Papermaking, Ecologies, and Fabulous Neoconstantinopolitanism

October 2026 Programming at The Goldfarb Gallery

Paper Making Workshop with Touch Me, Don’t Forget Me
October 1

Repetition and Flatness: Conversation with Jeanne Randolph and John Monteith
October 3

Thinking with Ecology: Conversation with Lucia Pietroiusti and Olivia Whetung (online)
October 22

Workshop by Touch Me, Don’t Forget Me at The Plumb. Photo: Seden Lai

Shifting
Ongoing series

Shifting is an initiative focused on sustainability. In reckoning with the scale of the climate change crisis, it can be difficult to envision our potential to make meaningful change. The hope for this project is to not get stuck in feeling powerless and, instead, make shifts, creating pathways to climate action. This program includes a series of events focused on ecology, resilience, and art alongside the development of a living document centered on operations at the gallery, providing guidance for sustainable practices.

Upcoming Programs:

Paper Making Workshop with Touch Me, Don’t Forget Me
Thursday, October 1, 2026, 6–8pm
The Goldfarb Gallery
Sold Out (join the waitlist)

A free paper making workshop led by Touch Me, Don’t Forget Me, a collaborative project of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal-based artists Elena Kirby and Masumi Rodriguez. Participants will have the chance to learn to make (and take home) paper using the invasive dog-strangling vine that has been collected by the artists and local stewardship groups. The ongoing workshops by this collective provide an opportunity for conversations across disciplines on invasivity and our relationship to more-than-human environments. Registration required; all materials included.

Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby are an artist duo based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Their ongoing project, Touch Me Don’t Forget Me, is a shared research practice involving “invasive” plant species. Their work includes the papermaking workshop series PAPER LABS, and in 2026 they received the David Suzuki Art Foundation Prize.

Olivia Whetung, GHOST ACRES, 2025. Installation view at Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

Conversation
Thinking with Ecology: Lucia Pietroiusti and Olivia Whetung
Moderated by Clara Halpern
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 12–1pm EDT
Online
Register here

The environment is often approached as an external issue to address. But what does it mean to focus on human relations with our more-than-human neighbours? This conversation engages with ecological thinking and how it is shaping artworks, institutional systems, and possible futures.

Curator, programmer, and strategist Lucia Pietroiusti stewards research and experimentation at the intersection of art, ecology, and systems. Pietroiusti is Head of Research & Emergence at the Hartwig Museum, Amsterdam. She was previously Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London, and curator of the Golden Lion-winning opera-performance Sun & Sea, during the 58th Venice Biennale.

Artist Olivia Whetung is a member of Curve Lake First Nation. Whetung is from the area now called the Kawarthas and presently resides on Chemong Lake, Ontario. Whetung received her MFA from the University of British Columbia in 2016. She works in various media, including beadwork, printmaking, sculptural installation, and digital media.

Shifting is organized by Clara Halpern, assistant curator, exhibitions. This program is generously supported by York University’s Sustainability Innovation Fund.

Installation view of Jeanne Randolph with John Monteith, Fabulous Neoconstantinopolitanism, 2026.

Repetition and Flatness: Jeanne Randolph and John Monteith in Conversation
Saturday, October 3, 2026, 3–4:30pm
Visible Vault Study Centre
More information

Jeanne Randolph will be expanding on the mythos that surrounds La Betty, the protagonist of Fabulous Neoconstantinopolitanism. She will read from My Claustrophobic Happiness, a compendium of trials that various characters from myths-past inflict upon our erstwhile heroine. Following this, Randolph will sit down with contemporary artist John Monteith to discuss issues of flatness and repetition. Together, they will delve into mid-century modernism and the opportunities inherent in piercing flatness.

Jeanne Randolph is an independent intellectual whose writings interpret Canadian culture psychoanalytically and philosophically, reflecting her disdain for advertising and consumerism, her paranoia about The Technological Ethos, and her cavalier attitude toward pop culture, fashion, ethics, and hysteria.

John Monteith received an MFA from Parsons in 2008 and began a Master of Research at the Royal College of Art this fall. Monteith consistently works across mediums, pushing and expanding rigid disciplinary boundaries whether through photography, painting, drawing, textile-making, or curation and collaborative initiatives.

About The Goldfarb Gallery

The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University is a socially minded not-for-profit contemporary art gallery that is a space for the creation and appreciation of art and culture. It is a supported Unit of York University. We are externally funded as a public art gallery through the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, local and international foundations, embassies, and our Friends, who support our programs.

First Nations peoples have lived on this part of Turtle Island for millennia, stewarding the land, the water and all that contributes to life in this region. Today, the culture and presence of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples enrich the lands and people of this territory.

More than two centuries ago, the Mississauga people welcomed settlers to this territory, providing sustenance and engaging in trade and commerce. Between 1781 and 1820, eight treaties were signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, who opened their territory to settlement. Today, York University’s Keele Campus is located on Toronto Purchase Treaty, No. 13 lands and is situated on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee.

Treaty history is foundational, and it is our collective responsibility to honour the land, as we honour and respect those who have gone before us, those who are here and those who have yet to come. We are grateful for the opportunity to be learning, working and thriving on this land, and we commit to learn the truth and be active in the process of reconciliation.

The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University
83A York Boulevard
Toronto ON M3J 1P3

TheGoldfarbGallery.ca
TheGoldfarbGallery@Yorku.ca
416-736-5169

Instagram @thegoldfarbgallery

Always Free

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday, 12–5pm

Accessibility:
The Goldfarb Gallery is fully accessible. The nearest wheeltrans stop is the north end of the York University Subway Station, on Line 1.

Image Descriptions:
1. Close-up of the hands of a group of people making paper with green plant materials.
2. Colourful beaded bunting installed in an atrium.
3. Hand-held mirror and red high-heeled shoes on a multi-hued carpet.