Exhibition opens Friday, Oct. 24 at 5 p.m. and runs through Dec. 12, 2025.
The UNB Art Centre and Connexion ARC present Displacement, a group exhibition curated by Emily Blair, showcasing a broad scope of works from Connexion’s Members: Amy Siegel, Erin Goodine, Lee McLean, Marianna Lewis, Philip Hare, Ralph Simpson, Sabine Lebel, Sienna Ingham, Susan Judah and Tara MacDougall.
Displacement refers to a shift, internal or external. A change of location, the interruption of an object in motion, the redirection of an emotion, the act of removing or being removed. Displacement adapts to scale from global relevance in conflict and forced displacement, to housing precarity, to personal transformations that leave one feeling disconnected. This exhibition delves into the theme through a multifaceted approach. In moving through the exhibition, viewers are invited to contemplate each artist's take on displacement as it relates to a lived experience.
Displacement invites audiences to reflect on the physical, emotional, and cultural impacts of leaving one place, person, or state of being behind. The exhibition features a wide range of media, from paintings to installation pieces and sculpture, each work exploring various facets of displacement—from forced relocation to the more subtle shifts in identity and belonging. With powerful and poignant perspectives, the artists draw attention to the human experience of change, loss, and hope, using their unique voices to comment on the larger societal issues of migration, refuge and exile.
The Connexion Members Show presents a compelling cross-section of contemporary artists from across the region, each offering their own distinct interpretation of displacement. From abstract visual narratives to deeply personal installations.
The Displacement exhibition will be on display at the UNB Art Centre from Oct. 24 to Dec. 12th, with an opening reception on Oct. 24 from 5 - 7 p.m.
All are welcome and the exhibition is free and open to everyone.
Through drawing and painting, I merge observed, constructed, and imagined subjects. I consider my approach to drawing and painting as expanded mediums related to film and sequential images.
Though the artwork is often figurative or representational, my focus is on composition and tone, allowing subjects to play in spaces of humour and theatricality. Evading the weight of concrete meaning or binaries, I consider my work poetic.
I use ambiguous subjects and layered surfaces to encode information, depicting entities playing out problems or questions with their private agency. By evoking generative spaces that mirror back onto themselves through their own language, my work allows for mystery, longing, and desire.
Recently, my paintings and drawings have focused on the theme of transformation. These works have included subjects such as water or bubbles, as fluid bodies that are sometimes fragile or in constant states of change, displaced, confined, or shaped by their environment.
Erin Goodine is a painter, drawer and interdisciplinary artist based in New Brunswick, Canada. Erin graduated from the Graphic Design program at New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in 2011 and pursued an art practice alongside a career as a designer and art director.
Erin's art practice is primarily self-taught, and they have developed an oil painting and interdisciplinary art practice through mentorship, artist collaborations and peer support.
In 2019, Erin was named one of three emerging curators at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. They have since collaborated as a curator and writer with the 3E Collective. As a group, the 3E Collective has curated exhibitions and written publications for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Galerie d'art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen, Owens Art Gallery, and more.
Erin has attended residencies at the Wassaic Project in Wassaic, New York, the Bruno Bobak Artist-in-Residence Studio at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and the White Box Residency at Galerie Sans Nom.
Erin's artwork has been featured at the NYC Crit Club, Galerie Sans Nom, Gallery on Queen, Saint John Art Centre, George Fry Gallery, Connexion ARC and RE:FLUX Experimental Music and Sound Art Festival.
In the United States, between October 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), separated over 2,700 children from their families.
As of June 2019, over 2,000 children per day were being held in CBP facilities. The children are referred to as “unaccompanied minors” and housed in cramped cells or even chain link cages.
In 2025, the Trump 2.0 administration doubled down on its efforts to vilify undocumented citizens, whom they now deem “illegal aliens”. Once again, the administration is forcing people, without due process, into cages in “Alligator Alcatraz”. They continue to dehumanize thousands of innocent people in their attempts to label them as “other”.
ICE Crib consists of a found bedspring from a child’s crib. Within each rectangular “cell,” a black button is suspended by fishing line. Each button hangs in a blank space, separated by the wire of the frame. The button holes are like unblinking eyes on blank faces.
Philip Hare is a multi-disciplinary artist living in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. His work is primarily textile-based but also incorporates repurposed materials such as worn denim jeans, safety pins, clothes pegs, and tampons. He also creates installations that are both immersive and performative.
Born in 1959 in Port Credit, Ontario, he was raised on a farm in Oro Township, about 150 km north of Toronto. He received a diploma in graphic design from Sheridan College and studied part-time at the Ontario College of Art and Design.
He has been a member of several Toronto-based artist collectives, including Gallery 1313, Propeller and the Red Head Gallery, where he is an associate member.
Through the 1980s and 90s, he worked with latex paint and plywood, creating two- and three-dimensional works. At OCAD and Open Studio in Toronto, he studied silk screen printing and began to screen print onto paper and cloth. As his focus moved to textiles, he began hand stitching and embroidering.
He became involved in queer politics in the mid-1980s, and its influence on his art quickly became apparent. Phallic imagery and political commentary through a queer lens continue to be prominent themes in his work. His large hand-stitched assemblages have been exhibited across Canada.
After 40 years in Toronto, in 2019, he moved to the North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy, where he continues to sew, photograph the natural beauty and enjoy life with his husband and dogs.
Donne, Donne, La Luna, Le Stelle is a celebration of women's relationships throughout history, not only focusing on our marginalization, but on our shared experiences of joy.
Using images from both my personal life and archival research, it tells a story of connection, admiration, and trust. This 20-page accordion-style “book” reflects on the idea that in all of our experiences, we are always accompanied.
Inspired by the display of various Illuminated Manuscripts in Europe, the pages of Donne, Donne, La Luna, Le Stelle are systematically turned to invoke feelings of displacement and change. Viewed at first as unfavourable, the change becomes welcomed and allows the chance for each page to shine. This presentation strategy argues that one action, although uncomfortable, can lead to peace.
Donne, Donne, La Luna, Le Stelle at its core is a celebration of women as transcenders of our displacement and baskers in the glow of a true collective joy.
Sienna Ingham (she/her) is a queer interdisciplinary artist currently living and working on the traditional homeland of the Wolastoqey Nation (Fredericton, New Brunswick). Originally from Toronto, her interest in textiles, screen printing, collage, collection, and working with recycled materials sprouted from its connection to accessibility and diy ethics.
A graduate of Concordia University with a BA in English and Art History, Sienna is currently working at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and studying Textile Design at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.
Born in Sutton Coldfield, England, with modest roots, I dedicated myself to education and eventually secured a place at a prestigious industrial design school, the Royal College of Art. Inspiring mentors and accomplished professors shaped and guided my path in textile design, art expression, teaching, and industrial design.
Later, relocating to Kingston, Jamaica, presented a cultural shift. While being welcomed by the locals and presented with countless opportunities, I adapted to the stark contrasts from my English upbringing.
Applying my training, I revived my passion for woven art, the demands of teaching, and even ventured into book illustration. Meanwhile, my spouse and his kin provided unwavering encouragement, helping me embrace these transformations.
After twelve rewarding years in Jamaica, with my family of seven, we emigrated to Canada in 1976. Once more, culture posed an obstacle, but I endeavoured to assimilate the societal contrasts and contribute to the community once again. I remain deeply thankful for the unending support and love our family has received throughout the past 49 years.
This work, TRANSPLANTED, is a framed collage 20”x30” composed of used postal stamps - English/Jamaican/Canadian. Representing the countries I have lived in. Attempting to capture the culture of these three countries.
Susan Vida Judah. R.C.A. Born in England. Studied Industrial Weaving Design at the Royal College of Art in London.
After working in the textile industry in England, the U.S.A. and Jamaica, she emigrated to Canada in 1976. Head/Textiles: New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, 1985-1994. Instructor, New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. Memberships: Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Elected Academician 1989. Canadian Guild of Handweavers. New Brunswick Craft Council. Horary Member.
Worked on commissions for public buildings and received a number of major commissions from public firms and private collections in Canada, Jamaica and the U.S.A.
Served on major art boards over a period of some 33 yrs. Major exhibitions: Juried/solo/Canada/U.S.A./Europe.
Publication of work: Illustrations. Received major awards and grants. Married, five children,11 grandchildren,1 great-grandson.
Seely Beach is a three-day durational performance that I did on the Bay of Fundy in 2020 after my partner of 21 years and I broke up. Any couple that breaks up after a 20-year relationship feels displaced and unmoored, but for a lesbian couple, the displacement takes on specific dimensions.
My ex and I got together before gay marriage was legal in Canada, and never married. The breakup of queer relationships can be hard because we don’t have some of the mainstream gender role scripts or scripts that straight people do.
To be “divorcing” as an unmarried dyke couple is to feel doubly displaced: once from the breakup and then again by heteronormative social norms and homophobia in general. In addition, we broke up during the COVID pandemic and lockdown, which is truly to feel displaced from any sense of normalcy.
Cinematography: Kaleigh Stultz; Editing: Tracey Lavigne; Colour Correct: Ty Giffin; Sound Design: Zachary Pelletier.
This project is supported by a grant from Arts NB.
Sabine LeBel is an artist and academic living in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She has been making short videos on queer themes and difficult emotions for over twenty years.
Her work has screened in queer and experimental film festivals locally and internationally, including Struts Gallery, Sackville, Inside Out Toronto, and Cineffable, Paris.
In 2017, with Casey Burkholder, she started the Fredericton Feminist Film Collective, dedicated to making, screening and talking about works by and for queers, trans folks and women.
In 2022, they created the Omicron Exhaustion Project, a collaborative online art project that was featured on CBC. Sabine is currently working on a queer mycologies installation tentatively titled “love notes from a queer mushroom death cult."
Detached communicates the contrasting views of detachment and connection.
The copper wires in this piece are all different as they “grow” from one half of the piece to the other. This piece was made to showcase the artist’s struggle when she moved from her home country to Canada.
The wires represent feelings of displacement mingled with homesickness and a longing to belong. There are also many different paths that the artist must choose from as she decides who she wants to be and what role she is destined to play.
Ultimately, these wires may twist and turn in different directions, but they remain grounded to their original base while they forage ahead in a new direction, forming new roots.
Despite the physical and emotional displacement of moving away from her family, country, culture, and the community she grew up in, this artist is beginning to find her path and secure her space in the great big world.
Marianna Lewis is a Jamaican metalsmith and contemporary jewellery artist. Upon deciding to become a professional metalsmith and artist, she enrolled in the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design online foundation visual arts program.
Following the completion of the online FVA program, in which she received designated honours, Marianna moved to New Brunswick to pursue a diploma in Jewellery/Metal Arts from NBCCD.
Upon graduating, Marianna decided to further her studies by completing NBCCD's Advanced Studio Practice Program. Her work explores personal storytelling and natural elements through the mediums of precious metals and semi-precious stones.
In 2025, Marianna's work was recently showcased in The Earring Show, an annual group exhibition that highlights contemporary jewellery design. The exhibition sheds light on the timeless connection between craft and culture, and how they influence each other.
This show was put on by the Craft Council of British Columbia. In 2025, Marianna was the recipient of the Brigitte Clavette Award Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Scholarship in Graduate Studies.
With For Rent by Owner Call Tara/ À Louer Appelez Tara I am deliberately making the connection between private property for rent and an object traditionally associated with domestic space, indicative of social relations.
I am trying to think through the complexities of "private" and "social" economies of care at the same time that I want to call into question those economies.
I question the normative terms of access to care by insisting these quilts can only ever be rented. They refer to themselves, not some other space.
As artworks, it is customary they be sold (become private property by way of the art market), but by retaining ownership while making the quilts available to rent, I am making a critical reproduction of the systemic norms.
These quilts are rentable after the exhibition. Applications to rent them and a "rental agreement" will accompany the quilts as part of the exhibition.
Thank you to Dana Edmonds, Andrew Rabyniuk, and Cathie Rabyniuk for production assistance and expertise in producing the quilt.
Tara Lynn MacDougall is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice combines painting, sculpture, performance, and, lately, has included rug hooking and sewing.
She typically combines conceptual art strategies with concern for the stories and experiences of ordinary people and has a keen interest in the industrial histories of the places she works. An important part of her practice involves reinterpreting the art historical canon and transforming its conventions into new or unusual forms.
Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions throughout Canada and the US, including Agregat centre d'artistes (QC), James & Anne Duderstadt Center (University of Michigan), Eyelevel Gallery (NS), Art Gallery of Peterborough (ON), Southern Alberta Art Gallery (AB) and Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum (NU).
She received a BFA from NSCAD University and an MFA from the University of Lethbridge. She lives and works in Tiohtia:ke/Montreal, QC.
Ageing is a series of displacements: physical abilities decline, energy wanes, memory becomes less reliable, and tending to health issues requires more of my time.
Ever-accelerating, these changes force me to alter my path, to make choices about things I once took for granted. In this work, I express the feeling of decline within the context of a beautiful life.
Displacement is subtle and gradual, an unstoppable stage of a life well- lived. For this piece, I wanted to see the gesture of my hand while using textiles, like a painter sees their brush marks.
I created my design digitally, scaling it up for printing on cotton. Using quilting techniques, I layered the print over batting and stitched it to emphasize my central design, extending my gesture marks by sewing hundreds of hand-guided discontinuous curved lines.
Contemporary textile artist Lee McLean creates art to communicate a feeling. Reflecting upon her lived experience, she explores composition and content to share her visual response to the world.
To achieve this, she uses fabric, thread and surface marks plus the skills she developed over twenty years as a quilter. To deepen her understanding of design, she returned to school, completing certificates in Foundation Visual Arts and Advanced Studio Practice in Textiles at the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design.
Her impactful work has been juried into international exhibitions and won a national award. Her practice has been supported by research, creation and professional development grants from the New Brunswick Arts Board and Canada Council for the Arts.
Lee works out of her studio in New Maryland, New Brunswick, Canada, which is situated in the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqey and Mi’gmah peoples. She shares her process on Instagram. Learn more at Lee McLean.
Dike Bar is a project that archives queer and trans experiences in the rural town of Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. There is a relatively large population of queer folks in the small Maritime town of 5000 (where I live), which is known as a liberal enclave.
The project title is tongue-in-cheek as Sackville is surrounded by a system of dikes, or drainage ditches, that Acadians developed to create farmlands in an area that would otherwise be swamp. This project weaves together three strands of thought: a children’s folktale, queer rurality, rising sea levels, and rising fascism, populism and anti-queer feelings/legislation.
I use the double entendre of ‘dike bar’ to discuss the precarity of these queer rural and liminal spaces in terms of the invisibility, indifference and/or hostility towards the queer and trans people who live there, as well as the physical topography of the landscape.
The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. The dikes can only last for so long against the threat of rising sea levels.1 There are no overtly queer spaces in the community, and the rise of neo-fascist right-wing politicians is campaigning to deny the rights and freedoms of queer and trans people throughout the province. Informal networks of queer solidarity, community and communication are always evolving.
This project seeks to document, acknowledge and archive this historical moment in trans and queer rural Maritime history, as well as foster new connections.
Amy Siegel is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, curator and educator. Amy’s artistic work explores archives, gender, and the body through film, installation, performance and media art.
Their work has been shown at galleries, art residencies and festivals, including Nuit Blanche Toronto, Luminato, Third Shift and Summerworks Performance Festival.
Amy is currently an Assistant Professor of Culture & Media Studies at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton.
Displacement - Atlantic Canada has been experiencing significant environmental changes due to changes in our climate. Globally, rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events are impacting our region's flora. More and more, we are seeing the effects of climate change on plant life in Atlantic Canada, threatening the region's biodiversity.
As an artist living and working in the region, I am responding to these changes by creating works that reflect environmental change and hopefully inspire action. Through my art, I hope to foster an understanding of climate change and its impacts on plant life.
It is a fact that plants, both rare and familiar, are at risk, and climate change is accelerating the loss of unique habitats and species. Plants are being displaced, some through introduction and some through extinction. I would like to raise awareness about the serious threats facing our region's fragile plant communities.
Nationally acclaimed Canadian plant fibre artist, Ralph Simpson, has developed an innovative method of weaving and sculpting plant fibre into pleasing sculptural forms.
He was raised in the fields and forests of New Brunswick along the Petitcodiac River, and there developed a keen interest in plants. His personal motivation arises from a deep connection with nature and an implicit desire to promote environmental sustainability.
Currently, he resides in Fredericton, working full-time in his studio there. Ralph chooses to work with locally sourced, sustainable materials and forages his own plant fibres using environmentally sustainable methods. He prefers invasive, introduced, or naturalized plant species and also native plants if they are abundant.
Ralph holds an MSc. from UNB in Forest Research Biology, and a Diploma in Fine Craft from NBCCD. Informed by the sciences and his acquired technical expertise, his intricately woven pieces reflect the fields and forests around him.
Ralph is an award-winning artist with grants from Arts NB and Canada Council, short-listed for the Salt Springs National Art Prize (2021), and his work has been accessioned into New Brunswick’s permanent art collection (2023). He exhibits his work locally and internationally, attending residencies and giving workshops.
The flora of New Brunswick informs his work and his creative process. His designs arise from his interpretations of nature and have evolved from traditional basketry to vessels and botanically themed sculptures.
His process results in a contemporary manifestation of his connection with plants in their natural habitat. His work varies in form and style, but what resonates in all his work is an underlying investigation into ways that plant materials can be used to spark interest and insight into the natural world.
