Winter 2026 Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Guelph

Join us Thursday, January 22 at 6:30pm for the public launch of AGG’s Winter 2026 season. Four exhibitions highlight core artistic practices—painting and printmaking—bringing together works by local, regional, and international artists. Connecting community-based perspectives to broader global contexts, the exhibitions explore how these enduring practices continue to shape contemporary art and cultural exchange.

Artists and curators will be in attendance. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served, and a cash bar will be available.

Ron Shuebrook & Frances Thomas: In Conversation

January 22 – May 3, 2026
Curated by Mary Reid

Ron Shuebrook and Frances Thomas have each made paint the arena for a sustained and rigorous engagement with abstraction throughout their careers. Presented together, the rich dialogue between their works underscores the distinct pathways the artists have forged, drawing out resonant relationships between their use of line, form, colour, and scale while also revealing shared concerns. The exhibition highlights these points of connection and contrast, gesturing toward how both artists bring deeply personal approaches to shaping a visual language. read more >

Organized and circulated by the Woodstock Art Gallery and presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Image details (left to right): Ron Shuebrook, Black Mountain, Blue Monkeyrope (detail), 2021, acrylic on canvas, 213.3 × 121.9 cm; Frances Thomas, Stuck in a Good Place (detail), 2022, acrylic on panel, 50.8 × 40.6 cm. Collections of the artists. Photos by Joseph Hartman.

Queer Print Project: Body Language

January 22 – April 4, 2026
Curated by Jude Akrey, Anna Gaby-Trotz, and Maeve Hind

Over the past three years, the Queer Print Project has used screen printing—a medium rich in political history—to facilitate workshops for 2SLGBTQIA+ participants, generating t-shirts that act as everyday forms of armour and resilience in the ongoing pursuit of queer liberation and safety. In Body Language, these t-shirts are presented alongside archival activist materials from The ArQuives, highlighting the interconnected and intergenerational struggles that queer communities continue to face and asserting the role of language and creativity in queer activism and community-building. read more >

Organized and presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Image details: Screen-printed t-shirts produced by participants in the Queer Print Project. Photo by Anna Gaby-Trotz.

Prism International Printmaking

January 22 – May 3, 2026

Celebrating the depth and diversity of contemporary printmaking, this exhibition brings together 38 artists from 17 countries working across a wide range of printmaking techniques. Reflecting the global conversation inherent to the practice, the exhibition highlights the invention and experimentation that have always characterized printmaking, presenting intricate, layered works that convey the resonance of ideas, textures, and stories captured on paper. Prism Print International is an internationally based, volunteer-run organization founded in 2012 to promote artistic exchange, collaboration, and global understanding through printmaking. This exhibition is the collective’s first in Canada and includes work by Elora-based master printer Stu Oxley. read more >

Organized and presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Image details: Stu Oxley, Untitled (detail), 2025, monoprint, collagraph, etching, and chine collé. Courtesy of the artist.

Kananginak Pootoogook: Printing The Inuit World

January 22 – May 3, 2026
Curated by Erin Szikora

Kananginak Pootoogook RCA (1935–2010) spent the first twenty years of his life at Ikirasaq, a small hunting camp on southern Baffin Island. The son of respected camp leader and artist Josephie Pootoogook, Kananginak grew up in a traditional Inuit family and was raised with a deep appreciation of the land. After relocating to Kinngait in 1953, he helped establish Kinngait Studios (formerly the West Baffin Co-operative), becoming one of its four original printers and later serving as President of its Board of Directors. Centred on his detailed print The Inuit World that captures an array of details of everyday Inuit life, the exhibition presents further prints by Kananginak from the Art Gallery of Guelph’s permanent collection alongside the tools that helped create them, including the original copper engraving for Untitled (Building an Igloo). read more >

Organized and presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Image details: Kananginak Pootoogook, The Inuit World (detail), 1977, block print on paper, 18.4 × 26 cm. Gift of A.R. MacKinnon in memory of Gene MacKinnon, 2011. Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Collection at the Art Gallery of Guelph.

Visit the Art Gallery of Guelph

The Art Gallery of Guelph is open from 12 to 5pm, Tuesday through Sunday. All are welcome, and admission is free. Located at the edge of the University of Guelph campus, the gallery offers a dynamic space for visitors to engage with contemporary and historical artistic practices and research, explore diverse perspectives, and experience thought-provoking exhibitions. Through its commitment to fostering creative dialogue, AGG provides an accessible and inclusive environment where art connects communities and inspires new ways of seeing.

Art Gallery of Guelph
358 Gordon Street, Guelph, ON N1G 1Y1
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 12 – 5pm | Accessible
519-837-0010
artgalleryofguelph.ca
info@artgalleryofguelph.ca
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