and where art becomes a space to gather, reflect, and imagine being otherwise.

Phuong Nguyen, she died a death by a thousand cuts, Art Gallery of Burlington. 2026. Photo: Darren Rigo.

Phuong Nguyen
she died a death by a thousand cuts

January 31 – May 17, 2026
Perry Gallery

In she died a death by a thousand cuts, Toronto-based artist Phuong Nguyen presents a layered exploration of colonialism, cultural appropriation, and the afterlives of objects. Working across painting, weaving, wood carving, and ceramics, Nguyen draws on the visual language of Chinoiserie and the colonial archive of L’Art à Hué (1919) to examine how histories of exoticism and representation persist.

Her works merge sculptural and painterly forms, incorporating reclaimed materials and handcrafted elements that blur distinctions between image and object. Figures and vessels shift between human and non-human states, evoking a spectral space where beauty and violence coexist. Through this materially rich practice, Nguyen reclaims and reconfigures inherited forms, proposing acts of care, resistance, and transformation within the legacy of ornamental traditions.

Programming

Artist and Curator Talk and Tour
With Celina Eceiza and Sylvie Fortin
May 16, 2026, 1:30 – 2:30pm

The Power of Publishing
With Jen Frankel
May 27, 2026, 6:00 – 7:00pm

Conversation Exchange: Español/English
With Jeannina Romero
June 25, 2026, 6:00 – 7:30pm

Wet-Felted Bookmaking
With Sean Morello
May 19 – June 23, 2026, 6:30 – 9:30pm

Soft Stories: A Textile Collage Workshop
With Kate Jackson
May 20 – June 10, 2026, 6:30 – 9:30pm

Print, Cut, and Assemble!
With Nancy Benoy
June 12, 2026, 1:00 – 4:00pm

Celina Eceiza, Un nido es una fruta que se hincha (A nest is a fruit that swells), 2025. 18th Istanbul Biennial. Photo: Sahir Ugur Eren.

Celina Eceiza is an artist based in Buenos Aires. Her work has been exhibited at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and Halle Für Kunst Steiermark in Graz, Austria, and featured in international exhibitions including the 18th Istanbul Biennial (2025). Her work is held in public and private collections.

Sylvie Fortin is a curator, writer, and editor based between Montréal, New York, and Buenos Aires. She has held leadership roles at La Biennale de Montréal and ART PAPERS, and her writing appears in publications including Artforum, Frieze, and e-flux Criticism.

Phuong Nguyen is a Toronto-based artist working across painting, weaving, wood carving, and ceramics. Her practice explores ornamentalism, colonial histories, and the aesthetics of Chinoiserie. She has exhibited in Canada and internationally and is a recipient of support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

A material called Earth is generously sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts. Volume 2 will be on view at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, NS, September 12 – November 14, 2026 and Volume 3 at the Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC, June 24 – August 29, 2027.

Art Gallery of Burlington is supported by the City of Burlington, Ontario Arts Council, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. AGB’s learning programming is supported by Burlington Community Foundation, Joyce Family Foundation, and Incite Foundation for the Arts.

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