Shelagh Keeley: Film Notebooks 1985–2017 / Emmanuel Osahor: To dream of other places

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is delighted to announce our current exhibition season with two solo presentations by Toronto-based artists Shelagh Keeley and Emmanuel Osahor. Through immersive installations that use either traditional mediums or moving images, both artists consider the complex histories and uses of gardens as built environments. Keeley’s film notebooks trace the artist’s journey and her continued efforts to bring forward the intricacies and contradictions of the world we live in, while Osahor’s layered paintings invites visitors to contemplate beauty in the seclusion of a night garden. Both exhibitions were curated by Adelina Vlas, Head of Curatorial Affairs. The exhibitions will run until September 14, 2025. Admission is free.

Shelagh Keeley: Film Notebooks 1985–2017
At the core of Shelagh Keeley’s work is a drawing practice based on an intuitive and embodied response to readings and research in poetry, politics, cinema, and architecture. The artist applies the same approach to her work with film, where the moving image becomes a drawing notebook, a travel journal, an opportunity to bring the viewer into the spaces experienced by the artist and mediated through the lens of the hand-held camera. Since 1985, Keeley has documented on film her encounters with gardens and uniquely built environments around the world. The resulting film notebooks quietly, yet poignantly, reveal the layered histories and contexts that created them at different moments in time. From the flamboyant artificiality of a desert oasis in Las Vegas to the discipline of a Zen Garden in Kyoto, and from a colonial garden in Lisbon to the largest European zoological-botanical garden in Stuttgart, the films invite us to contemplate the complexity and intangible essence–genius loci or spirit of the place–Keeley felt in these places. Filmed while walking for hours at a time as a flâneuse, the moving image notebooks present an invitation for the viewer to become the artist as she draws with the camera, investigating and uncovering the visceral, hidden layers of these locations. 

Emmanuel Osahor: To dream of other places
Emmanuel Osahor’s practice focuses on beauty as a necessity for survival, respite, and sanctuary. Known primarily for his paintings of lush, verdant gardenscapes—inspired by real and imagined locations—these works meditate upon the complicated histories of these sites that entail the domestication of lands, plants, and individuals alike. To dream of other places is the artist’s first major solo presentation in his home city of Toronto and includes paintings, drawings, prints, ceramic sculptures, and a site-specific photographic wallpaper as part of The Power Plant’s Commissioning Program. Conceived as a night garden, the exhibition presents Osahor’s work in a unique environment intended to immerse the viewer in a contemplative space where feelings of delight and sorrow coexist as reflections of human experience. The artist’s poetic yet critical approach to a subject that has been well represented throughout art history reflects a practice that is profoundly engaged with beauty, painting, and the everyday at a time when meaningful encounters with art are needed more than ever. 

Upcoming public programs
The new exhibition season will be animated by engaging, free public programs, including thematic talks, tours, and workshops for all ages. Visit The Power Plant’s Event Calendar on our website for programming details. 

In conversation: Shelagh Keeley and Adelina Vlas
June 19 at 6–7pm

Dance performance with Lin Snelling
July 6 at 2–3pm

Poetry reading: Night Garden
July 24 at 6–8pm

Cross Circuits with Catriona Sandilands
September 7 at 2–3pm

Artist-led walkthrough with Emmanuel Osahor
September 13 at 2–3pm

Power Kids: free art workshops for children aged 7–12
Select Sundays at 3–5pm