Programming

Exhibition
October 9 – December 6, 2025
Sur Gallery, Toronto

Opening Reception
Thursday, October 9, 7 – 9pm
In-person | Register here

Arpillera Workshop with Crear Poder Popular Collective
Saturday, October 11, 2 – 5pm
In-person | Register here

Tatreez Workshop with Watermelon Seeds Collective
Saturday, October 25, 2 – 5pm
In-person | Register here

Artist Talk with Triangle, Crear Poder Popular, and Watermelon Seeds collectives
Thursday, November 20, 7 – 8:30pm
Online | Register here

About the Exhibition

Inspired by the roots of collective social justice activism, and the theories of oppositional consciousness, this exhibition seeks to highlight the work and dedication of various artists who have come together to find within the power of coalition the ability to build collective memory.

Feminist theorist Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the Oppressed indicates the need for oppositional consciousness as a practice for a differential mode of resistance to neocolonizing forces and highlights the role coalition building can play within emancipatory processes. The art collectives presented in this exhibition have developed socially conscious artistic projects with a commitment to community development, working towards a methodology and a practice that nurtures the collective consciousness of the oppressed. With the image of a past and the truth of the present they join forces to expose the power of resistance. With the force of ancestral knowledge and the need to remember lives lost, they share stories and histories through art.

The four participating collectives understand the role of coalitions, the importance within community building, and social justice advocacy. The Crear Poder Popular Collective was founded with the intention of paying tribute to the legacy of Salvador Allende’s presidency and to remember those directly affected by the military dictatorship that overthrew the democratically elected socialist President. For the 50th commemorative anniversary of the coup’ état, the collective invites participants with a collaborative spirit, to create small fabric figures to be added to a large arpillera. Each one representing detained and disappeared individuals documented in the Rettig Report, also known as the Report of the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation.

The members of the Día de los Muertos Collective tap into the need for ancestral and spiritual guidance. Through collectivity and coalition building, the collective’s community-based work offers a site of memory through the celebration of the Day of the Dead festivities, a tradition that is ethically and respectfully celebrated. It is a memorable event that reminds us of the fragility of life and our interconnections with one another. Beyond presenting an altar at the gallery, the collective imagines a space for us to reflect on food and the collective spirit of solidarity.

Triangle Collective members bring together dance, sound, and visual media to investigate how memory and place are embodied and reimagined across borders. Shaped by their migrations to Canada from Colombia, Chile, and Hong Kong, these artists navigate histories by visiting each other’s native lands. Their efforts in understanding each other’s experiences of displacement and belonging are achieved as they find methodologies of interconnection and collaboration, exploring new modalities of creative expression by merging and interweaving disciplines.

Finally, the Watermelon Seeds Collective’s approach has been to embroider the technique of tatreez onto flat surfaces rather than clothing, mapping, framing, and telling the story of resilience and resistance of Palestinians. They embroider, share stories, and cast awareness against oppression through art installations in public and private spaces. Inspired by the symbolism of the watermelon in the Palestinian struggle, the collective views their participation within coalition as seeds that may spark some hope amid an ongoing genocide.

All these collectives share a deep sense of social justice, human rights, and kinship, and develop projects that aim to connect and support their communities while understanding collective memory as essential to resist violent forms of erasure.

Co-presented by Casa Maíz and Día de los Muertos Collective.

Triangle Collective/Olga Barrios, Eco de cueca sola… (Echo of Cueca Sola…), video-still, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.

About the Curator

Tamara Toledo Ph.D. is a Toronto-based art historian, curator, writer, and artist. Her research focuses on hemispheric networks of exchange, decolonial methodologies of resistance, artistic practices of oppositional consciousness, and diasporic exhibition histories. Her essays, reviews, and exhibition texts can be found in various publications including ARM Journal, C Magazine, Fuse, Canadian Art, Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture journal of the University of California, and Concordia University Press. Toledo is co-founder of LACAP (Latin American Canadian Art Projects) and the multidisciplinary Allende Arts Festival (2003–2011). She conceived and developed the Latin American Speakers Series (2008–2025); ARCHIVO (a digital archive of Latin American, Latin-Caribbean, Latinx and Indigenous artists from the Latin American region, based in Canada); and Positionality: A Symposium on Latin American and Latinx art in Canada (2022). She has worked in collections, programming, and curatorial research roles at A Space Gallery, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Toledo has presented at conferences across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Toledo is currently the Director/Curator of Sur Gallery, the only art space dedicated to contemporary Latin American and Latinx art in Canada.

Sur Gallery is Toronto’s first gallery space dedicated to the exhibition and critical engagement of contemporary Latin American and Latinx art and is a project of LACAP (Latin American Canadian Art Projects).

For information contact:

Sur Gallery/LACAP
39 Queens Quay East, Suite 100
Toronto, ON M5E OA5
416-654-7787
info@surgallery.ca
www.surgalleryvirtual.ca | www.lacap.ca

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Gallery Hours:
Wednesday to Friday: Noon – 6pm
Saturday: 11pm – 5pm

Sur Gallery acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Arts Council; Government of Ontario; Toronto Arts Council; and The City of Toronto through section 37. Sur Gallery also acknowledges its partners and sponsors Casa Maiz, Casa Salvador Allende Toronto, Día de los Muertos Collective, See Through Web, and Hoffworks Productions.