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Welcome to the Forest City Gallery Newsletter!
It’s March! At long last, the birds are chirping! Thanks for hanging in there—all winter, all the time...both you and the birds.
Last week we sadly saw the end of Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman’s wonderful exhibition Memories We Carry, Stories We Heal. Next week, on March 21st from 1–3pm, we will reopen with our next two exhibitions!
In other news, we have reopened our call for submissions for our main gallery and are cooking up some fresh workshops, partner-projects, resources, and even a manhunt (it's friendly—and scholarly!).
Scroll down for more information. |
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Ioana Dragomir: very very very March 21 - May 14
Opening Reception Saturday, March 21 1 - 3pm
Artist Talk with Art Now! Thursday, March 19 7pm Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 1170,
Western University
Forest City Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition with Montreal-based artist, Ioana Dragomir. In this exhibition, Ioana weighs matters of privacy and public appearance while studying Virgina Woolf’s life and work. very very very indulges in tender moments, such as those in the letters between the writer and her lover, Vita. The drawings, textiles, furniture, and books that compose the artworks of this exhibition evoke intimate domestic life as well as forms of separation. Come celebrate the new work and return of a Western University alumna on Saturday, March 21st between 1–3pm!
In addition to this poetic new exhibition, Ioana will be giving an artist talk as part of the public talk series and course Art Now! at Western University. Join us on campus in the Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB), room 1170, just North the Visual Arts building. Please note that the talk is before the exhibition opening! |
Virginia Woolf was a writer, Vita Sackville-West was too, and Vanessa Bell was an artist. You can find their letters and diaries on the internet. You can peer into their homes! Virginia and Vita wrote novels but they also wrote to each other. They called each other “dearest creature” and “pig” and “you angel” and Virginia really liked Vita’s legs. Vanessa painted canvases but also the tiles around her fireplace and the backs of chairs and Virginia’s face again and again and again.
I have been hungrily consuming this content. In very very very, I question the lack of privacy afforded to these artistic figures and the way I, too (I, especially), have been a voyeur and invaded it. The exhibition includes drawings of photos from Virginia’s albums where her face denies the camera by being over-exposed or in shadow or turned away. A text collaged from letters between Virginia and Vita scrolls along the gallery’s baseboards. Their letters, rubbed clean of page numbers and unbound from their order, rest on a stack of quilts inspired by Charleston House, where Vanessa lived.
Two privacy screens (one for kissing, one for lying down), provide cursory cover for you. They are studded with pockets full of things you can’t quite see. Everything has a back-side and a front-side. The front is public-facing and prepared and the backside is soft and vulnerable like a turtle’s belly. Think of someone wearing a shirt inside-out, seams exposed. Think of a postcard with its generic front and I-miss-you-back.
—Ioana Dragomir |
FCG Pier: Time and Tide Curated by Emma Hardy March 20 - April 8
Opening Reception Saturday, March 21 1 - 3pm
Forest City Gallery's Pier Wall returns with a new exhibition, Time and Tide. The exhibition, curated by Gallery Intern, Emma Hardy, will spotlight artworks from five local artists who reflect on climate change within their communities.
Time and Tide embodies the impending march of time as we continue past the point of no return for our climate, and represents the knowledge that our livelihoods have been and will continue to be negatively affected by climate colonialism.
More information about the exhibition artists to come as the curatorial process unfolds! |
Annual Call for Submissions Open until April 30
FCG is seeking submissions from artists and curators for 2027!
This year, we are prioritizing submissions from local practitioners in and around London and Indigenous communities connected to this area. As an artist-run centre, FCG values artistic autonomy and fair compensation in the pursuit of research and experimentation in contemporary art. We welcome innovative proposals from artists and curators of all disciplines and career levels with a focus on emerging artists and practices.
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Artists’ Books as Personal Archives
Saturday, March 14 Facilitated by Amy Skodak 12 - 3pm Free
This workshop will create an opportunity to learn about artists’ books as interdisciplinary spaces for writing and art making. Books can function as documentary forms by preserving knowledge, stories, evidence, and emotion. Participants will learn more about artists’ books, focusing specifically on those that are interdisciplinary in nature, combining visual arts, poetry, prose, and history. We will explore how artists’ books can function as sites of memory, reflection, and creative expression, ultimately examining how these books can operate as a personal archive.
During the workshop, participants will create their own artist's book using either an accordion fold or saddle stitch book binding technique. They will engage in creative exercises meant to inspire artmaking, reflection, and poetry-writing both independently and collaboratively.
All materials for bookbinding, collage, and drawing will be provided, but participants are welcome to bring their own media if desired (such as personal photographs or preferred drawing/writing materials). Interested participants will have the opportunity to contribute to the “Voices of Belonging” Poetry Book Project organized through the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership. Those interested may choose to submit a poem or small sketch for the poetry book that highlights the theme of belonging and experience of newcomers in Canada, including first and second-generation immigrant experiences.
Facilitated by Amy Skodak (she/her) a PhD student in Art and Visual Culture at Western University where she previously earned an MA in Art History and Curatorial Studies. She holds a B.Ed.from the University of Ottawa and taught secondary school English and Visual Arts courses for three years before starting her doctoral studies. Her research explores the intersections of visual arts and literature, temporality, and community arts initiatives.
About the “Voices of Belonging” Project This workshop is a partnership between Forest City Gallery's Media Collab and the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership. The “Voices of Belonging” Project emerged through LMLIP’s Welcoming Community Committee, chaired by Professor Victoria Esses, the LMLIP Research Liaison at Western University. The Committee explores and implements strategies to make London a more welcoming place through education, interactive events, cultural expression, visibility, and meaningful connection. Members identifieda need for visually engaging and emotionally resonant material that reflects newcomer experiences. The concept of a community poetry book was born out of this conversation, inspired by the power of poetry to communicate complex experiences, foster empathy, and create space for dialogue. |
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Simulation Theories Ten Euphoric Films Tracing The Edge Of The Tangible
Saturday, March 27 7 - 9PM
Featuring works by Katherine Li, Karen Aqua, Chel White, Steve Estes, Karen Johnson, Lisa Crafts, Mark Rappaport, Jo Bonney & Ruth Peyser, Paul Glabicki, and John Luther Schofill.
FRAMES welcomes Chicago-based archivist & programmer Ben Creech to present a curated selection of experimental short films from the PICTURE START collection.
There is a frenzied pulse at the heart of each of these films, to speak or name the unnameable, to caress the intangible, that drives them to their own individual ends. Some of them linger on one detail, eating a fruit or articulating a relationship, and attempt to get closer and closer to understanding just the one thing, in all of its multitudes. Others yearn to contain the vastness of the infinite into the sensory container of a single film. Can every dirty word be enunciated, and what happens to their scandalous qualities, when made so objective? Yet other films pursue, doggedly, the erotic in all its surreal possibilities, knowing that even the body is not a limit, and intensities like these are experienced briefly, showing the full capacity of all that rests inside us. Each film, in its own way, accesses the curious frontier between vision and touch, between stasis and movement, in ways that actively invigorate us in the audience, stimulating our brains and bodies with constant transformation, and the provocative expansiveness of the erotic. — Ben Creech
TAP Centre For Creativity 203 Dundas St. $10 admission Projected on 16mm film |
(Friendly) Manhunt: Stephen Best
Forest City Gallery is seeking information on or contact with the artist Stephen Best in support of a research project studying the life and work of Canadian artist Spring Hurlburt. Stephen was part of the FCG and London art community during the 1980s. If you know Stephen, please contact info@forestcitygallery.com to support Canadian art historical scholarship! |
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Upcoming and Ongoing Community Events, Calls, and Opportunities
Talks Art Now!: Ioana Dragomir, Western University Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB), room 1170, Western University March 19 @ 7PM
Calls Call for Proposals: Lumen 2026, City of Waterloo Deadline: March 12
Call for Submissions: Forest City Film Festival Open: March 16
Call for Submissions: Next in Fibre: Fibreworks 2026, Cambridge Art Galleries Deadline: March 22
Call for Portfolios: Latitude 53, Edmonton Deadline: March 31
Residencies
Kluane National Park Artist Residency 2027, Yukon Arts Centre Deadline: March 15
Exhibitions Oddkin, Michael Czypryna, RBC Place January 10 – March 26 |
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Our mailing address is:1025 Elias Street London, Ontario, N5W 3P6 Canada FCG's programs and exhibitions are free and accessible to all thanks to the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, London Arts Council, and the London Community Foundation. We are grateful to our artists, members, volunteers, donors, and community partners. Our operations rely on your generous and dedicated support. Please consider becoming a member of FCG.For information on our programming, or for other general inquiries please contact the gallery at info@forestcitygallery.com Copyright © 2025 Forest City Gallery. All rights reserved.You received this email because you subscribed to our list. You can unsubscribe at any time. |
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