View In The Margins brochure Here
Exhibitions
In the Margins
Wesley Bates, Jeffrey Macklin, Elizabeth Menard, eXavier Peterson, Beth Rose, Ulf Stahmer, Alan Stein, Stephen Quick
April 22 – July 5, 2025
Traditionally, a Wayzgoose marked the turning of the year for printers: a festive gathering to usher in the season when daylight waned, and work would continue by candlelight. It was a celebration not only of craft, but of community—of those whose hands shaped the printed word.
This exhibition echoes that spirit. It honours the intimate, deliberate practices of book artists, printmakers, typographers, and binders—those who engage with the materiality of language and the architecture of the book. Centered around a long, communal table—an emblem of gathering, labour, and exchange—the exhibition conjures both the historic Wayzgoose and the enduring relevance of tactile traditions in a digital age.
The eight artists - Wesley Bates, Jeffrey Macklin, Elizabeth Menard, eXavier Peterson, Beth Rose, Ulf Stahmer, Alan Stein, and Stephen Quick - featured here have each contributed to the legacy of the Grimsby Public Art Gallery’s annual Wayzgoose festival, a celebration of book arts now woven into the cultural
fabric of this region. Their works, ranging from finely stitched bindings to experimental prints and sculptural pages, invite us to consider the book not simply as vessel, but as form, as object, as experience.
In the Margins is a meditation on process and permanence, on inked impressions and folded signatures, on the intimacy of reading and the labor of making. It asks us to pause—to trace the line, to feel the thread, to read with our hands as much as our eyes.
Community Exhibition Space (CES)
GPAG presents the community exhibition space as an opportunity to showcase regional talent and local community art exhibitions to the public in the main lobby.
Lines of Sight
Joan Gazzola & Laura Heaney
In the exhibition Lines of Sight, artists Joan Gazzola and Laura Heaney present two arresting approaches to interpreting the natural world—each deeply personal, each powerfully distinct. Through painting and drawing, they capture not only the physicality of the landscape, but its emotional undercurrent—its memory, its rhythm, and its quiet urgency.
Joan Gazzola brings the land to life with vibrant acrylics, watercolours, and mosaics that pulse with warmth and intuition. A lifelong admirer of nature and a practicing artist since retirement, Gazzola approaches landscape with a storyteller’s heart. Her brushwork is expressive and fluid, embracing the natural imperfections of earth, sky, and water. Her paintings reflect not only what she sees, but what she remembers and feels—a soft imprint of place that resonates with tranquility and wonder.
In sharp, mesmerizing contrast, Laura Heaney’s Observing Green series is rendered in meticulous black ink. Influenced by historical pen-and-ink traditions and informed by a background in history and art history, Heaney creates highly detailed portraits of green spaces across Canada. Using clean, deliberate lines and upcycled materials, she captures landscapes as if already lost—preserved like artifacts. Her skies, constructed from stark, mechanical lines, hint at human presence and environmental tension, giving the work both beauty and bite.
Together, Gazzola and Heaney offer a powerful meditation on land and landscape—how it moves us, and how we choose to mark it. Their works are not only representations of nature, but reflections of the artists’ own lines of sight: one emotive and color-saturated, the other precise and contemplative. What connects them is a deep care for the natural world and a desire to translate its essence across time, style, and medium.
This exhibition invites viewers to pause and reconsider their own perspectives—to witness the land not just as scenery, but as memory, emotion, and responsibility.
Cross Pollination
Clear Eyes Collective
Sept 23, 2023 - Summer 2025
True community is inclusive and nurtures everyone, providing a safe space for all.
Cross Pollination is a commissioned mural by Clear Eyes Collective for the exterior outdoor exhibition platform of the Grimsby Public Art Gallery and Library. Over the course of the summer, the collective collaborated with the community by asking them to generate key words to inspire the artistic development and content of the mural. Some words were reflective of the physical characteristics of the Town of Grimsby; its connection with agriculture, proximity to Lake Ontario, and the Niagara escarpment. Others looked to honor less tangible connections like culture, multiculturalism, and LGBTQ2S+ allyship. After reviewing each prompt, and drawing from their own connection to the area, the collective refined their final design, culminating in Cross Polination, which was live painted onsite during the second annual Grimsby Arts Walk, September 23, 2023.
Curated by Caitlin Sutherland
CLEAR EYES COLLECTIVE is a mural crew based out of Hamilton, Ontario made up of members Darian Poisson, Adam Bates and Josh Kellett. Their mission is to integrate the mysterious power of art into the plain cityscape, transforming ordinary spaces into an immersive gallery. Their approach to public art has always been rooted in creating vibrant visual environments that connect and uplift the community at large.
Clear Eyes Collective have been painting large-scale murals as a team for 10 years, and in that time they have had the opportunity to partner with local businesses, festivals, corporations and different municipalities and cities. They take tremendous care to make sure their designs are tailored to each project, while always maintaining a vibrant and bold style that naturally comes out of collaboration.
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