Art Gallery Opening Reception
Date: Oct 11
7:00 pm
- 9:00 pm
Where: Level 3 Atrium
You’re invited to a night of art, music, and fun at our FREE public gallery opening!
Enjoy a performance by Ukrainian pianist Alla Melnychuk, enjoy tasty snacks, and grab a drink at our 19+ cash bar. Plus, all art exhibitions are FREE to explore during the event.
Denyse Thomasos: just beyond is a career retrospective of one of the finest painters to emerge in the 1990s. The late Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos (1964-2012) left an indelible, yet frequently overlooked, mark on contemporary painting. This exhibition brings together more than 50 paintings and works on paper, many rarely seen, to show how she challenged the limits of abstraction, infusing personal and political content onto her canvases through the innovative use of formalist techniques. Through pattern, scale, and repetition, Thomasos conveys the vastness of events, such as the transatlantic slave trade, without exploiting the images of those who were most affected.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and the Remai Modern, Saskatoon, and curated by Michelle Jacques, Head of Exhibitions and Collections/Chief Curator, Remai Modern; Sally Frater, Senior Curator, Remai Modern; and Renée van der Avoird, Associate Curator, Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario. Circulated with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Stay tuned for details on a Curatorial Talk on Saturday, October 12 at 2:30 pm!
Click here for more information on this exhibit.
Ginok Song: I Reach Home, I am Serene
This exhibition bridges East and West, merging memories and landscapes from Busan, South Korea and Newfoundland. As an immigrant artist in Newfoundland, Ginok Song sees her work as a journey of self-discovery and away to make visible those who often feel like outsiders. Her paintings tell the story of a young woman travelling through time and space, constructing her identity.
Click here for more information on this exhibit.
Tekweywinen tel Weljesultiek (Be With Us In Our Joy), curated by Jenelle Duval, is a unique, multidisciplinary, interactive, and play-based experience. It showcases the works of seven artists based in Wabanaki*—inviting you to explore their individual interpretations of joy. Artists: Jordan Bennett, Samaqani Cocahq, Michael R. Denny, Emma Hassencahl-Perley, Megan Samms, Kayla Stride, and Nelson White. Note that a larger scale celebration focusing on this exhibition will take place with the curator and several of the artists in November as part of the Spirit Song festival organized by First Light.
*Wabanaki, translated as “People of the First Light” or “Dawnland,” includes five nations: the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki.
Click here for more information on this exhibit.
Image: Denyse Thomasos. Metropolis, 2007. Acrylic, charcoal, porous-point marker on canvas, unframed: 214 x 335.6 x 3.5 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchased with the assistance of the Toronto International Art Fair 2007 Opening Night Preview, and with the Financial Support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 2008. © The Estate of Denyse Thomasos and Olga Korper Gallery. 2007/241
Events & Programs
Unleash Your Inner Artist at The Rooms!
Come draw at The Rooms and practice your skills with focused exercises.
What to Expect:
Our experienced instructor will guide you through fundamental drawing techniques. Each session focuses on a different theme, from drawing the harbour view to capturing the details of our natural history collection.
This is a creative and supportive environment; all skill levels and experience are welcome! Designed for ages 15 and up.
Quality drawing supplies are available, or feel free to bring your own sketchbook.
Cost: $20 plus HST. 10% discount for Rooms members. Drop-ins welcome!
Fishing for Cod
For centuries, fishing for cod has played a vital role in the lives of the peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador. Generations of fishing men, women, and children made use of the land and sea to sustain them and spent their lives “making fish.”
Join us each day for an interpretive guided tour in one of our galleries. From the story of the cod fishery to visiting a current art exhibition to a Family Rainbow Tour, there is something for everyone.
Each tour is approximately 30–40 minutes and is included in the cost of admission. Free for Rooms members.
Unleash Your Inner Artist at The Rooms!
Come draw at The Rooms and practice your skills with focused exercises.
What to Expect:
Our experienced instructor will guide you through fundamental drawing techniques. Each session focuses on a different theme, from drawing the harbour view to capturing the details of our natural history collection.
This is a creative and supportive environment; all skill levels and experience are welcome! Designed for ages 15 and up.
Quality drawing supplies are available, or feel free to bring your own sketchbook.
Cost: $20 plus HST. 10% discount for Rooms members. Drop-ins welcome!
There are divergent theories about the origins of suffrage movements. How does Newfoundland fit into these narratives? What is known about the movement and what remains unexplored? How does this formative social movement complicate traditional histories of the former Dominion?
Join us for a special keynote lecture by Dr. Margot Duley for the “Up She Rises! A Public Forum about Women and Gender in Newfoundland & Labrador History” Symposium.
Cost: Free, but a ticket is required. Reserve your free ticket online or by calling (709) 757-8090.
This event is presented in partnership with The Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society.
About the Keynote Speaker:
Margot I. Duley is the preeminent scholar on the history of the women’s suffrage movement in Newfoundland, and author of Where Once Our Mothers Stood We Stand: Women’s Suffrage in Newfoundland, 1890-1925 (1993) and Extraordinary Passages: The Life and Times of Margaret Iris Duley, Newfoundland's Pathbreaking Novelist (2024). Her enlarged and revised history of the suffrage movement, From Silence to Suffrage: Women's Path to Citizenship in Newfoundland, 1803-1949, has just been released by Boulder Books (2025).
She is Professor Emerita of History and Women's Studies at Eastern Michigan University, and Dean Emerita, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Springfield. Dr. Duley has also contributed extensively to the community, including serving as a board member with the Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society and with PerSIStence Theatre Company. Notably, she chaired a campaign to erect a statue to suffrage leader Armine Gosling, unveiled in June in Bannerman Park—the first singular statue to a named woman in the City of St. John’s and the first public statue in the province designed by a woman (sculptor Sheila Coultas).
For the symposium, Dr. Duley will revisit her research on the suffrage movement and present new findings related to its complex and formative history.