UPCOMING EXHIBITION
SUMMA 2025: Affirmations
Affirmations: When All Is Said and Done celebrates the final graduating cohort of McMaster’s School of the Arts, marking the culmination of their shared journey through uncertainty. The title reflects the process of creating without a predetermined outcome—where persistence became both a guiding force and a key affirmation, shaping their artistic practices and identities.
Entering university during a global health crisis, these artists turned to their work as an act of resistance—a means of grounding themselves and asserting their creative presence. The exhibition highlights the power of art and the graduating art students’ commitment to one another and to broader cultural change. As the last class of McMaster’s one-hundred- and eight-year-old studio art program, this exhibition reflects on both the legacy they inherit and the one they leave behind.
Honouring their professors and artistic traditions while pushing the boundaries of conventional artmaking, these students blend technique with intuition. Many works prioritize materiality, spontaneity and process over orthodox art frameworks.
Featuring works across painting, sculpture, textiles, drawing, photography, jewellery, film, and animation, the exhibition values process and experimentation over final outcomes. It celebrates the hands-on, labour-intensive nature of artmaking, moving beyond materials to reveal a deep sense of connection within the cohort.
This strong sense of community shines through in every artwork. United by mutual support, curiosity, and a shared drive to affirm and learn from one another, these artists express their collective spirit through assertion, declaration, and purposeful creation.
Opening Reception
Thursday, April 3, 4-7PM
Artists: Alysha Aran, Elinor Brown, Audrey Ewen, Amber Forno, Leyda Glover, Ayesha Khan, Eugene Kim, Jenny Kim, Madeleine Lavrence, Gage Minard, Theodora Oyinloye, Gillian Reid, Chayse Victoria, Catherine Xu, Perry Yenika
SUMMA is the annual graduating exhibition for the McMaster University School of the Arts BFA.
Image: SUMMA 2025 logo, Produced in consultation with the full cohort.
Curated by: Christina Leslie
April 01, 2025 – April 25, 2025
PAST EXHIBITIONS
We Remain Certain
Arenhátyen tsi ní:tsi teyottenyonhátye’ kwató:ken tsi nī:tsi yonkwa’nikonhrayén:ta’s
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FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
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The Clichettes: Lips, Wigs, and Politics
Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Clichettes: Lips, Wigs, and Politics held at the McMaster Museum of Art (M(M)A) in Hamilton, Ontario in 2024. With essays by Ivana Dizdar, Marni Jackson, John Greyson, Alexandra Schwartz, Mark Kingwell, rl Goldberg, Lillian Allen, and Wanda Nanibush. Bridging theatre, lip-sync, dance, drag, costume, and comedy, the […]
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self/same/other
Barbara Astman, Carl Beam, Meryl McMaster, Sorel Cohen, Joseph Beuys, Bidemi Oloyede, Christina Leslie, Jeff Thomas, Micah Lexier, László Moholy-Nagy This exhibition brings together artworks drawn from the M(M)A permanent collection that present diverse ways of exploring self-imaging and subjectivity through different types of photo-based media. Expanding the genres of portraiture and self-portraiture, selected works […]
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Coins in the McMaster Museum of Art: The Greek and Roman Collections
Ancient Greek and Roman coinage represents the intersection of politics, economics, and art; no other medium in the ancient world more closely reflects the decisions of administrations, the expectations of civic bodies, and detailed craftspersonship. Coins are among the most ubiquitous artifacts from Classical antiquity and despite their small size, are among the most instructive […]
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This catalogue documents a multi-year art-science project called Immune Nations, produced on the occasion of its exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Initiated in 2014 and co-led by Steven Hoffman (York University), Sean Caulfield (University of Alberta), and Natalie Loveless (University of Alberta), Immune Nations brought together scientists, policy experts, […]
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Peripheral Vision(s) includes scholarly essays by some of the most prominent Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices within the fields of Indigenous art history and art criticism today.
SUBMISSIONS & ASSISTANCE
SUBMISSIONS:
The McMaster Museum of Art is presently not accepting artists’ submissions for exhibitions at this time of leadership change at the museum. Our Interim Director will be undertaking a review of the museum’s forward exhibition schedule, as well as our policies and procedures, in the coming months. Our present focus is the ongoing maintenance of our permanent collection and storage needs for future collection activities.
The museum remains committed to our collecting priority in the continued support of early career, mid-career and established Indigenous artists, artists of the Black diaspora and racialized artists through purchases and commissions. Donations will be welcomed and reviewed at a future date which will be posted on our website.
ASSISTANCE:
The McMaster Museum of Art is a third party recommender for Ontario Arts Council (OAC) Exhibition Assistance Grants.
The museum is currently accepting applications. Our next program deadline is: December 16, 2024.
Priorities:
Artists who demonstrate an interest and consideration of art as a medium for social change and action.
Please follow the guidelines established by the Ontario Arts Council, apply directly through their website, and submit the following with your applications:
Brief artist statement
Confirmation letter from the gallery/museum/venue
Budget
CV
Digital images of work
