gentle enough to hold | Gagné Contemporary | July 3rd- August 2nd, 2025
Augusta X. Thomson (BA, Archaeology & Anthropology, Oxford University) has written an essay on Jane’s work for this exhibition. In it she writes – “Jane uses colour to bring time-scapes together—to make the past a dream of the future and the future a dream of the past. The bright blues and pinks and purples imbue her paintings with a surreal, almost enchanted quality. Are we really on a subway in Brooklyn, or in a fairytale contained within the mind of that subway? Where does what we know to be true end and begin? Her colour palette fantastically disrupts our sighted expectations.”
And further, Augusta writes – “gentle enough to hold” is a vital exploration of the ways that spaces, places, people, and memories held in suspension, speak. It is a compilation with a life in and beyond colour and material that asks what it means to dream worlds into existence that hold new possibilities for the ways we can communicate with each other. And it is the voice of a seer-as-artist who refuses to give up on finding hope in the world.”
Material Hierarchy | Gagné Contemporary | July 19- August 11th, 2024
"Connecting a diverse assemblage of materials, Material Hierarchy enables a dialogue on how we assert value onto objects and experiences. Themes of memory, identity, and transformation are explored through a variety of materials and processes.
Additionally, the materials utilized transcend tangible objects– shooting star footage archives, memories, the silhouette of a family car. Entities that may seem displayed are given space to flourish. These artists use their own history as material to understand and explore their identity and experiences through time.
By bringing together differing materials into a conversation – oil paintings, rust on steel, video archives, textiles, laser-engraved wood – we will encounter how artists give weight to objects that may have felt valueless."
Reunion | Northern Contemporary Gallery | July 20-25th, 2023
Reunion brings back fifteen alumni of the Etobicoke School of the Arts Contemporary Arts program to document the outcome of a shared experience. Utilizing painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and photography, collective belonging and connection are revealed through the observation of overlapping forms. Reunion functions to hold the memories and experiences we all carry and create a home we can always come back to.
What Might Have Been Lost | Remote Gallery | September 17+18th, 2022
Jane Forrest's first solo exhibition: What Might Have Been Lost functions as a love letter to the life around her. Using subject matter sourced from communities and family history, studio buildings, writing, and shadows, time is used as a medium to connect to the world. Through her practice, the fragility of falling buildings, disappearing shadows, and fading handwriting is overcome.
Is This Our Time? | Northern Contemporary Gallery | November 17th-22nd, 2022
Is This Our Time? A group exhibition featuring works from grades 10-12 students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts. Curated by Jane Forrest (Grade 12 Student), Shelli Cassidy-McIntosh (Director, Olga Korper Gallery), and Alex Bowron (Director, Galerie Nicholas Robert) the exhibition embodies distance, light and time. Utilizing painting, drawing, photography, textiles and sculpture, we question why we are here and where we are going.
