*Featured image: Installation detail of Transgressed Boundaries Installation (2020) by Samar Hejazi; Thread, 1024 cm (approx.)
Illusions of Separation
A solo exhibition by Samar Hejazi
In-gallery: April 1 – 29, 2023
Online: April 1 – June 3, 2023
Notice of temporary gallery location: Please be advised that this exhibition is in our temporary gallery at Aurora Town Hall (second floor), 100 John West Way, Aurora ON. Please follow the entry instructions as noted on the Gallery Info page in planning your visit.
Illusions of Separation is solo exhibition of works by Samar Hejazi, a multi-disciplinary artist living between Toronto and Dubai.
Hejazi brings the art of installation into our temporary gallery at Aurora Town Hall, as well as numerous works from her studio based in Dubai, UAE. Suspending artworks in open air, Hejazi focuses on the constant transformability of material by playing with light and shadow, vantage points, and shifting perceptions. The work, described by Hejazi, “create(s) a performance that make defining the limitations of boundaries between artwork and viewer imperceptible.”
Persistent in the artist’s work is a constant challenging of the perception of boundary identification, often expressed symbolically through textiles. Embroidery work, for example, is presented with the absence of a fabric foundation; intricate strings simultaneously intertwining and unravelling in open spaces. Through this practice Hejazi challenges the belief that embroidery can only exist with the support of fabric: “I attempt to reveal the complexities of boundaries and question what is considered substance in the identification of a body. This series encourages the viewer to realize that perception of boundaries are continuous interpretations based in the encounter between themselves and the other.”
Please join us Saturday, April 1 from 1-3 pm for the opening reception and artist talk.
About the Artist
Samar Hejazi is a multi-disciplinary visual artist living between Toronto and Dubai. Since graduating with a BFA in new media from Ryerson University in Toronto, she has attended instructional residencies at Arquetopia in Oaxaca, and Puebla in Mexico and Cusco, Peru in 2016 and 2019 respectively. She also attended the Takt Art Residency in Berlin in 2016 and completed a studio residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto in 2019, which concluded in a group show. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Textile Museum of Canada, Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi, Possum Gallery in Berlin, Motion Art Gallery in Cairo, Egypt and Decentered Gallery in Puebla, Mexico. Her artwork is part of multiple collections around the world.
Virtual Gallery
April 1, 2023 – June 3, 2023
Explore the exhibition in this 360 Virtual Gallery. Feel like you’re there in person as you travel through the exhibition, seeing the scale of the artworks and how as they speak to each other.
To use the Virtual Gallery:
- Click or tap to explore and/or drag to look around
- Click on the blue circles for the label information for each artwork
- If you are on a PC or Laptop, the virtual gallery is best viewed in full screen and using the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers
- If you are on a cellphone, the virtual gallery is best viewed in landscape mode
- Please visit the Photo Gallery to experience the full impact of the original artworks
Photo Gallery
- Click the thumbnail image to enlarge the image and to see the label information
- Use the arrows on either side of the enlarged image to scroll through the gallery
- For the best viewing experience, we recommend using a desktop computer and Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browser
