Teaser: Selections from the Rodman Art Collection

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara at the Old Fire Hall

Carolyn Wren, Vigilance (installation detail), 2006, installation of five coats made of industrial grey felt, dimensions variable.

Teaser: Selections from the Rodman Art Collection

June 25 – November 28, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 25, 2026, 6 – 8pm
Rodman Art Institute of Niagara, Thorold, ON

A public gallery art collection can be seen to both define and ground the organization. The art collection tells the story of where the organization came from and can be useful in helping to define the direction the gallery sees itself pursuing for the future. It reflects the collecting interests of local residents and collectors, preserves the work of artists from and working in the region, and responds to a broader discourse of art in Canada and across the globe. The Rodman Art Collection was built over the past 66 years, starting just before 1960 and today, like all public art collections is held in the public trust.

While a typical art gallery only exhibits one to five percent of their permanent art collection at any one time, for the past six years the Rodman Art Collection, consisting of almost 2000 works of art has been stored safely in specialized fine art storage outside the region, and as a result has been hidden from view.

William Ronald, Untitled, 1952, mixed media collage on illustration board, 51.5 cm x 63 cm

Teaser: Selections from the Rodman Art Collection, provides a glimpse, a “teaser”, into the breadth, and variety of work collected by the former Rodman Hall Arts Centre over six decades. The environmental conditions of the Rodman Art Institute of Niagara’s current space at the Old Fire Hall in Downtown Thorold, prevents us from exhibiting some of the more important Canadian works of art in our collection, such as the Group of Seven, Emily Carr, Edward Burtynsky, and others. Instead what this exhibition focuses on is demonstrating the relationship a public art gallery collection has to its local community and at the same time to broader global and political issues.

Two important works by St. Catharines based artist Carolyn Wren (1961 – 2024) speak to current glocal issues of water scarcity, climate change, border insecurity, and Canadian sovereignty. A series of exquisite etchings by Swedish artist Ragnhild Nordensten (1888 – 1951) relate both to the industrial roots and heritage of the region, and bridge and create dialogue with Echoing: Susan Barton-Tait, Natalie Hunter, and Corine Van Hoeve also on view. Situated against the mid-century architecture of the Old Fire Hall No 1, early abstract work by William Ronald (1926 – 1998) and Graham Coughtry (1931 – 1999), feel at home sharing space with the abstract prints local St. Catharines artist Edna Burch created at Rodman Hall Arts Centre in the early 60’s and an abstract watercolour by Oakville artist Edith M Smith (1919 – 2005).

Like many Ontario regional galleries, our collection is heavily weighted on artwork created from the 1960’s through the late 1990’s, and lacks significant representation by female, queer, and BIPOC artists. Teaser: Selections from the Rodman Art Collection attempts to counter a dominant male-centric view of modernist Canadian art history by placing the work of prominent art world figures like Ronald, Coughtry and John MacGregor (1944 – 2019) alongside the work of female Niagara-based artists Wren and Burch, little known Swedish artist Nordensten, and the three Hamilton-based female artists in Echoing: Susan Barton-Tait, Natalie Hunter and Corine Van Hoeve.

Ragnhild Nordensten, Exterior av hyttan, 1929, etching, 35 cm x 26 cm

Summer 2026 exhibition and programming support has been generously provided by the Ontario Arts Council – Exhibition Assistance, Tourism Partnership Niagara, and the Government of Ontario.

Also opening June 25, 2026 at the Fire Hall:
Echoing: Susan Barton-Tait, Natalie Hunter & Corine Van Hoeve

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara (RAiN) is a public art gallery dedicated to the public’s appreciation and understanding of the visual arts. In partnership with the City of Thorold, RAiN is taking over a de-commissioned mid-century Fire Hall in Downtown Thorold and reinterpreting this as a temporary creative art space.

For information and media inquiries, contact:
Angela Brayham, Director / Curator
abrayham@rodmanart.ca

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