Nikki Middlemiss at Karsh-Masson Gallery, Ottawa

This summer I reviewed the exhibition Innerline which consisted of three recent and concurrent series of process-driven works by Nikki Middlemiss that complement each other and create an environment conducive to reflection and contemplation, further enhanced by the climate-control in the gallery where it was displayed.

Nikki Middlemiss, Remains series, 2024, folded National Geographic magazine pages, glue

Although drawing is central to Middlemiss's practice, you could argue that withdrawing is a more apt verb, given that abstraction and subtraction are typical of her work. In my review, with reference to Marshall McLuhan’s notion of “hot and cool” media, I suggest that Middlemiss’s removals (of a particular material or a referent) engineer a cooling effect and engage the viewer more in actively figuring out the work – the hallmark of McLuhan’s “cool” media. The precarity manifested by the works in Innerline offer a portrait of a civilization in the process of undoing itself through its own making. For the full text of my review check out the July 16 post on the Akimblog.

BlackFlash Artist Profile: Joyce Joumaa

The Spring issue of BlackFlash (43:1) includes an artist profile that I wrote, entitled "Joyce Joumaa: Prologue to Future Possibilities." The occasion for this profile was Joumaa's exhibition "Prologue" at the Galerie UQO in Gatineau, Quebec, which ran from January 21, 2026 to February 21, 2026. The profile offers a capsule survey of Joumaa's previous body of work in order to provide context for an interpretation of the works on view at Galerie UQO.

Although Joumaa has tackled a range of geopolitical issues, a major focus of her investigations has been Lebanon and its history. The exhibition can be understood as a prologue to a deeper understanding of historical conflict in the region and the way it has been represented to the public. Considering her other work, I identify a common aesthetic strategy employed by the artist: By leaving deliberate gaps between (and even within) related elements, Joumaa compels viewers to fill in the blanks by traversing the space of their installation, taking a closer look, and participating in the accretion of knowledge.