OCTOBER 9, 2025- DECEMBER 6, 2025
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Inspired by the roots of collective social justice activism, and the theories of oppositional consciousness, this exhibition seeks to highlight the work and dedication of various artists who have come together to find within the power of coalition the ability to build collective memory.
Feminist theorist Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the Oppressed indicates the need for oppositional consciousness as a practice for a differential mode of resistance to neocolonizing forces and highlights the role coalition building can play within emancipatory processes. The art collectives presented in this exhibition have developed socially conscious artistic projects with a commitment to community development, working towards a methodology and a practice that nurtures the collective consciousness of the oppressed. With the image of a past and the truth of the present they join forces to expose the power of resistance. With the force of ancestral knowledge and the need to remember lives lost, they share stories and histories through artmaking.
Crear Poder Popular Collective, Día de los Muertos Collective, Triangle Collective, and Watermelon Seeds Collective understand the role of coalitions and their importance within community building. These collectives all share a deep sense of solidarity and kinship among their members while developing projects that aim to connect and support their communities, understanding collective memory as essential to resist violent forms of erasure.
ABOUT THE COLLECTIVES
Since 2023, the CREAR PODER POPULAR COLLECTIVE, composed of four Montreal-based Chilean women, have led exhibitions, workshops, and presentations in universities, schools, and memory sites across Canada, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Sweden. Their practice combines visual arts, research, and pedagogy, rooted in participatory methods and a commitment to social justice. Carolina Echeverría’s acclaimed visual art explores migration, identity, and cultural exchange; Gisela Frías, a geographer and professor at Dawson College, focuses on participatory action research across Latin America; Denise A. Olivares combines textiles and photography to reframe memory and belonging; and Sarabeth Triviño, a professional artisan and textile artist, works with crochet, macramé, knitting, and embroidery to address feminist, social, and environmental issues.
DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS COLLECTIVE is a grassroots arts and culture organization that coordinates a Day of the Dead festivities in Toronto and has staged this celebration for the past 17 years with ritual, performance, visual art, ofrendas, and food. The festivities offer an opportunity for people to gather and remember loved ones who have passed away, supporting their spiritual journeys towards the afterlife. The multidisciplinary artist Quinatzin Aguilar; the sculptor Mariana Bolaños; community arts mentor and visual artist Jess De Vittoris; multidisiciplinary artist Kristell Marthié; visual artist, founder, and co-director Jesus Mora; and artist, actor, co-director and artistic producer of Día de los Muertos Collective Luis Rojas have all contributed towards the visual art installation for this years’ celebration.
Members of the TRIANGLE COLLECTIVE include three artists from various disciplines and backgrounds. Born in Colombia, Olga Barrios came to Canada as an adult. She is a choreographer, dancer, arts educator, video dance creator and co-founder/co-artistic director of Vanguardia Dance Projects. Barrios has collaborated with dance, theatre, musical, and multidisciplinary projects with diverse companies and troupes. Edgardo Moreno is a Hamilton-based composer, musician and sound designer who immigrated to Canada from Chile in 1974. He has worked as a composer for contemporary dance, film, and sound art installations. Coman Poon is a visual and performance artist, curator, arts writer, dramaturg, theatre maker and dance artist of Cantonese Chinese background who came to Canada from Hong Kong as a child.
The WATERMELON SEEDS COLLECTIVE is a group of women united by a shared commitment to resistance and social justice. Their practice centers on creating textile art works that explore themes of human rights violations in Latin America, historical memory, and solidarity with Palestine. Since 2019, the members Miriam C., Brenda Cortés, Priscila Diaz, Andrea Idrobo, Paz Jurado, and Maria Paz Lira have met to collaborate, share stories, create artworks, and participate in various public art projects that create awareness about the Palestinian struggle, as well as share their experiences as women, immigrants, and activists. In 2024, they formed the Tatreez Circle Toronto and The Tatreez Sumud Chile.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
TAMARA TOLEDO Ph.D. is a Toronto-based art historian, curator, and writer. Her research focuses on hemispheric networks of exchange, decolonial methodologies of resistance, artistic practices of oppositional consciousness, and diasporic exhibition histories. Her essays, reviews, and exhibition texts can be found in various publications including ARM Journal, C Magazine, Fuse, Canadian Art, Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture Journal of the University of California, and Concordia University Press. Toledo is co-founder of LACAP (Latin American Canadian Art Projects) and the multidisciplinary Allende Arts Festival (2003-2011). She conceived and developed the Latin American Speakers Series (2008-2025); ARCHIVO (a digital archive of Latin American, Latin-Caribbean, and Latinx artists, as well as Indigenous artists from the Latin American region, based in Canada); and Positionality: A Symposium on Latin American and Latinx art in Canada (2022). She has worked in collections, programming, and curatorial research roles at A Space Gallery, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Toledo has presented at conferences across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Toledo is currently the Director/Curator of Sur Gallery, the only art space dedicated to contemporary Latin American and Latinx art in Canada.
LOCATION
Sur Gallery, 100-39 Queens Quay East, Toronto
HOURS
Wednesday to Friday noon-6:00PM
Saturday 11 AM-5 PM
