Transverse’s Once and More

Transverse’s Once and More
 

Curated by Madge Yao / Consulted by Ursula Handleigh

• December 12, 2025, to January 12, 2026
• Opening reception: Friday, Dec 12, 4 to 7 PM
• The Great Hall
  100 McCaul St., Toronto, Ontario, CA, M5T 1W1

Curated by Madge Yao and consulted by Ursula Handleigh, Transverse’s Once and More is a multidisciplinary exhibition that foregrounds diasporic experiences within the current fragmented information landscape. It carves an organic, moody footpath toward notions of home and belonging, tracing the emotional residues formed in a state of constant in-betweenness.
 

The exhibition proposes a space of paradox: being physically present yet emotionally adrift, connected yet isolated. In response to cultural pressures, artists adapt and mould themselves into various forms to fit. Which can be seen as a once begun, only expands process, as ripples alter the puddle. The artworks express external and internal terrains, widening the sensory diameter between self and world. Together, the narrative responds to a longing for understanding and acceptance, provoking open-ended conversations about what it means to oscillate and radiate as a transverse searching for balance.

Participating Artists

Kristi Chen’s practice is based on her turbulent relocation experience, which shapes her understanding of belonging amid complex cultural influences. The work traces her ancestral and familial narratives that ground her resilience across shifting environments.
 

Amanda Foulds re-anchors South Asian representation within Canadian Western culture and education. By paralleling her early childhood idealism and family archive, she asserts a complex present identity and inclusive future in the place she calls home.

Alex Hall documents through a third-generation lens, allowing scenes and cultural tokens to reconnect fragmented stories. Her work gradually reveals the unspoken forms of support inherited through her maternal lineage.

Karl Mata Hipol centres the Ilocano symbol of protection. Echoing the sailing journey, where immigrants pack their lives and conquer the challenges.

Ayse Ipekdokuyan draws upon a traditional Turkish fable character, an animated yet constrained puppet. Shadows her own uncertainties within the immigration journey.

Ernesto Cabral de Luna questions the ownership of family stories, constructing his identity through archival narratives and their displacements, blurring the line between passivity and activation.
 

Emerald 邹佑 explores spiritual belonging through an ongoing upstream search for their birth family, piecing together fragmented data while re-nesting their own sense of position.

Rachel Pyfrom creates site-specific work that reflects Bahamian landscapes and further engages with civic life. Inviting viewers into a portal of nostalgia, seeking one’s safe space within an alienating city.
 

Tommy Truong unhurriedly unravels his experience as a second-generation immigrant through the layered story embedded in his name.

• Transverse:
  A positionality neither here nor there, but moving across: cultural inheritances, digital realities, socio-political borders, and personal mythologies. The artist becomes a transversal figure negotiating multiple worlds.
   

• Once and More:
  Migration is not a past occurrence but a recursive process. “Once” marks the initial displacement or arrival; “more” its ongoing manifestations: intergenerational trauma, adaptation, and reconstruction of belonging, and many more.

   

Gallery Hours:

• Monday to Friday: 8 am to 8 pm
• Saturday: 8 am to 6 pm
• Sunday: noon to 6 pm

• By appointment: December 20 and 21

  Close on Monday, December 22, 2025, to Sunday, January 4, 2026