exhibitions + displays

The 2025 members exhibition celebrates the strength, vitality, creativity, and wealth of talent found within the Leamington Arts Centre (LAC)/South Essex Arts Association (SEAA). Each year, the diverse and outstanding works by our members creates an exciting and engaging exhibition whereby artists are able to showcase, share and sell their work. The exhibition creates a platform for artists to network with peers to develop their skills and experiences.

This exhibition is open to all emerging, midcareer and established visual artists. All mediums accepted in 2D and 3D (watercolour, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textile, mixed media, etc.)

Friday, February 28 – Thursday, April 24

Reception: Friday, March 21, 6-8 pm

“I was born and raised in Sudbury. In this series of landscape paintings, I am focusing on the bleak but beautiful terrain of Sudbury that I remember when growing up in the 1950’s. Since a young child, I have felt the need to express myself in a visual format. Making art for me, has always been an attempt to translate a childhood sense of awe with this stark land into artistic statements. I have no interest in duplicating exactly what I saw back then: rather, my fascination lies in clarifying for, me the wonder and amazement I felt about the colours, textures, shapes and sweep of the Sudbury landscape around me. The subject matter of this series began as landscape memories and proceeded to abstract paintings.

My childhood home lay between Junction Creek and Lorne Street. This was the world of my childhood: endless days of chemical colours, summer dust, ageless boulders, pink evenings, smoldering brush, regular rumbles, torn horizons, glistening metallics, cantilevered pond ice, undulating willows, wild cucumber, ragged cold mornings, frozen laundry, and a sand patina that stretched beyond the tree distant stacks.

This art is very personal. It is how I deal with the flow of thought and emotions that reflect the awe I felt and continue to feel with regards to the old Sudbury landscape. It encompasses the memories, dreams, and sense of wonder that come from my years growing up in my starkly beautiful Sudbury.”  – John Haynes

The LAC would like to thank Patricia Haynes for her generous donation of her late husband’s artwork and for her continuous support of the art centre through the years.

February 28 – April 24

Reception: Fri. March 21, 6-8 pm

Eyeing Medusa is named for the archetypal wronged-woman of Greek mythology. Torn from her spiritual path, raped, blamed, banished and ultimately beheaded, Medusa’s story echoes that of countless women throughout history. While her monstrous rage petrifies all who look upon her, seeing Medusa is only possible via a mirror. Eyeing this ancient wild/wise woman requires facing our own fears and reflecting on difficult questions. I believe that Eyeing Medusa can shift perspectives and change toxic narratives by focusing on respect, empowerment and self-actualization.

The paintings centre on the face: recognizable yet abstracted, closeup so we look into the eyes without distraction. We don’t think about the body shape or size, hairstyle or clothes. Gazing deeply, we encounter the soul, the mind, recognizing what remarkable people they are. Instead of depicting women as victims, the paintings celebrate women as heroic survivors: brave, determined and wise leaders.

March 28 – June 19

Reception: Friday, May 16, 6-8pm

Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Leamington and the Kiwanis Club, the Leamington Arts Centre presents the 27th annual Juried Student Art Show.

Eligibility: This exhibition is open to all grade 11 and 12 Essex County secondary students only (grades 9 and 10 students not eligible) in the following categories:

1. Painting (Acrylic, Oil, Watercolour, etc.)

2. Drawing (Pencil, Charcoal, Pastel, Ink, etc.)

3. Sculpture/3D (Clay, Found Objects, etc.)

4. Photography (Analogue, Digital)

5. Mixed Media (Assemblage, Collage, Textiles, etc.)

6. Video/Filmmaking (Animation, Experimental, etc.)

7. New Media Art (Graphic Design, Digital Illustration, etc.).

Schedule 

Entry Deadline: Thursday, April 24, 5pm (SHARP! NO EXCEPTIONS!)

Exhibition Opens: Friday, April 25

Awards Presentation & Reception: Friday, May 16, 6pm

Exhibition Closes: Thursday, May 22

Artwork Pick Up: Saturday, May 24 – Saturday, June 7

MORE INFO & SUBMISSION FORM

The Henry Family travelled the world collecting art and artefacts from all around the globe, with some pieces from even as far as East Asia. The collection includes Canadian and American oil paintings, Chinese porcelain figurines, as well as jade and silver sculptures, reliefs and much more.

This prominent collection was gifted to the Municipality of Leamington and is currently in care and possession of the Leamington Arts Centre/ South Essex Arts Association.

Select works form the collection are regularly brought into the gallery space for public viewing. Works selected for this exhibit include paintings in the medium of oil, acrylic and watercolour, with several of them by well-known Canadian and American painters.

June 20 – July 17

The WFCU Credit Union Leamington En Plein Air Painting Competition is an incredible opportunity for all artists to present their En Plein Air paintings at the LAC for a chance to win cash prizes.

The exhibition’s focus is to showcase the beauty within the Leamington and Point Pelee district, and celebrate the joy and impressionism in full view when painting in the open air .

This exhibition is open to all amateur, emerging, mid-career and established visual artists.

ONLY paintings completed in the manner of “En Plein Air”  will be accepted (painted outdoors on location, in the moment – no portion of the painting is to be completed from a photograph or in studio).

All paintings MUST be completed within the municipal limits of Leamington, Point Pelee, and may include Caldwell First Nations territory within Leamington.

Exhibition Opens to the Public: Friday, June 20, afternoon

Reception: Friday, July 18, 6-8pm

Exhibition Closes: Thursday, August 14

MORE INFO & SUBMISSION FORM

Where Do We Go From Here? is an interdisciplinary exhibition comprised of artwork from recent University of Windsor MFA graduates Julie Luth and Garvin Chinnia. Though each artist’s work is distinct in form, both bodies of work explore the uncertain nature of the future from personal and global perspectives.

Luth’s series, I Don’t Know These People, appropriates decontextualized images of everyday life from her collection of found photographs to examine the relationship between physical photographs, memory, and nostalgia. Using collaboration with generative AI, analogue darkroom processes, and sculptural interventions, Luth merges digital and physical techniques to create new and altered versions of the past. Her works challenge the role of personal photographic archives in daily life and invite reflection on their function once their intended context and audience no longer exists.

Chinnia’s Life Support Systems is an ongoing series that engages with the human species ecological power, and whether we can leverage it to be more responsible to our co-inhabitors on this planet. Using a variety of sculptural languages from the heavy industrial to organic bioart, his installations interrogate humanity’s ecological role. His work seeks to provoke change from highly destructive modes of extraction, into reciprocal modes of growth.

Where Do We Go From Here? materializes each artists’ anxieties about the future into the present. Both Luth and Chinnia utilize found objects to probe questions regarding the sustainability of our relationship with the natural world, what it means to be remembered, and what happens when we forget or are forgotten.

June 20 – September 11

Reception: Fri. July 18, 6-8pm

Stomping Grounds is a guest curated, cross-region and cross-selection exhibition of juried works. The exhibition’s focus is to bring together a broad and diverse collection and new scope of efficacious works to the Leamington Arts Centre.

This year’s curators/jurors are Colleen Schindler and Grahame Lynch.

Colleen Schindler and Grahame Lynch are multidisciplinary artists and educators whose practices explore themes of identity, memory, and shared experiences. Both are Associate Professors at Toronto Metropolitan University and hold Master of Fine Arts degrees. Their work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally in Japan and the United States, and across Canada including the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre, the Thames Art Gallery, Gallery Stratford, and the Leamington Arts Centre. With Colleen’s expertise in drawing, printmaking, photography, and textiles, and Grahame’s focus on image-making and installations that challenge perceptions of vision and space, they bring a thoughtful and dynamic approach to their artistic practices. As guest curators, they aim to engage audiences by fostering dialogue and encouraging broader connections.

August 15 – October 9

Reception: Friday, September 19, 6-8pm

Jeff Suchak is a contemplative fine art photographer who works in film and digital formats. His photography is informed by the Traditional Peoples and transcendental poets throughout history who view the landscape as sacred, entrusted as stewards and caretakes, living in partnership with the land.

 As we are now witnessing climate catastrophe and disruptions around the world as regular occurrences, the resulting societal impacts are becoming more apparent.  We are now living it.

So how do we live in this new reality of catastrophe understanding it will continue to grow in frequency and devastation?

In the exhibition, “A Covenant of Reciprocity”, Jeff asks what is the nature of our relationship with the Natural World?

His selection of images often go unseen. Many are close and invite you in. Seeing the unseen. Will the experience evoke a sense of mystery, of wonder, of awe? Can the image contribute to one giving thought to their relationship with the natural world and possibly awakening into a new one?

The exhibition, “A Covenant of Reciprocity” asks us to ponder our relationship and to give consideration to entering into a new covenant with the Natural World.

September 12 – December 4

Reception: Friday, September 19, 6-8pm