Wondrous Encounters: Edge Conditions ǀ Inawendiwin

Claude Latour, Sigwan on the Kichi Zibi, 2024, digital photograph. Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

Wondrous Encounters: Edge Conditions ǀ Inawendiwin

June 9, 2026 – May 17, 2027
Vernissage: June 9, 2026, 5 – 7pm | Register here
Âjagemô Exhibition Space, Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa

There are spaces between water and land, the soft yet dense shoreline, where, even within the city, other wondrous ecosystems exist. Full of life, they are the edge conditions that enable species to live and thrive.

Shaped by constant movement and change, these areas are at the heart of the new Edge Conditions ǀ Inawendiwin exhibition, opening at the Canada Council Âjagemô Exhibition Space on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Ottawa.

Curated by Ottawa-based digital designer, writer and student of architecture Leah Snyder, the exhibition brings together close to 40 works of art from the Canada Council Art Bank collection. It examines the long-standing tradition of landscape art in Canada by expanding the conversation to include a wider range of voices and viewpoints.

Greg Staats, at the edge of the woods – condolence, 2009. Photograph. Photo: Greg Staats

Across the exhibition, works are presented in groupings that suggest archipelagoes, inviting visitors to move through the space as they might navigate a series of connected environments. Here, landscapes are not static backdrops, but active sites of change, memory and relation. Together, the works of art, along with selected poems, evoke a range of emotions, from a sense of belonging and wonder to alienation and loss.

The exhibition includes artwork by artists Shuvinai Ashoona, Martin Borden, Michel Campeau, Lucie Duval, Tom Eneas, Jonathan S. Green, Jamelie Hassan, David Hlynsky, Anique Jordan, Farouk Kaspaules, Gillian King, Katherine Knight, Wanda Koop, Megan Krause, Claude Latour, Rita Letendre, Kenneth Lochhead, Shelly Low, Don Maynard, Max Maynard, Norval Morrisseau, Toni Onley, Marcel Piet-Hein Kerkhoff, Pinock, Pudlo Pudlat, Gordon Rayner, Ranjan Sen, Susan D. Shantz, Nick Sikkuark, Greg Staats, Takao Tanabe, Brendan Lee Satish Tang, Thomas Udjuk, Ruth Wainwright, Esther Warkov, Anna Williams, Lin Xu and Lan “Florence” Yee.

Lan “Florence” Yee, Finding Myself at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts IV, 2018. Painting. Photo: Brandon Clarida Image Services

About the Curator

Edge Conditions ǀ Inawendiwin is curated by Leah Snyder. Having moved to Ottawa in 2013, she has come to love the shorelines and horizons of the region and the wonder they offer. As a digital designer, she has worked with numerous Indigenous artists to construct online archives and is currently enrolled in graduate studies at Carleton University, pursuing scholarship on screen architectures and immersive exhibition design. Curatorially, Leah is interested in how emerging digital technologies allow artists to convey representations of place that counter colonial histories. As a writer, she has contributed to various art and architecture publications, including those by the National Gallery of Canada and Library and Archives Canada, as well as Border Crossings, Canadian Architect, Vie des arts, Canvas: Art and Culture from the Middle East and Arab World and more, with a particular interest in digital and video art.

When not thinking about art or technology, Leah can be found walking along and through edge conditions.

About the Âjagemô Exhibition Space

The Canada Council Âjagemô Exhibition Space is open daily from 7am to 9pm. Admission is free. Register for the opening event on June 9, 2026.

For more on the artists, the exhibition and the Canada Council Art Bank, visit artbank.ca or find us on Instagram (@artbank_banquedart) and Facebook (@CCartbank).

Those interested in elevating their experience by listening and learning more about the works and artists featured in Edge Conditions ǀ Inawendiwin are encouraged to access the Art Bank Web app.

About the Art Bank

The Canada Council Art Bank is the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art with more than 17,000 works of art by 3,000 artists from across the country, including a significant number by Indigenous artists.

Through its art rental program, exhibitions and outreach activities, the Art Bank creates engaging workplaces, public spaces and communities that contribute to the visibility and vibrancy of contemporary art.

Canada Council for the Arts

The Canada Council’s offices, located in Ottawa, are on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation, whose presence in the area reaches back to time immemorial. Read the full statement.

Âjagemô Exhibition Space
150 Elgin Street
Ottawa, ON K2P 1L4
canadacouncil.ca/about/ajagemo

Canada Council Art Bank
921 St-Laurent Boulevard
Ottawa, ON K1K 3B1
artbank.ca
artbank@canadacouncil.ca
613-566-4414, extension 4479

Facebook @CCartbank
Instagram @artbank_banquedart
LinkedIn @Canada Council Art Bank ǀ Banque d’art du Conseil des arts du Canada