Ghosts, Ruins, Resistance: 2026 Exhibitions at Oakville Galleries
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, The Ship of Tolerance, Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens, 2025. Photo: Jimmy Limit.
What would the living do
if they had not
the dead
to see to?
– Dermot Healy
I always try to explain to my parents that there is no difference between passive resistance and passive collaboration – it’s the same thing.
– W.G. Sebald
Our 2026 programme, entitled Ghosts, Ruins, Resistance, is inspired by our upcoming exhibitions that circumnavigate themes of trauma and loss, memory and mourning, war and its injustices, colonial tyranny and rebellion, resilience and survival. Resisting nostalgic melancholy, these exhibitions rather encourage soldiering collectively onwards. Today Machiavellian pragmatism obtusely dominates our world, where fluid capital flexes its strategic self-interest, empowering blunt, transactional relationships that supersede moral or ethical norms, even triggering unspeakable injustices. We believe in art to stand up in solidarity against that tide and say, hey, humanity, you can do better than this. Ghosts and ruins can be made visible therefore to honour the dead and produce forms of resistance in their name. Likewise, traces of historical resistances remain amongst us like indefatigable spectres, as part of a world essence, and instead of merely haunting us, enable us to embody their knowledge, establish resilience and pave a radiant outlook forward.
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Ship of Tolerance
Ongoing to September 30, 2026
Gairloch Gardens
Placed lakeside beside our museum, its mast beckoning southwards, The Ship of Tolerance emanates humanitarianism, freedom and justice. This anti-war sculpture rejects deference to hegemonic power and speaks of better, alternative futures, which we are free to produce. In 2025, our education team worked with the Kabakovs to hold workshops on tolerance and the future with 2,000 local children. Further workshops are again underway and the ship will be launched again this spring.
The Ship of Tolerance is presented in collaboration with the Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Foundation, as well as with The National Gallery of Canada. The National Gallery of Canada’s National Engagement initiative is generously supported by Michael Nesbitt, with additional funding from the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.
Abbas Akhavan, untitled, 2017, refrigerators, flowers, plastic buckets, dimensions variable. Photo: Rachel Topham.
Les Fleurs du Mal
February 28 – May 24, 2026
Opening Reception: February 28, 2 – 5pm
Gairloch & Centennial Galleries
Curated by Karen Kraven, Les Fleurs du Mal brings together works by Abbas Akhavan, Lili Huston-Herterich, Sukaina Kubba, Jeremy Laing, Jenine Marsh, Diyar Mayil, Marisa Portolese, Swapnaa Tamhane & Aimée Zito Lema. While reflecting on loss, mourning and remembrance, this exhibition explores various presentations of flowers, gardens and performance in gestures of memorialization, embodiment and transformation.
Ali Cherri, still from The Watchman, 2023. Courtesy the artist, Fondazione In Between Art Film, and Galerie Imane Farès, Paris.
Ali Cherri: To Fall, Patiently
June 13 – October 3, 2026
Gairloch & Centennial Galleries, Gairloch Gardens
Influenced by the vibrant art scene of 1990s postwar Beirut, and exploring geographies of violence in the broader region, Ali Cherri’s practice spans across film, performance, sculpture, drawing, and installations. His work interrogates how political violence resonates through generations as well as physical and cultural landscapes. Ali Cherri will present films, sculptures and watercolour paintings in both our galleries and in Gairloch Gardens.
Aideen Barry, Film Still ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ OBLIVION SEACHMALLTACHT, 2021.
Aideen Barry: Silent Songs
October 24, 2026 – February 6, 2027
Gairloch & Centennial Galleries
Aideen Barry’s recent work is a powerful exploration of banned and outlawed language, folklore, and song. This exhibition features the film debut of Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle (2025), the film installation The Song of the Bleeding Tree (2023) and the seminal work ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ / Seachmalltacht / Oblivion (2021), created in collaboration with Inuit throat singer Riit ᕇᑦ and Irish harpist Aisling Lyons, and inspired by once outlawed Irish harp music and Inuit throat singing.
Other Programming
Founded by Séamus Kealy in 2017 in Austria, Sunset Kino continues as Canada’s only outdoor, avant-garde cinema. Our international Artist Residency hosts artists Nina Canell (SE), Aimée Zito Lema (NL), Aideen Barry (IE), Lili Huston-Herterich (NL), and artists sponsored by the SAGA Foundation and Land Salzburg.
About Oakville Galleries
Oakville Galleries is a contemporary art museum presenting international and Canadian artists. Housed in a unique lakeside mansion and park as well as a white cube gallery in the downtown library, Oakville Galleries is one of Canada’s leading contemporary art institutions. The Executive Director is Séamus Kealy.
Supported by The Town of Oakville, Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, sponsors, patrons and members.
Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens
1306 Lakeshore Road East
Oakville, ON L6J 1L6
Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square
120 Navy Street
Oakville, ON L6J 2Z4
For more information:
oakvillegalleries.com
905.844.4402
info@oakvillegalleries.com
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