4 new exhibitions to explore this season at The Image Centre

This survey exhibition (external link)  celebrates the career of Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Dawit L. Petros, winner of the 2025 Scotiabank Photography Award. Spanning over 20 years, this presentation of more than 80 photographs, serigraphs and books traces a long-standing inquiry into the legacy of colonial history across Africa, Europe and North America. 

Rooted in rigorous scholarly research and extensive travel, Petros's practice is defined by his creative use of archival photographs, colour and abstraction. The artist challenges photography’s documentary function while investigating migration, belonging, displacement and the lingering effects of colonial memory.

With My Whole Body (external link)  explores the power dynamics of traditional portrait photography, where the operator often controls the image while the sitter has little agency. Responding to this, Robinson merges photographer and subject using the cyanotype printmaking process. Rather than posing for a camera, the body physically touches a sensitized surface, creating images over extended exposures that capture presence and movement. Fabric cyanotypes are then sculpted into three-dimensional forms, combining fragments of the body to produce a tactile, collaborative image. The work challenges conventional photographic representation and invites viewers to reconsider authorship, presence, and recognition in portraiture.