Fall 2026 Exhibitions at Dalhousie Art Gallery

This fall, two concurrent exhibitions explore how memory and lived experience are carried and transformed through sound, storytelling, material culture, and installation, creating connections across generations and geographies.

Christina Leslie, Hope and Present Chapter: Free, 2021. From the series Sugar Coat. Pigment print on sugar cane paper. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery.

Burnt Sugar Blue

Curated by francesca ekwuyasi
Artists: Stina Baudin, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Bushra Junaid, and Christina Leslie

September 11 – November 8, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10, 6–8pm
(In partnership with Prismatic Arts Festival)

Burnt Sugar Blue brings together Stina Baudin, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Bushra Junaid, and Christina Leslie in an exhibition of photography, installation, textiles, print, and mixed media. Curated by acclaimed writer and artist francesca ekwuyasi, the exhibition considers the intertwined histories of the Black Atlantic and the capacity of materials to become repositories of memory. Across distinct practices, the artists engage migration, labour, displacement, survival, liberation, and creativity, asking how personal and collective histories are carried and remade across generations.

The title brings together two materials whose histories cross oceans and generations. “Burnt sugar” evokes the plantation economies, labour, and movement of people and goods that shaped the Atlantic world. “Blue” invokes indigo, a dye associated with global exchange, inherited knowledge, and resistance. The artists approach these histories not as fixed records but as living archives, transforming materials and images into spaces of remembrance, resilience, care, and liberatory possibility.

francesca ekwuyasi is a learner, artist, storyteller, and curator born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), received the 2022 Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and was shortlisted for several major literary awards. The novel was selected for CBC’s Canada Reads in 2021 and, championed by Roger Mooking, advanced to the grand finale. In 2024, ekwuyasi curated the first iteration of Burnt Sugar at Critical Distance Centre for Curators in Toronto. The exhibition extended her storytelling practice across visual art, material histories, and Black diasporic experience.

Roger Mooking, The Other Guy Returns, 2022, acrylic on canvas/photography. Courtesy of the artist.

Roger Mooking: SoundBites

September 11 – November 8, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10, 6–8pm
(In partnership with Prismatic Arts Festival)

SoundBites is Roger Mooking’s first solo visual art exhibition in Atlantic Canada. Inspired by his 2023 album of the same name, the exhibition brings together visual art, moving image, music, and text in an immersive exploration of creativity, memory and the rhythms of contemporary life.

Drawing on the sampling traditions of hip-hop, Mooking remixes reproductions of his paintings, photographs, music, lyrics, and writing to create layered visual and sonic environments. The exhibition unfolds through three interconnected chapters: The Learning, The Living, and The Leaving. Together, they trace the arc of a life, from childhood and discovery through experience and transformation to reflection, legacy, and remembrance. Visitors are invited to listen, look, read, and touch. QR codes connect individual works to songs and short stories, while interactive installations position audiences as active participants in the creative process.

The accompanying publication, Curious Sounds: A Dialogue in Three Movements (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023), created by Roger Mooking and francesca ekwuyasi, extends the project through essays, conversations, photography, visual art, lyrics, and short fiction. Copies will be available for purchase at the Gallery throughout the exhibition.

Roger Mooking is a Trinidadian-born Canadian multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans visual art, music, writing, television, and culinary culture. A JUNO Award-winning musician, he first gained national recognition as a member of Bass is Base and has since developed a wide-ranging solo career. Across more than three decades, his work has moved between disciplines while remaining grounded in collaboration, cultural storytelling, and the creation of immersive experiences.

Public Programs

SoundBites: Music, Memory and Black Canadian Archives
Wednesday, September 9, 6:30–8pm
Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road

A free public panel exploring how Black Canadian music histories are documented, preserved, and shared across generations. Moderated by DJ, scholar, and curator Mark V. Campbell, the conversation brings together Roger Mooking, African Nova Scotian Music Association Executive Director Julien Matwawana, and Canada Black Music Archives co-founder and Executive Director Phil Vassell, with introductory reflections from Canada Black Music Archives co-founder Donna McCurvin.

Presented in partnership with Halifax Public Libraries, with support from Dalhousie University’s Office of the President, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Black and African Diaspora Studies Program, and the Killam Research Chair in Black Reparative Futures. Additional support is provided by the Afrosonic Innovation Lab.

A Night with Prismatic
Thursday, October 1, 6:30pm
Dalhousie Art Gallery
Tickets & more information

A special evening featuring a reading by Burnt Sugar Blue curator francesca ekwuyasi, followed by a concert by award-winning Newfoundland and Labrador singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Valmy. Co-presented with Prismatic Arts Festival.

About Dalhousie Art Gallery

Dalhousie Art Gallery, established in 1953, is the oldest public gallery in Nova Scotia. Located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people, the Gallery is both a university-based and public-facing institution. Through innovative exhibitions, public programs, and publications, it fosters visual literacy, critical engagement, and interdisciplinary exchange while making art relevant and accessible to diverse audiences on campus and throughout the broader community.

Admission to the Gallery is always free. Admission details for public programs are provided with each event listing.

Dalhousie Art Gallery
Dalhousie Arts Centre, Level 1
6101 University Avenue
Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
artgallery.dal.ca
art.gallery@dal.ca | 902-494-2403

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Accessibility:
Dalhousie Art Gallery is wheelchair accessible and located on Level 1 of the Dalhousie Arts Centre. Elevator access, movable seating, and a wheelchair are available. For detailed visitor and accessibility information, visit artgallery.dal.ca/accessibility-information.