Necessary Arts Collective

Necessary Arts Collective Necessary Arts Collective is a space dedicated to supporting artists. It is a shared work space for designers, artists, writers and the like.

Rates
Co-Working Membership: $125/per month

Full Studio Membership: $250/$325/$400/$500/per month

About the artist behind our current featured exhibition, MortificatioJacqui Mason is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist...
05/22/2026

About the artist behind our current featured exhibition, Mortificatio

Jacqui Mason is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist completing their undergrad in Fine Arts with a minor in religion, culture, and spirituality at the University of Waterloo. Their past membership in Catholicism and investigations into family histories related to su***de and cancer diagnoses inform their research on the intersection of spirituality and healing. Their art practice is a way for them to visually describe the ethereal in the mundane, which has helped inform their worldview and understanding of life’s transience. They have received numerous awards, including the Geoffrey F. Buttler Award, the Auggie Corvino Memorial Award, Curator’s Choice Award, and the University of Waterloo President’s Scholarship. They have had their work featured in magazines such as Kultekst and Creators Collective, as well as in two juried group shows with the Cambridge Centre for the Arts, at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery, and at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair as part of the Student Art Innovation Lab.



View Jacqui’s work for a few more days in person 💫✨⭐️

Next Crit Night, coming up quick… ⭐️✨💫Monday, May 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m at Facilitated by , crit nights are a collaboration ...
05/22/2026

Next Crit Night, coming up quick… ⭐️✨💫

Monday, May 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m at

Facilitated by , crit nights are a collaboration between local artists & arts spaces to offer welcoming and encouraging opportunities for inspiration and critical feedback. Bring your finished work or works in progress, gain feedback from other artists, and leave with direction for your next steps in your practice 💡

Register for free or pay what you can through the link in bio.

490 York Rd, Building i, Suite 201

Matthew Donaldson is a self-taught oil painter with a primary focus on figurative work and landscapes. Creating art sinc...
05/13/2026

Matthew Donaldson is a self-taught oil painter with a primary focus on figurative work and landscapes. Creating art since he was a child, Matthew has been studying oil painting for the past twenty years. His work evokes a natural tension exploring themes of alienation and isolation. Matthew’s work has been collected by patrons in Toronto, Ottawa, and London Eng. He has shown work in Guelph, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, and now focuses on impressionistic portraits and dark, atmospheric landscapes. Self-taught, he is inspired by artists including Carravagio, J.M.W Turner, and John Singer Sargent. He currently resides in Guelph.

View Matthew's show SOMA until May 19th! ⭐️✨⚡️



✨ NEW SHOW ✨SOMA | Matthew Donaldson "I started drawing when I was very young, bedazzled by the world of cartoons and su...
05/05/2026

✨ NEW SHOW ✨

SOMA | Matthew Donaldson



"I started drawing when I was very young, bedazzled by the world of cartoons and superheroes and comic strips. I drew a lot of inspiration from them, drawing so many dinosaurs and Daffy Ducks and Batman. As I grew into a more mature artistic practice (which I know now was a mistake and have resolved to claw back my immaturity.) I had to completely revise my approach to the human figure. If you did not know, comic book superheroes are not the best place to learn accurate human anatomy. An overlooked place to learn about composition and colour and visual storytelling, but not realistic anatomy. Inspired by the old masters and other big names in the arts, I pushed my work to be more realistic, more challenging. I felt that the key to mastering the figure was all in the human hand. Pursuing the perfect hand painting, I ended up with dozens of paintings of hands and now struggle with justifying their existence as something other than personal Mount Everests.

When you paint and create images almost exclusively of a thing, you inevitably end up meditating on that one thing. So, I thought about the human hand a lot. Human beings have achieved so much in a short time on the Earth; Neanderthals building bonfires, to Henry Ford building cars, to Technological Oligarchs building AI superprograms. Getting older, I have become more and more selective of what technology I allow into my life- not full Luddite yet, but enough has happened in my lifetime to make me handle new technological advances with sharp suspicion and wearing personal protective equipment. It is important to cultivate physical real objects, this body of work evolved to become something of a meditation on reconnecting with nature, gardening, foraging and cultivation. For the record, I do none of this..."

Read more through the link in our bio 💻

View the show until May 19th ⭐️⚡️🏃

Olivia de Fleuriot Perry is a multidisciplinary artist based on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of th...
04/28/2026

Olivia de Fleuriot Perry is a multidisciplinary artist based on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit Frist Nation, as well as the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples. She earned her MFA from Emily Carr University in 2019, supported by a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. In 2026, she will be a part of a group show, Annual Juried Exhibition 2026, at Latcham Art Centre, Stouffville, ON; be published in Syphon, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre, Kingston, ON; as well as participate in the Harvest Moon Artist Residency in Clearwater, Manitoba, and the Banff Artist in Residence program in Banff, Alberta. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the 2023 Fraser Valley Biennial in B.C. and Split Milk Gallery in Edinburgh.

de Fleuriot Perry's recent practice investigates the connection with her local plant community through repetition and attentive care. She physically engages in the process, using written imagery, performative image creation, sculptural installations, drawing, and painting to navigate her evolving relationship with place. By visiting specific places close to her home across the seasons, de Fleuriot Perry seeks catharsis through movement: repeated collecting and making.

View "Milkweed, Goldenrod, and Asters Along a Salmon River" for another week, until May 5th ⭐️



✨ NEW SHOW ✨Milkweed, Goldenrod, and Asters Along a Salmon RiverOlivia de Fleuriot Perry | "I return to the place where...
04/21/2026

✨ NEW SHOW ✨

Milkweed, Goldenrod, and Asters Along a Salmon River

Olivia de Fleuriot Perry |

"I return to the place where the Salmon spawn. My children bring me offerings of flowers, leaves, and stones as we walk along the rushing water. I hold up a branch of Asters dappled with light from the dancing trees above. Aaron and I stop under a bridge listening and watching, paying attention. We take a moment to feel the water flowing over our hands. We start to return back home. The kids run ahead with their dad, while I slowly follow behind. As I turn a corner, I am transported to a tapestry of vibrant flowers, bees, wasps, birds and spiders along the Salmon run. A single Milkweed plant stands amongst the Goldenrod, Asters, Wild Carrot, Chicory, Clover and Daisies. I kneel down to watch the bees while a Goldenrod Crab Spider watches me from inside a Wild Carrot flower. A flood of gratitude washes over me as I feel the sun's warmth on my back. Gratitude to witness the scene before me as the bugs dance and the spider patiently waits for its meal. Gratitude for this earth; for life and death; for joy, and sorrow; for abundance and hardship; to live and to be loved as the Salmon return to birch and die for another year. The Milkweed plant quietly whispers to me, with one pod spilling its seeds and the other, green with seeds enclosed, filled with hope for the future.

My research centers on plants inhabiting the Treaty Lands and Territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples. Their stories and gifts inspire my art practice."

View Olivia's work from April 21 to May 5, 2026 💫

Kaeli Macdonald is a Toronto-based*, interdisciplinary artist. She holds a BFA from OCAD University, where she completed...
04/16/2026

Kaeli Macdonald is a Toronto-based*, interdisciplinary artist. She holds a BFA from OCAD University, where she completed a major in Sculpture/Installation. Often involving multiples, repetition in her work is both rumination and meditation on everyday interactions with environment, self and other. Macdonald’s work has incorporated elements of performance, video, photography, painting, and found objects. Most recently focusing on clay to explore identity, materiality and connection. Her practice is both conceptual and experiential. She has exhibited at Red Head Gallery, The Art Gallery of Mississauga, Propeller Art Gallery and Gerrard Art Space among others.

In addition to her work as an artist, Kaeli Macdonald is a social worker/psychotherapist, and a mother/stepmother to four children. This layering of identities and roles informs her art practice, frequently addressing concerns with socially constructed narratives around woman, mother and mental health.

*Located on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat and other Anishinaabeg peoples.
art

View the show until April 21st 💫⭐️💛

✨ NEW SHOW ✨the yellow wallpaper | kaeli macdonaldart "In the yellow wallpaper, I seek to remind viewers of sweet and ho...
04/08/2026

✨ NEW SHOW ✨

the yellow wallpaper | kaeli macdonald
art

"In the yellow wallpaper, I seek to remind viewers of sweet and homey things: cookies, wallpaper, flowers. And at the same time refer to something a bit more disquieting - the cookies look slightly burnt and too plentiful to be quite right. If this is wallpaper, it’s too heavy, the pattern uneven and discoloured. Through the use of repetition in this piece, I aim to make visible the felt sense of rumination and anxiety; to make tactile the ongoing and ever-present constraints felt while tirelessly pursuing the image of perfection in motherhood, the relentless pressure to present a mask of happiness when what is being felt is something quite different. I invite the viewer into this experience with me, into a space that presents a dialectic, an image and a narrative that is never just one thing."

Read more on our website 💻👀⚡️

Exhibiting until April 21, 2026 💛

Studio Available 📣 💥This large studio is 7 x 11 feet, surrounded by expansive wall space and tall ceilings with both nat...
04/08/2026

Studio Available 📣 💥

This large studio is 7 x 11 feet, surrounded by expansive wall space and tall ceilings with both natural and bright LED overhead lighting. The most private of all the space, this studio is situated right next to our large washroom with the utility sink for easy clean-up.

All members have access to our amenities: 24/7 fob access, unlimited wifi, shared work tables and tools, kitchenette, communal areas, and more.

⭐

Lakyn Hann is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist who works in multiple mediums, and they are currently studying at t...
04/03/2026

Lakyn Hann is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist who works in multiple mediums, and they are currently studying at the UoG Studio Art Program. Their current focus is on q***r and trans activism and how they can use that as a lens to depict and understand different theoretical ideas. As a q***r and trans individual, their work is very personal, but they are also interested in how q***r and trans bodies are impacted as a collective. Lakyn also heavily relies on memory mapping — how memories and trauma can impact the body in the form of chronic pain and autoimmune disorders, as well as the process of remembering fragments of time through archival processes. Their work is deeply rooted in process and the systems they give themselves to complete a piece.

View "Bio-Power" until April 7th! 👀⭐️⚡️



✨ NEW SHOW ✨Bio-Power | Lakyn Hann "As a q***r and non-binary individual, my body often becomes a topic of discussion. M...
03/31/2026

✨ NEW SHOW ✨

Bio-Power | Lakyn Hann



"As a q***r and non-binary individual, my body often becomes a topic of discussion. My expressions of masculinity and femininity are frequently questioned and scrutinized. In this series, "Bio-Power," I engage with Michel Foucault's theory by examining how various perspectives—those focused on biological s*x, legislation and policing, and religious interpretations of gender and reproduction—attempt to discipline and define my identity.

In the painting “Anatomo Pt. 1,” I collage together bodies and genders, using precise lines to emphasize the clarity and definition often demanded by those who target q***r and trans individuals, seeking clear boundaries in gender. In “Anatomo Pt. 2,” I replicate the figure from Pt. 1, but this time I paint from a distance using a brush attached to a stick. This physical distancing abstracts the figure, placing me in the position of those who make decisions about q***r and trans bodies. Through this process, the original figure—precise and clean—becomes messy and monstrous. Q***r and trans individuals are often portrayed as 'others' through body-controlling policies that demonize our existence.

Finally, in “Sacrifice to Divine Will,” the third part of this series, I explore themes of religion, reproductive rights, and s*xuality to further understand the criticisms I am presenting. Painted entirely on a duvet cover, I encourage the viewer to examine and enter a private space—the bedroom. Central to this piece is a two-headed lamb, which transforms a Christian symbol into the “dark omen” that trans children are often treated as. As someone who grew up q***r in a religious family, this was frequently a point of discussion: Will my child ever be able to procreate? Will their transition affect a family unit?

Through collage, painting, textile, and process work I am using multidisciplinary methods to encompass the cruel reality of control and monsterization q***r and trans individuals experience in many intersections of life and identity."

View Lakyn's exhibition until April 7th, 2026 🏃⚡️⭐️

Address

84 Wyndham Street N
Guelph, ON
N1H4E8

Website

https://shophoopla.square.site/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Necessary Arts Collective posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Necessary Arts Collective:

Shortcuts

Share