Celina Eceiza: A material called Earth, Volume I

The Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) is pleased to present A material called Earth, Volume I: The life of corners by Celina Eceiza, curated by Sylvie Fortin.

On view from May 16 to August 16, 2026, Volume I: The life of corners launches Eceiza’s ambitious three-year project A material called Earth with a site-responsive installation that radically transforms the AGB’s gallery. Colourful, hand-dyed, stitched, and embroidered textiles, alongside large-scale drawings on fabric, cover walls, redraw ceilings, muffle floors, and spawn new forms, inviting visitors to inhabit the space—to linger, explore, rest, gather, and let their imaginations roam.

This immersive environment also plays host to motley sculptures ranging in scale from palm-sized to near-monumental. Some are soft, waiting to hold our bodies. Others, hard and mottled, cradle colourful ceramics—escapees from the AGB’s collection storage shelves. By hosting other artists’ works, Eceiza’s installation casts off the lingering myth of artistic “genius” and its privileged, profitable format—the solo exhibition. Instead, The life of corners declares every exhibition or creative endeavour is collective. 

El artista nunca piensa solo [The Artist Never Thinks Alone] is, in fact, the title of one of several oversized books sewn into the floor, whispering stories of kinship to those who will crouch to read them. The book provides an illustrated index of Eceiza’s artistic entanglements: made of fabric, each page pays homage to an artist who has shaped Eceiza’s understanding of art. In scale, materiality, and process, this book eschews quaint, transactional notions of artistic genealogy, influence, and inspiration. Instead, its impassioned stitches and touches of fandom bear witness to an intimate, desiring attention close to the practice of copying.

Eceiza’s work also relies on the skillful hands of many local collaborators working in concert to give form to her vision. The life of corners carries the traces of their touch in stitches and folds that are as unique as a signature or biometric imprint. The installation attests that art is a reverberating practice that links us, the many who engage in myriad forms of thinking-making. It holds space for us all, be we real and imagined, from the past and to come.

Today, when social contracts are seen as broken, if not entirely obsolete, The life of corners offers a vibrant alternative rooted in interdependence. It invites us into a living network of relations where meaning, beauty, and connection emerge collectively, and where art becomes a space to assemble, reflect, and imagine being together otherwise.

Celina Eceiza is a Buenos Aires–based artist. Her solo exhibitions have been presented at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Halle Für Kunst Steiermark (Graz) and other institutions. Her work has appeared in major group exhibitions including the 18th Istanbul Biennial (2025) and the First Biennial of Textile Art in Santiago (2023). In 2018,  her novel El falsificador [The Counterfeiter] was published by Tammy Metzler. Her work is held in many public and private collections.

Sylvie Fortin is an interdependent curator, writer, and editor based between Montréal, New York, and Buenos Aires. She was Curator-in-Residence at Bemis Center, Omaha (2019–21), Executive/Artistic Director of La Biennale de Montréal (2013–17), Curator of Manif d’art 5, Quebec City (2010), and Executive Director/Editor of ART PAPERS, Atlanta (2004–12). Fortin has published extensively in leading art journals such as Artforum, Art Review, e-flux Criticism, and Frieze.

The Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) is a public art gallery dedicated to delivering thought-provoking exhibitions, dynamic learning opportunities, and public programs that foster meaningful connections.

A material called Earth is generously sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts. Volume II will be on view at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, NS, September 12–November 14, 2026, and Volume II at the Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC, June 24–August 29, 2027.

The Art Gallery of Burlington is supported by the City of Burlington, Ontario Arts Council, and Ontario Trillium Foundation.