Summer 2026 Exhibitions at the MacLaren Art Centre

On Thursday, June 25, 6:30 – 9:00pm, the MacLaren Art Centre unveils its Summer Season of exhibitions. All are welcome to attend. Remarks begin at 7:00pm. Admission is free, registration encouraged.

Images (clockwise from top left): Sadko Hadžihasanović, Bathers 3, 2025, oil on copper. Courtesy of the artist and Paul Petro Contemporary Art; Christina Leslie, The Album: Just Married ’82, 2026, photography. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery; Michelle Sound, nikâwîs (little mother), 2026, monochrome print on paper, embroidery thread, mink poms, vintage seed beads. Courtesy of the artist and CEREMONIAL / ART; Peyton Keeler-Cox, His Story Now, 2022, digital image. Courtesy of the artist.

Sadko Hadžihasanović
the water’s edge, here at noon

June 13 – October 25, 2026
The Carnegie Room

At midday, as the sun gathers shadows close to the body, the distance between morning and what remains ahead exists in equal measure. It is a moment of recollection and promise. Arriving in Canada in 1993, Toronto-based Bosnian artist Sadko Hadžihasanović has now spent half of his life here, and half in the former Yugoslavia. The water’s edge, here at noon presents recent paintings that emerge from that midpoint, reflecting on memory and calm moments removed from the stresses of the wider world.

Sadko Hadžihasanović studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo and earned an MFA from the University of Belgrade. Since arriving in Canada, he has participated in more than sixty exhibitions nationwide, including the Tom Thomson Gallery, Grunt Gallery, Eastern Edge Gallery, and Neutral Ground. He is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto.

Christina Leslie
The Album

June 25 – October 25, 2026
Gallery Three

The Album examines the family photo album as a sourcebook, asking how photographs shape what can be known about a life, especially when the archive is marked by absence as much as presence. Drawing on photos of her parents’ wedding day, their youth, and recent recorded family conversations, the artist considers memory as something that shifts and is shaped by access to photography. Leslie’s video works extend these questions by imagining archival scenes, opening space for collective remembrance to meet the limits of the record.

Christina Leslie is a Toronto-based artist and independent curator whose lens-based practice delves into decolonization, identity, migration, marginalization, and her West Indian heritage. Using experimental photography and text, she explores the intersections of history, memory, and race. She holds a BFA from OCAD University, and an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Doris McCarthy Gallery, TD Bank, and the Wedge Collection, among others. She is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

Michelle Sound
We all go home to the stars

June 25 – October 25, 2026
Janice Laking Gallery

We all go home to the stars explores motherhood as a complex field of relation shaped by family, language, land, and community. Working with drums, photographs, archival materials, and language documents, Michelle Sound draws on her family history to reflect on the many forms that care and motherhood can take, and the relations that give them meaning.

Michelle Sound is a Cree and Métis artist and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi Swan River First Nation in Treaty 8 Territory. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University Art + Design. Her work is held in the collections of the Indigenous Art Centre (CIRNAC), Forge Project NY, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the National Gallery of Canada. Sound has been longlisted for the Lind Photography Prize (2024) and the Sobey Art Award (2025). She is represented by CEREMONIAL / ART.

Peyton Keeler-Cox
Questions Nobody Asked Me

June 13 – October 4, 2026
Molson Community Gallery

In Questions Nobody Asked Me, Peyton Keeler-Cox presents contemporary photographs alongside archival images that examine memory, grief, care, and chosen family. The work centres on the home of Roy, a longtime neighbour and friend of the artist and her family. After Roy’s passing, Keeler-Cox encountered archival materials that revealed Roy’s life with his late wife, uncovering a layered history of companionship. As both steward and participant, the artist shows the space in transition and reflects on how unexpected relationships shape the meaning of home.

Peyton Keeler-Cox is a Barrie-based photographer and artist. She holds a BFA in Image Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University. Her practice investigates and activates the archive, using it to seek truth and understanding in the world and in those around her. As witness and conduit, she holds space for others while uncovering the deeper complexities within emotion, grief, and relationships.

About the MacLaren Art Centre

The MacLaren Art Centre is the major public art gallery in Central Ontario serving the residents of Barrie, the County of Simcoe, and surrounding area. The Gallery has a significant permanent collection of contemporary Canadian art and presents a year-round programme of exhibitions, education activities, and special events.

The MacLaren is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek, which include the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Pottawatomi Nations, collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy. The local bands consist of the Chippewa Tri-Council, who are made up of Beausoleil First Nation, Georgina Island First Nation, and Rama First Nation. We would also like to acknowledge the Wendat Nation (Huron) who occupied these lands prior to the middle of the 17th century.

The MacLaren gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of its Members, Patrons, Donors, Sponsors, Partners, the City of Barrie, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Canadian Heritage.

MacLaren Art Centre
37 Mulcaster Street
Barrie, ON, L4M 3M2
T: 705-721-9696
www.maclarenart.com

Gallery Hours
Mon: Closed
Tue, Wed, Fri–Sun: 10am – 4pm
Thu: 10am – 8pm
Wheelchair accessible