Clara Gutsche, Les Soeurs Adoratrices du Precieux-Sang, Nicolet, 1995, chromogenic print. Courtesy of the artist.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE IMAGE CENTRE ANNOUNCES SPRING/SUMMER 2025
TORONTO, April 10, 2025
Apr. 10, 2025
The Image Centre (IMC) unveils an exciting lineup for its spring/summer 2025 season, featuring Scotiabank Photography Award: Clara Gutsche, a survey exhibition celebrating the career of the renowned Montreal-based photographer. This show runs from May 7 to August 2, 2025, in our Main Gallery.
Since the early 1970s, Gutsche has created a compelling body of work that captures traces of human presence through her subjects’ environments. Her black-and-white and coluor photographs document urban landscapes, architectural interiors, and intimate portraits that explore identity, relationships, and the passage of time. Gutsche’s images blur the line between documentary photography and staged composition, transforming everyday scenes into meditative studies of memory and change.
A longtime educator and co-founder of Montreal’s Powerhouse Gallery/La Centrale, a renown artist-run centre, Gutsche has exhibited internationally and has work in a number of major collections, including The Image Centre, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. As part of the exhibition’s public programming, Gutsche will give a talk about her work and career at The Image Centre on May 8 at 7 p.m.
Also opening this season, Alanis Obomsawin: Filmstrips. Educational Shorts from the NFB (1972/1975) presents three short films created at the start of Obomsawin’s groundbreaking career. Created to be shown in schools and other educational settings, these early films were produced for the National Film Board of Canada. They highlight Indigenous knowledge through stories of canoe building, snowshoe making, and basket weaving. Recontextualizing these classroom filmstrips within our gallery space, this exhibition reaffirms Obomsawin’s lifelong dedication to education and advocacy through film.
On our Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall, Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet assembles six francophone Indigenous women around a lavish dining table, exploring themes of identity, resilience, and cultural heritage in Creatura Dada. Inspired by the Dada movement, this video disrupts conventional ideas of storytelling, blending collage and montage to merge Western art history with Indigenous symbols. Creatura Dada offers a powerful meditation on cultural memory and transformation.
In our Student Gallery, Something Old, Something New (May 7–June 7) examines the history of wedding photography through the private collection of Toronto-based collectors Stephen Bulger and Catherine Lash. This exhibition was organized by students of Toronto Metropolitan University’s graduate program in Film and Photograph Preservation and Collection Management (F+PPCM). Following that show, Rebecca Wood’s On Being Despised (June 18–August 2) reimagines feminine and domestic narratives through archival images and contemporary photographs, exploring themes of gender, war, and creative transformation.
As always, The Image Centre’s exhibitions are free and open to the public. Join us for the opening party on May 7, 6–8 p.m. For more information, visit theimagecentre.ca.
About The Image Centre
The Image Centre (IMC) is Canada’s leading institution dedicated to the exhibition, research and collecting of photography. Established in 2012 at Toronto Metropolitan University, in the heart of the city, the IMC welcomes visitors to explore the intersection of photography and culture. Through compelling exhibitions and engaging public programming, the IMC showcases work by emerging, renowned, and anonymous photographers, past and present. With a growing collection of nearly 400,000 photographic objects and an innovative scholarly research program, the IMC is also a vibrant hub for the preservation and study of photography. For more information, visit theimagecentre.ca.
About Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly known as Ryerson University, is Canada’s leader in innovative, career-oriented education. Urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the University is home to more than 46,000 students, including 2,900 Master’s and PhD students, 4,000 faculty and staff, and 225,000 alumni worldwide. For more information, visit torontomu.ca.
– 30 –
For media inquiries, please contact:
Feven Tesfamariam, The Image Centre
ftesfamariam@torontomu.ca