Maya de Forest: my brain like strips of confetti

School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba

Maya de Forest, KAPUT! (detail), 2019; revised 2026. Image courtesy of the artist.

Maya de Forest: my brain like strips of confetti

October 29, 2026 – January 15, 2027
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 29, 5:00–8:00pm
The artist will be in attendance. All are welcome.
Artist Talk: Thursday, November 5, 12:00pm, Room 368, ARTlab
School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

The School of Art Gallery is pleased to present my brain like strips of confetti, a solo exhibition by Maya de Forest in which she reconfigures the extensive personal and professional archive of her father, Claude Pierre de Forest, a former professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. After spending four years caring for Claude through the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Maya began to consider the creative potential of what he left behind.

Composed of personal and professional materials, the archive includes slides, notebooks, photographs, videotapes and other analogue materials, some of which he used for teaching. It reflects his engagement with the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly his interest in environmental and social movements, metaphysics, ancient civilizations, ufology and ideas coming out of the cosmic consciousness movement. His collecting produced a massive stockpile of information that belongs to a pre-Internet era, when knowledge was assembled, stored and shared in a very different material form.

Through video, collage, sculpture and installation, Maya cuts, layers, glues and recombines these materials, drawing on her father’s own associative methods and sense of humour. At times, it becomes difficult to determine where Claude’s gesture ends and Maya’s begins.

Neither biography nor an attempt to recover her father, my brain like strips of confetti considers collecting as both a mode of knowledge production and a material practice. It emerges from Maya’s effort to come to terms with the things he collected over a lifetime. Maya does not attempt to resolve the archive or transform it into a legible narrative. She deals with it in ways that remain fragmented, contradictory and often absurd.

About the Artist

Maya de Forest (b. 1969) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She holds a BFA in Photography from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design (2004) and a BMus in Performance from McGill University (1992). Guided by her multiethnic ancestry and upbringing, de Forest explores personal and universal themes of identity through her practice spanning photography, books, collage, installation, and video. She studies and transforms materials to uncover complex cultural histories and individual narratives.

De Forest has received grants from the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, and her work has been shown in Canada, the U.S., Germany and France. Her self-published book, I love here now, has been distributed and sold internationally.

This work was created with the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

About the School of Art Gallery

The School of Art Gallery at the University of Manitoba supports research, education, and the presentation of contemporary and historical art. Through exhibitions, publications, and public programs, the Gallery fosters critical dialogue and creative exchange among artists, scholars, and communities in Manitoba and beyond.

Land Acknowledgement

The University of Manitoba is located on the original lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Dene, and Inuit, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. We recognize the enduring relationships established through Treaty and commit to supporting Indigenous excellence, Reconciliation, and meaningful change grounded in respect and reciprocity.

School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2
gallery@umanitoba.ca | 204-474-9322
umanitoba.ca/art/gallery

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Image Description: Detail of a collage by Maya de Forest: small white videocassette labels printed with letters and numbers, clustered into an irregular figure on a bright red-orange background, with a few stickers scattered throughout.