Ilya & Emilia Kabakov

Between Heaven and Earth

exhibitions

Oakville Galleries presents the exhibition Between Heaven and Earth and the project The Ship of Tolerance, by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. The grand opening on Saturday May 31st will feature a concert by young musicians and performers, presented in Gairloch Gardens.

 

The exhibition Between Heaven and Earth will be on view at both our locations in Gairloch Gardens and at Centennial Square. This exhibition highlights a number of the artists’ works, including paintings, prints and installations, and spills out into the gardens with several larger artworks. The largest installation is The Ship of Tolerance, a 60-foot long, hand-crafted wooden ship with sails made from children’s paintings, presented lakeside in Gairloch Gardens for one year. Now, marking its 20th anniversary, its first appearance in Canada could not take place at a more critical time.

 

In Oakville, over 1300 children from local schools and diverse community groups have played a part in creating this project to date. These young participants converse together about inclusivity, different cultures, respect and creative ideas of the future, then they create paintings that express their visions of tolerance and how that shapes our collective future. A selection of the resulting paintings are sewn together to create the sail for the ship, while the remaining paintings are displayed in various locations in Oakville. 

 

Programmed to complement the exhibition and presented adjacent to The Ship of Tolerance, this year’s Sunset Kino festival will run from June to July. Founded by Séamus Kealy in 2017 in Salzburg, Austria, Sunset Kino is Canada’s only outdoor, avant-garde cinema. This year’s theme is WHAT WAS THAT and will include films and programs by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Renèe Helèna Browne, Ala Roushan and others.

 

Altogether this set of exhibitions, programs and installations is the most ambitious project by Oakville Galleries to date. The Ship of Tolerance is presented in collaboration with the Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Foundation, as well as with The National Gallery of Canada. The National Gallery of Canada’s National Engagement initiative is generously supported by Michael Nesbitt, with additional funding from the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.

31.5.2025 - 20.9.2025

LOCATION
Gairloch Gardens &
Centennial Square

1306 Lakeshore Road East
Oakville, ON L6J 1L6

120 Navy Street
Oakville, ON L6J 2Z4

OPENING HOURS

Tuesday – Saturday:

10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Monday (by appointment)

Closed Sunday + statutory holidays

 

Free Admission