Jerry Ropson: a place of safety

“It’s easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism.”
—Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, 2009

What happens when you tell a child they have no future? In this solo exhibition, artist Jerry Ropson seeks the answer in a place that exists after the end—the remnants of a world that has “collapsed under its own weight.” The apocalyptic story that emerges here is told by uncanny, cultish objects who take unsettling, yet oddly playful forms. In this alternate reality, childlike curiosity roams the eerie ruins of a disaster that is both strange and strangely familiar. In Ropson’s words, “I want to personify my questions through an object-oriented practice. This work examines apocalyptic narratives but also the material residue of belief systems (…) It proposes a parallel existence in which the world we currently perceive has already ended.” The installation is accompanied by a reading room and a publication that is scheduled for release in November 2026.

Jerry Ropson is an artist, educator, writer, and community organizer from Pollards Point, a resettled outport community in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). His practice combines textiles, text, objects, images, and performative storytelling to explore rural experience, class, ritual, and the language of belief. Grounded in material processes and shaped by early experiences of geographic isolation, his work often emerges through site-specific installations and community engagement. He seeks non-traditional venues and collaborative contexts that resist fixed outcomes. Ropson, who holds an MFA from Concordia University, has exhibited widely and was listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2016 and 2018. He divides his time between Newfoundland and Siknikt-Mi’kma’ki, where he teaches at Mount Allison University.

Jerry Ropson wishes to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, ArtsNB, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Mount Allison University. The Owens Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of Mount Allison University, the Canada Council for the Arts, ArtsNB, the Municipality of Tantramar, and our generous donors. We sincerely thank our staff, student interns, advisory committee members, volunteers, and supporters in the community of Tantramar and the broader Atlantic region. For this project, we extend additional thanks to Tara K. Wells, Graeme Patterson, and Mount Allison’s carpenters Devon Fields and Tommy Wheaton.

The Owens Art Gallery acknowledges that Mount Allison University, is located within the Sikniktewaq district of the traditional territory of Mi’kma’ki, the unceded ancestral homelands of the Mi’kmaq. Our relationship and our privilege to live on this territory was agreed upon in the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1725 to 1752. Because of this treaty relationship, it is to be acknowledged that we are all Treaty People and we have a responsibility to respect this territory.