This April, McMaster Museum of Art – M(M)A – presents two collaborative projects that span the university. The Great Sea: Mediterranean Imaginaries from Antiquity to Modernity, is an exhibition of rare books, maps, antiquities, and works of art drawn from the special collections of McMaster University Library and the McMaster Museum of Art. The exhibition explores the human and physical geographies of the Mediterranean from the early centuries BCE to the dawn of modernity, illustrating the complexity, humanity, and paradox embodied by the Mid-Earth Sea. The Opening Reception celebrating The Great Sea will be held on Thursday, May 15, 5-8PM.

Opening in the adjacent gallery is SUMMA 2025: Affirmations, the annual graduating BFA student exhibition, this year featuring the final cohort of McMaster’s School of the Arts. Presenting an array of artistic mediums and practices, the exhibition showcases the students’ shared experience. “A 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” says exhibition curator and lens-based artist Christina Leslie. The SUMMA 2025 Opening Reception celebration will take place on Thursday, April 3, 4-7PM. This event is free and open to all!

SUMMA 2025: Affirmations

Curated by Christina Leslie

April 1 – April 25, 2025

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, Yiwen Xu, Perry Yenika

This exhibition 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 standard 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.