Summer 2026 Exhibitions at MSVU Art Gallery

Allyson Mitchell, Brain Child, 2008, mixed media installation. Photo courtesy of Union Gallery and the artist.

Allyson Mitchell: Brain Child

Organized by MSVU Art Gallery
June 13 – August 9, 2026
Lower Gallery

Allyson Mitchell’s Brain Child assembles a collection of over 100 ceramic figurines, depicting little girls in old-fashioned bonnets, long skirts, and pinafores. These figurines were ubiquitous in the 1970s and 80s, and modeled a retrograde version of feminine presentation and behavior where little girls are expected to be sweet, kind, cheerful, tidy, demure, and above all, cute as buttons.

In Mitchell’s installation, they are recast as pint-sized femme-savants, whose oversized bonnets protect big, beautiful brains. They are queued up before a giant textile brain crafted out of repurposed pink afghans, that hovers high above them. Although this ritual gathering suggests a collective, perhaps cult-like devotion to intellectual pursuits, Mitchell has given the figurines subversive makeovers that emphasize their individuality: some have been reglazed in ultra-bright fluorescent hues, others in a 1970s palette of greens, browns, oranges, reds, and golds. Some wear moody all-black goth while others are awash in highly saturated colours and clashing patterns that cover not only their dresses and bonnets, but also their faces, hands, and hair. Together, they attest to the expansive and subversive potential of femme identity, presentation, and intellect.

Related Programming

Artist Talk and Curated Screening: Private Caves, Blanket Forts and Dream Scores
Saturday, June 13, 1 – 3pm
The Centre for Art Tapes, 2238 Maitland Street, Halifax, NS

This artist talk and curated screening looks at how artists use installation/sculpture, drawing, music, and animation to build strange worlds, emotional landscapes, and intimate visual languages. Featuring short films and videos by Mitchell alongside Daniel Barrow, Karma Clarke-Davis, Theo Cuthand, Andrea Dorfman, Jesi Jordan, Annapurna Kumar, Christine Latham, Anita Lebeau, Amy Lockhart, James MacSwain, Amanda Strong, Leslie Supnet, and Theoretical Puppets, the program wanders through dreamscapes, private caves, hand-drawn rhythms, and animated forms of graphic narration and tale spinning that move between feeling, memory, and imagination.

Presented in partnership with The Centre for Art Tapes.

George Bernard Jr., Delmore ‘Buddy’ Daye, 1991, black and white archival print from digitized negative on paper, 27.9 x 35.6 cm. Image courtesy of the artist’s estate.

George Bernard Jr.: Light & Legacy

Organized by MSVU Art Gallery
June 20 – August 9, 2026
Upper Gallery

Light & Legacy celebrates the art and life of the late George Cedric ‘Sonny’ Bernard Jr. (1947-2025) a pioneering African Nova Scotian photographer, artist, graphic designer, and entrepreneur.

Inspired by visual storytelling of African American photographer Gordon Parks, Bernard built a long and successful career as the first professional photographer in the African Nova Scotian community.

Working out of his Cole Harbour studio, Projection Photo Graphics, and as an independent artist, photojournalist, and community volunteer, Bernard documented community leaders, protest marches, legislative assemblies, church and community gatherings, and visits by civil rights activist Minniejean Brown-Trickey, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Tina Turner, among others, creating an archive that attests to the power of collective action, community, faith, and dialogue.

As a graphic designer, illustrator and photographer, Bernard took on projects that helped advance the professional, artistic, social, and political pursuits of other Black Nova Scotians. He produced materials for the Nova Scotia Association of Black Social Workers, designed and illustrated the 1982 Black Business Directory, photographed the acapella group Four the Moment for their award-winning album, We’re Still Standing, and took family portraits of the congregants of the Victoria Road Baptist Church for their 145th Anniversary publication, among many other projects.

A prolific artist, Bernard also worked in pen and ink, watercolour, and acrylic, creating delicate, detailed renderings of historic Black churches, dramatic coastal landscapes, beloved family members, and quiet scenes of life in the townships.

Light & Legacy sheds light on Bernard’s prescient awareness that a single moment of connection can have a lasting impact, particularly if it is documented, cherished, and shared.

This exhibition is accompanied by limited-edition print publication which includes an essay by award-winning filmmaker and writer Sylvia D. Hamilton.

Related Programming

Opening Reception and Exhibition Tour with Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard
Saturday, June 20, 1 – 3pm

During the opening reception of Light & Legacy, Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard will share the stories behind many of her husband’s photographs, drawings, and paintings, offering a personal account of the artist’s life and practice.

About MSVU Art Gallery

Opened in 1971, MSVU Art Gallery is dedicated to presenting contemporary art programming with an emphasis on women and gender diverse people as cultural subjects and producers. Consistent with the principle that exhibition spaces are civic spaces, the gallery is committed to normalizing accessible presentation practices throughout its public programs. Admission is always free.

MSVU Art Gallery and Mount Saint Vincent University are situated on Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral, unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq.

Acknowledgements

MSVU Art Gallery thanks the Canada Council for the Arts and the Halifax Regional Municipality for their generous support.

MSVU Art Gallery
166 Bedford Highway
Halifax, NS B3M 2J6
www.msvuart.ca
art.gallery@msvu.ca
902-457-6160

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Accessibility:
MSVU is partially accessible. For more information, visit the Plan Your Visit page on our website. Please feel free to reach out to art.gallery@msvu.ca with any access requests, service needs, or inquiries.

Image Descriptions:
1. A collection of ceramic figurines depicting little girls in old-fashioned bonnets and long dresses, arranged in a two spiralling rows on a concrete floor. The ceramic figurines have been reglazed in bright, unnatural colours.
2. A black and white photograph of Delmore ‘Buddy’ Daye, an African Nova Scotian former professional boxer and community activist. Daye is sitting comfortably on a light coloured soft, with his hands folded over his knee. He is wearing a black t-shirt and trousers, and has chain with two small pendants around his neck.