Fortitude
/Fragile

January 22 to May 17, 2025 

Opening Reception 5 to 7 P.M. 

Guest Curated by Magda González-Mora 

In challenging times, the refusal to succumb to despair is a testament to the persistence inherent in humanity. The artworks in Fortitude/Fragile advocate for change and understanding, accentuating the strength of human spirit and the efficacy of decisive actions. They underscore the importance of regenerative learning and cultivate an atmosphere steeped in mutual respect and tolerance.

Featuring: 

Sandra Brewster 

Francisco-Fernando Granados 

Regina José Galindo 

Shabnam K.Ghazi 

Coco Guzmán 

Caroline Monnet 

Vessna Perunovich 

Anila Rubiku 

_{Above Image Credit: Caroline Monnet, Ikwewak (Alanis), 2022, Laser Print on lasal mat Paper, 84 x 54 in. Image courtesy of the artist.} 

About the Curator

Magda González-Mora is an independent curator, art critic, and consultant based in Toronto, Canada. She co-founded the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Centre in 1984 and was part of the founding curatorial team for the Havana Biennial for 16 years and curated Ad Infinitum, a group exhibition for the 2019 Biennial. She co-curated the Cuban pavilions of Johannesburg Biennale in 1998 and the Dakar Biennale in 1992. From 2007 to 2014, she co-curated the Sherritt Collection of Contemporary Cuban Art of the Art Gallery of Ontario. She served as the first Guest Chief Curator of ArtYard in Frenchtown, NJ, from 2016 to 2018. She has developed projects in museums and art spaces across Europe, the United States, Canada, and Cuba, including shows at Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Nuit Blanche in Toronto, and international art fairs including ARCO Madrid and Art Basel Miami. Extensively published, she is a member of IKT and AICA. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of Havana, Cuba. 

About the Artists 

Sandra Brewster is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. Her work employs a range of media to engage concepts of movement that express an internal relationship with identity. Her practice is grounded in people of the Caribbean diaspora who maintain a relationship with back home. Born to Guyanese parents, she is interested in a multilayered sense of being made up of a collision between geographies and temporalities. She expresses these complexities via the unfixed nature of her work’s materiality and presentation.

Brewster’s work has been featured internationally. Recent group and solo exhibitions have been held at Remai Modern (Saskatoon), Art + Practice (Los Angeles), Kenderdine Art Gallery (Saskatoon), Art Gallery of Guelph, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Montreal), Les Rencontres d'Arles – Mécanique Générale, Hartnett Gallery (Rochester), The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto), OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain (Montreal), MCA Chicago, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Gallery of Ontario, Or Gallery (Vancouver), Rajko Mamuzić Gallery (Novi Sad), and LagosPhoto Festival. 

Her public sculpture A Place to Put Your Things is currently on view at the Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. Brewster is the 2024 recipient of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award.

Regina José Galindo was born in 1974 in Guatemala City and currently lives and works in Guatemala. She is a visual artist specializing in performance art. Her work explores the universal ethical implications of social injustices related to racial and gender discrimination, as well as other abuses involved in the unequal power relations that function in our current society. Galindo has participated in events such as the 54th, 53rd, 51st, and 49th Venice Biennale, the 11th International Biennial of Cuenca, the 29th Biennial of Graphic Arts of Ljubljana, the Sharjah Biennial, the Pontevedra Biennial 2010, the 17th Biennale of Sydney, the second Moscow Biennale, the first Auckland Triennial, the Venice-Istanbul Biennial, the first Biennial of Art and Architecture of the Canary Islands, the fourth Valencia Biennial, the third Albania Biennial, the second Prague Biennial, and the third Lima Biennial.  

In 2005, Galindo received the Golden Lion at the 51st Venice Biennale in the young artist category for her work Who can erase the traces? and Hymenoplasty. In 2011, she received the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands for her ability to transform personal anger and injustice into powerful public acts that demand a response that interrupts ignorance and complacency to bring us closer to the experience of others.  

In 2011, Galindo also won the grand prize at the 29th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana. In 2007, she won first prize in the fifth edition of La Quinta Imagen, MARCO, Costa Rica. She has received artistic residencies and project grants at Třebešice Castle in the Czech Republic, Le Plateau in Paris, Alto Paso in San Antonio, Texas, and CIO Miami.   

Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Shabnam K. Ghazi has been shaped by a rich cultural tapestry that infuses her work with depth and nuance. Currently based in Toronto, Canada, her artistic journey spans continents and decades, reflecting a unique blend of Eastern and Western influences. During the 1990s, she completed several apprenticeships in painting, sculpture, and ceramics with Iranian masters in Tehran. She has exhibited extensively in Iranian galleries and museums and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in Toronto in 2009.

Ghazi’s work transcends borders, having been exhibited in esteemed galleries across Iran, the United States, Canada, and Cuba. Her art has graced the walls of the Tehran Contemporary Museum of Art, International Print Center New York, Edward Hopper House Art Center in New York, Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto, Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montreal, and Koffler Arts in Toronto, among others. Her creations are in private and public collections, including the TD Bank Corporate Art Collection. 

Francisco-Fernando Granados was born in Guatemala and lives in Toronto, Dish With One Spoon Territory. Since 2005, his practice has traced his movement from convention refugee to critical citizen, enacting abstraction site-specifically and relationally to create projects that challenge the stability of practices of recognition. His work has developed from the intersection of formal painterly training, working in performance through artist-run spaces, the study of queer and feminist theory, and early activism as a peer support worker with immigrant and refugee communities in Coast Salish Territories. This layering of experiences trained his intuitions to seek context-responsive approaches, alternative forms of distribution, and the weaving of lyrical and critical propositions.

Exhibition projects include who claims abstraction? (2023–24) a solo project with SFU Galleries; foreward (2021–23), a series of site-specific installations in dialogue with the permanent collection at the MacLaren Art Centre; and refugee reconnaissance (2021), a bilingual compilation of performance scores spanning 2005–2013 published by AXENÉO7; Other highlights include participation in international group shows on contemporary queer aesthetics at the Hessel Museum (2015) and Ramapo College (2016) in the United States and Malmö Konstmuseum (2022) in Sweden. 

Coco Guzmán, also known as Coco Riot, is a Spanish Canadian queer trans artist who explores hidden narratives through drawing, installation, and on-site interventions. Their interdisciplinary approach combines critical theory, comics, queering studio processes, archival research, and conversations, uncovering stories that prompt viewers to question their identities and societal constructs.  

Guzmán’s work delves into personal and collective trauma, blending the mundane with the disturbing to create compelling scenes. Notably, A Hole So Big It Became the Sky, in collaboration with Daze Jefferies, addresses local 2SLGBTQIA+ histories through a dynamic visual and audio installation involving queer-identified residents of St. John's, Canada. Their exploration of silenced histories is evident in Los Fantasmas / The Ghosts, examining Spain’s struggle against fascism and Franco’s dictatorship. This work highlights the resilience of suppressed histories and draws parallels with global marginalized communities.  

Guzmán's work has been exhibited internationally, including at CentroCentro Madrid and the 13th Havana Biennial. Recent exhibitions include In Situ at La Mar de Arte in Cartagena, Spain, and TransCamp* at FUORI! Festival in Bologna, Italy (2023).  

Guzmán holds a PhD in Art: Production and Research from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (2024), an MFA from OCAD University (2017–19), and a BA in Comparative Literature from Paris 8 University (1999–2003). They advocate for art that challenges oppressive structures and fosters connection and vulnerability.  

Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) is a multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Quebec. She studied sociology and communication at the University of Ottawa (Canada) and the University of Granada (Spain) before pursuing a career in visual arts and film. Her work has been programmed internationally at the Whitney Biennial (New York), Toronto Biennial of Art, KØS Museum (Copenhagen), Museum of Contemporary Art (Montreal), and the National Art Gallery of Canada. Solo exhibitions include Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Arsenal Contemporary Art in New York, and Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Vassivière, France. Her films have been programmed at film festivals such as Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance, Aesthetica (UK), and Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2016, she was selected for the Cinéfondation of Cannes Festival for a residency in Paris. Her work is included in numerous collections in North America as well as the permanent UNESCO collection in Paris. Monnet is recipient of the 2020 Pierre-Ayot Award, the Merata Mita Fellowship of the Sundance Institute, the REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards, and was recently named compagne des arts et des lettres du Québec. She is based in Mooniyang /Montreal and represented by Blouin-Division Gallery. 

Vessna Perunovich is a Yugoslav-born, Canadian artist based in Toronto and Belgrade.   

In a career that spans more than 35 years she has presented over 250 solo and group projects worldwide. She took part in numerous international biennial exhibitions including Cuba, Albania, England, Portugal, Yugoslavia, and Greece, and attended the international residencies in Berlin, Banff, Istanbul, Malta, New York, Beijing, Bursa, and Quebec City. Since 2010, Perunovich toured her interdisciplinary survey exhibitions Borderless, Emblems of Enigma, and Home Paradigm to public galleries and museums across Canada and Eastern Europe. Her work is the subject of three comprehensive monographs, (W)hole, (2004), Emblems of the Enigma (2008), and Home Paradigm: A New Place of Belonging (2023). Perunovich’s work is part of many art collections in Canada and Europe including Art Gallery of Hamilton, Cambridge Art Galleries, Textile Museum in Canada, the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, US Embassy in Belgrade, Cultural Centre of Belgrade in Serbia, and many others. She is the recipient of numerous Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council grants, most notably Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship Grant in 2019. She received a prestigious TFVA Award in 2005 and was shortlisted for the best exhibition of the year by Politika in 2011 and 2023.  

Anila Rubiku is an Albanian-born, Italian artist. She holds a double degree in art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana in 1994 and Brera Academy in Milan 2000.

She currently works and lives between Milan, Toronto, and Durrës.

Her work is intimately connected to political, social, and gender issues, using various media: installations, sculptures, embroideries, engravings, paintings, video, and printing.

In her poetic and ironic works, she addresses issues related to gender inequality and social injustice (Havana Biennial, 2019; fifth Thessaloniki Biennale, 2015), which touch on environmental issues (Frac Centre-Val de Loire 2022; Kyiv Biennial, 2012) and relational (56th October Salon, Belgrade 2016), reflecting on the meaning of being an immigrant today (Biennale di Venezia 2011; Hammer Museum residency, LA, 2013) and on the relationship between city and democracy (Venice Architecture Biennale, 2008).

Her work is part of the following private and public collections: Frac Centre-Val de Loire, France; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Deutsche Bank Collection, London, UK; Edition 5 Collection, Erstfeld, Switzerland; and P.O.C.Collection, Brussels, Belgium. She was nominated in 2014 by the Human Rights Foundation for her social commitment and was selected as one of the top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. 

Onsite Gallery Free Public Events

Opening Reception – Wednesday, January 22, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West

Join us for the exciting simultaneous launch of Fortitude/Fragile + The Delaney Family Emerging Curator's Prize: Presence in a past or an undetermined future. + Coco A. Lynge | Up Front: Inuit Public Art @ Onsite Gallery exhibitions!

Onsite Gallery’s Delaney Family Curatorial Lecture

eunice bélidor: Handle with Care: Curatorial Practices After the Pandemic

Thursday, February 13, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

MCA 190 (Auditorium) 100 McCaul Street, OCAD University

The lecture, Handle with Care: Curatorial Practices After the Pandemic, explores critical questions: What does it mean to curate with care in a world facing conflicts, wars, and genocide? Who and what do curatorial practices care for? In conversation with Joséphine Denis, eunice bélidor will share strategies employed by curators, including herself, such as archiving and radical hospitality, to create meaningful and relevant exhibitions that nurture all participants—curators, artists, and audiences alike.

A reception will take place after the lecture.

ASL interpretation will be provided for the lecture.

Registration coming soon

Connecting Shared Experience Through Time & Memory – Friday, February 28, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., Virtual via Zoom

Join us for an engaging virtual event! Invited panelists will delve into the compelling ways they position time within cultural, socio-geographic, and familial histories. Through rich discussions of their artistic practices and creative works, panelists will explore how these layered narratives carry the power to transform, connect, and reveal deeper truths about our shared and individual experiences.

ASL interpretation will be provided for the panel.

Registration coming soon

From Community to Gallery: Exploring Contexts of Socially Engaged Art – Wednesday, March 19, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West

In Spring 2024, a group of emerging racialized artists came together in a creative research process to explore relationships to identities, both personal and collective. Learnings from their resulting exhibition, Trajectories of Now, will be placed in dialogue with the Onsite Gallery exhibit Fortitude/Fragile, in a panel discussion alongside other perspectives from the Toronto art community. A screening of the Trajectories of Now short documentary film will also stimulate discussion with panel participants and audience members on contexts of socially engaged arts.

Registration coming soon

Nature's Palette: Painting with Natural Materials – Saturday, March 29, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West

Explore the intersection of art and nature as participants discover how to use natural materials to create artworks that celebrate the beauty of the natural world. This workshop emphasizes sustainable practices, encouraging participants to source materials responsibly and adopt eco-friendly processes. Through engaging, hands-on activities, participants will learn essential techniques for painting with natural materials, including crafting botanical inks and dyes, preparing solvent-free oil paint from mineral pigments, creating textural effects, and understanding the science behind these processes to achieve captivating, long-lasting results.

To register, please email Susan Jama at susanjama@ocadu.ca
 

Fortitude/Fragile Onsite Gallery Tour with Lisa Deanne Smith – Thursday, April 10, 1 to 3 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West

Meet us at Onsite Gallery for a public tour of Fortitude/Fragile with Onsite Gallery’s Senior Curator, Lisa Deanne Smith

Registration coming soon

Dyke Night – Friday, May 16, 6 to 8 p.m.

Onsite Gallery (199 Richmond Street West) and Sweaty Betty’s Bar (13 Ossington Ave) 

Explore the Fortitude/Fragile exhibition through a dyke lens with a democratize-the-docent polyvocal tour for the 2SLGBTQ+ community at Onsite Gallery. Continue afterwards from 8 pm till late at Sweaty Betty's for an afterparty featuring DJs, readers, and special guests.

Registration coming soon

Beyond The Line with Francisco-Fernando Granados & Vessna Perunovich – Saturday, May 17, 1 to 4 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West

Through the art of performative storytelling, Fortitude/Fragile exhibiting artists Francisco-Fernando Granados and Vessna Perunovich delve into the complexities of lived and diasporic experiences. Granados and Perunovich use their artistic practices to shed light on narratives often marginalized or constrained by dominant systems of power, creating space for critical reflection and dialogue. By intertwining personal and collective histories, they evoke a nuanced understanding of resilience and vulnerability, offering audiences an intimate exploration of identity, displacement, and belonging.

Registration coming soon

TBD

Regina José Galindo: Oro/Gold

Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West

Regina José Galindo’s live performance Oro/Gold serves as both a critique and a call to action, raising awareness of the fragile ecosystems and vulnerable communities impacted by extractive industries in Latin America and beyond.

Registration coming soon

Onsite Gallery is generously supported by The Delaney Family.