June Clark
Witness
April 3—August 31, 2025
Witness is the first survey exhibition in Canada of this Toronto-based artist, who over the past five decades has developed a groundbreaking practice that includes photo-based work, installation, text, collage, and sculptural assemblages. Born in Harlem, New York, Clark immigrated to Canada in 1968 and has since made Toronto her home. The question of how we are formed by our points of origin fuels her artistic practice. In this deeply personal exhibition, she explores how history, memory, and identity have established the familial and artistic lineages that shape her work.
The exhibition brings together significant works that stretch from the 1990s to the present, many of them seen here for the first time. These include her iconic installations Family Secrets (1992) and Harlem Quilt (1997), the photo-based works 2191 Reprise (1997) and 42 Thursdays in Paris (2004), and several bodies of work composed of reworked found objects: Keepers (2004), Perseverance Suite (2021-ongoing), and Homage (2011-ongoing), which, in the artist’s words, “gave me permission to be the artist I am today.” Also, the touring exhibition will incorporate the series Unrequited Love, currently part of a solo exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in tandem with the exhibition at The Power Plant. Details about this exhibition can be found here.
In each of these works, Clark adopts a singular approach that pushes at the boundaries of established art practice, whether that is through her experimental use of photographic practices or the novel way she works with text and materials. Often, the personal sits alongside the political, as she brings together intimate autobiographical recollections with social commentary on the politics of race, history, and national identity in North America. Central to the exhibition is the notion of memory and the idea that the past lingers on through the things we hold dear. Some works have a shrine-like function, while in others, everyday objects from Clark’s past are imbued with a deep sense of material memory that verges on the mystic or spiritual. Through them, the past may be channeled, an enduring force that persists into the present, to counsel, guide, and protect.
Curated by Adelina Vias & Frances Loeffler.
Initiated, organized and circulated by The Power Plant
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About the Artist
June Clark
June Clark (b. 1941, New York City) has earned national and international recognition for herphoto-based image works, installations and interventions. She holds a BFA and MFA from York University. Clark has had solo exhibitions at the Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto; Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Koffler Gallery, Toronto; and Mercer Union, Toronto. Clark’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Polygon Gallery, Vancouver; the University of Toronto Art Museum, Toronto; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Textile Museum, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada Ottawa; Agnès b., Paris; and Linda Kirkland Gallery, New York. She has completed residencies at the Studio Museum, Harlem; and the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto. Her work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Wedge Collection, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada; the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, New York; the James Van Der Zee Institute, New York; and La galerie du jour agnès b, among others. The artist lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
About the Curators
Adelina Vlas
Adelina Vlas is the Head of Curatorial Affairs at The Power Plant, Toronto, where she leads the Exhibitions, Publications, and Public Programs and Outreach teams. At The Power Plant, Vlas has curated Jen Aitken: The Same Thing Looks Different and Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS. Previously, Vlas was Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, where she organized special exhibitions and collection-based shows such as As If Sand Were Stone: Contemporary Latin American Art from the AGO Collection (2017), Hito Steyerl: This Is The Future (2019), and Haegue Yang: Emergence (2020). She was also the in-house curator for Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors (2018). Additionally, she has held curatorial positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Frances Loeffler
Frances Loeffler is the Curator of Exhibitions at The Power Plant, Toronto. Loeffler has held curatorial positions at arts organizations worldwide, including Oakville Galleries, White Cube, and the Liverpool Biennial. She has extensive experience curating numerous exhibitions, working closely with artists such as Etel Adnan, Sascha Braunig, Helen Cammock, David Hartt, Tamara Henderson, Runa Islam, Allison Katz, Leisure (Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley), Tanya Lukin Linklater, Senga Nengudi, Paul P., and Shannon Te Ao, among many others. Many of her exhibitions have explored the crossover between art and language, and she has a specialized interest in the history of artist gardens.
