Throughout the ‘90s, students and arts workers in Katarokwi-Kingston successfully advocated for an exhibition space at Queen’s dedicated to showing student and emerging artists works. This space became Union Gallery. As UG’s main fundraising event, the 2023 iteration of Cézanne’s Closet is an opportunity to celebrate this history and the artists who have shaped it.

The works on display are hung in conversation with each other, rather than separated by medium, theme or subject matter – demonstrating the power of unity, collectivity, and variety of the local art scene. Given our theme, this year’s Cézanne’s Closet has extended its program to include artworks created by current BFA students shown on the feature wall at the entrance of the gallery. All proceeds from this fundraiser directly impact the experiential learning of students to develop skills in arts administration, curation, and public programming at Union Gallery.
Artwork Booklet

Anna Douglas

Anna Douglas is an emerging art historian and curator based in Toronto, Canada and an MA candidate in Art History at Queen’s University. She holds a BA in Art History from Queen’s University and a BA in Gender and Women’s Studies from Dalhousie University in Halifax. Her research explores feminist art practices, with an emphasis on cyberfeminisms and internet activisms that are grounded in networked technologies and performance. Anna centres feminist, queer, and post-colonial theories in her research, exploring the uses of technology as a medium and method in art histories, and technology’s relationship to alternative publics. She has been a volunteer at Union Gallery throughout her time at Queen’s, and co-curated the exhibitions What Are You Reading? and Creating Communities Through Art.

Cicely Haggerty

Cicely Haggerty is an MA candidate in the Department of Art History and Conservation at Queen’s University and holds a Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Gender Studies. Cicely's research interests include queer and feminist contemporary art, queer and feminist formalism, and the intersections of art, education, and activism. Her MA research focuses on Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists, which took place at A.I.R. Gallery in New York in 1980. Through her research, volunteer work, and emerging museum practice, Cicely is motivated by care/collaboration, weaving together disparate ideas, mining archives to tell alternative stories, and expanding engagement with art beyond museum walls.

THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our biggest thanks goes to the artists. We are forever grateful for the support of our artistic community at home and at-large. Cézanne’s Closet 2023 is generously sponsored by CFRC 101.9fm, Art Noise, Kingston Frameworks, the Bachelor of Fine Art Program and the Department of Art History and Art Conservation.

Cézanne’s Closet 2023 Committee: Jude Al Samman, Maddi Andrews, Member Ayu, Abbie Brown, Sophia Ceccucci, Alexandra Chafe, Sarah Kaye, Abigael Skopelianos, Bailey Laing, Elyse Longair, Alyce Soulodre, Jack Thompson, Jobelle Quijano, and Tea Yates
Chair: Hadley Howes
Curators: Anna Douglas and Cicely Haggerty
Exhibition Support: Yashfeen Afzaal, Morgan Wedderspoon, Abby Nowakowski