The Power Plant Announces Two New Immersive Exhibitions for Fall 2024

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery announces its upcoming exhibition season with two solo presentations of works by Swedish visual artist Lap-See Lam and Canadian multidisciplinary artist Charles Campbell. Running from September 21, 2024 to March 2, 2025, the shows feature installations that reflect on concepts relating to memory, movement, and the ocean. Admission is free!

Join the Opening Party of new exhibitions!
Saturday, September 21, 3 – 6pm
Free Admission

Lap-See Lam, still from Floating Sea Palace, 2024. Courtesy the artist; Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin/Stockholm/Mexico City; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Vega Foundation; Studio Voltaire, London; The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto. Still by Lisabi Fridell/Egerstrand&Blund. Textile work copyright of Kholod Hawash.

Lap-See Lam: Floating Sea Palace

Lap-See Lam creates mythical video installations that draw on traditional storytelling forms such as Cantonese opera and shadow play puppetry. Her work takes a magic realist approach, creating alternative representations of Chinoiserie as defined by imperialist history, while simultaneously reflecting on her own family history of migration from Hong Kong to Sweden, both to claim and complicate cultural heritage. This exhibition, presented in partnership with The Vega Foundation, showcases Lam’s newest film, Floating Sea Palace (2024), in which the artist draws on the folklore tale of Lo Ting, a mythical human-fish hybrid who is believed to be the ancestor of the Hong Kong people. This presentation reflects on transformation, translation, and the longing to return to an ever-shifting home that remains out of reach.

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Charles Campbell, Breath Portrait series, 2004. C-print on aluminum composite panels, 20 in x 144 in. Courtesy the artist.

Charles Campbell: How many colours has the sea

Charles Campbell is a multidisciplinary artist whose diverse body of work challenges traditional notions of time and delves into possibilities arising in the aftermath of colonization. Co-presented with the Toronto Biennial of Art, How many colours has the sea (2024) creates a portal into a realm where the spirits lost in the Middle Passage—the harrowing journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic—find solace. The exhibition consists of newly commissioned works, including a large-scale sculpture that recreates the submerged terrain where African and North American tectonic plates converge, and nine monolithic panels, or “Breath Portraits” that visualize the breath of members of the Black community. It also includes an audio installation capturing the tranquil and tumultuous atmospheres of the sea using hydrophones (underwater microphones) and filling the gallery with the sounds of an ocean journey, both stormy and calm.

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About The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is Canada’s leading public gallery devoted to contemporary art, ideas, and conversations. Located at Harbourfront Centre on Toronto’s waterfront, The Power Plant is a vital forum for the creative culture of our time, sharing inspiring and transformative experiences with audiences through free admission to exhibitions and public programs. The Power Plant is guided by the commitment to provide a platform for artists from diverse backgrounds, drawing attention to pressing issues and connecting communities in Canada and worldwide through contemporary art. For more information, please visit thepowerplant.org.

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
231 Queens Quay West
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2G8 Canada

Connect with us:
www.thepowerplant.org | info@thepowerplant.org | 416.973.4949

The venue is easily accessible and has automatic doors at the entrance. There is barrier-free parking nearby.