Vernissage & Artist talk: Saturday, April 11
2:00 – 5:00 PM
Artist talk begins at 3:00 PM
Stitch & Sound workshop: Saturday April 18, 3:00-4:30 PM
Mask Days: Saturdays April 25 & May 9
Gallery 101 proudly opens our 2026 season with a solo exhibition of large-scale installations by Rana Nazzal Hamadeh.
the ceiling of our sky brings together a series of works that consider the control of both land and body amid mass detention and the growth of carcerality in Palestine and beyond. Across different scales, from body to land, the works reflect on how captivity is lived, rooted, and resisted.
A tangled cloud of thousands of interlocking zip ties looms above the gallery space, evoking the restraint of detainees. Disassembled images depict quiet landscapes or immersed encounters with protests and funerals. The works rely on synthetic materials, drawing attention to the infrastructures that bind, contain, and reorganize both land and life. Shadows create a ghostly second register, extending and multiplying the forms.
Together, the works paint a dizzying picture of recurrence: of gathering and dispersal, of repetition and interruption, and return to the same place and time. Resistance is not a single event against a single tyrant, but a cycle sustained by interweaving systems of oppression. Amid ongoing genocide, the exhibition resists straight documentation in favour of quiet tension, inviting viewers into the Palestinian reality.
Artist Bio
Rana Nazzal Hamadeh (she/her) is a Palestinian artist and researcher living on unceded Anishinabe Algonquin land in the city colonized as Ottawa. Her interdisciplinary arts practice focuses on settler-colonialism, exploring its impact on time, knowledge, food, and movement. Her short films Something from there, 2020 and we would be freer, 2023 explore the relationship between land and indigeneity and have screened internationally. Rana holds an MFA in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University. She is a Research Analyst for Firelight, providing research support to Indigenous Nations and organizations across Turtle Island, and since 2021 has worked with Palestinian prisoner support organizations in the occupied West Bank.
Gallery closures
Saturday April 18 - Stitch & Sound workshop
The gallery will be closed from 3:00 pm onwards for a special sound bath and craft workshop hosted by Nourish the Yin.
Saturday May 16 - Statutory holiday weekend