Stains
November 20 - 23, 2025
McKay Art Centre, Markham
Cassia Leung
Ebru Winegard
Ka Yu Tsoi
Raha Fard
Raquel Mendes
Rylie Lee
Teresa Chan
Yixi Wan
Yongzhen Li
Collaborated with The Cross-Cultural Service Association (York)
Curated by Steffi Sin Tung Ng
"Stains mark the site of an event, tracing an object’s encounters with the world. Stains can speak of recent moments or events long passed, pleasant memories or sites of trauma".
- Ren Ewart
Stains gathers nine newcomer artists to explore stains as traces of memories, creativity, and spontaneity.
Encompassing a wide range of artistic mediums–painting and drawing, mixed-media installations, performances, photography, and videography, the nine artists in this exhibition grapple with the complexities of immigration, sharing their diverse, intimate experiences of resettling, searching for belonging, and negotiating between cultures and languages through the (un)making of stains.
Their respective works traverse traditions and innovations, everyday rituals and fleeting memories, as well as the erased and the archived. Together, they reject the monolithic narratives of newcomers and immigrants, instead illuminating the multi-possibilities of diasporic realities–fluid, fragile, vulnerable, tender, hopeful, and always becoming.
This exhibition offers a gentle encounter with audiences, inviting the reflection of stains as a collaborative space for record, care and transformation.
Read the full curatorial catalogue here
All photo documentation by Anne Layacan, Tommy Leung and Lukas Au.
