Critical Distance FEATURING

FILM NOTES is a scent-infused screening series in Toronto presented by writer + curator Dhvani Ramanujam. Each program pairs a scent or a perfume with a different film, its specific notes psychically responding to, and embodying fragments of the selected film’s narrative, tone, landscape, mise-en-scène, or a relationship between characters. On June 23rd, the program returns for its second screening. Lina Wertmüller’s 1986 sensuous comedy, Summer Night with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil. A later Wertmüller entry, the film features a familiar star (Mariangela Melato as a bronzed blond tycoon) and a familiar theme in Wertmüller’s work: the crises of class warfare and gender politics distilled into horny sex games. The scent pairing will be revealed to those who attend…Find out more

Curating the Village: Open Sessions is a two-day gathering of artists, curators, and cultural workers exploring caregiving as both a lived experience and a working condition. Spanning rest, performance, workshops, and conversation, the program brings together perspectives on caring for children, parents, elders, neighbours, the dying, and broader communities.

Curated by
Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan

Featuring
Indu Vashist / Mark Reinhart / Jeneen Frei Njootli / Tender Again / Ebru Winegard / Margaret Evans  (Balancing Act) / Una Janicijevic / Michelle Wilson / Rahaf’s Kitchen / Janet Hinkle / Zoë Heyn-Jones & Amanda White / 44.4 Mother/Artist Collective / Ragamalika Mohanraj / Renée Anne Bouffard-Mcmanus / Heather Frise / Shira Leuchter / Yanaminah Thullah / Regatu Asefa / Sandra Dusabe / Delilah Edouard Williams / Maryna Salagub / Sasha Singer-Wilson

Find out more

Critical Distance is pleased to present Making Otherwise: on sustaining creative practice in the face of precarity Date & Time: Sunday, May 31, 2026, 4-6 pm Curated by Ingrid Jones through the Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis curatorial fellowship at University of Toronto, Making Otherwise convenes an intimate roundtable bringing together artists and culture workers whose practices span installation, performance, sound, and socially engaged practice. For this session we are pleased to welcome actor and playwright Lara Arabian; curator, cultural producer and educator, Andreann Asibey; and artist and educator, Amy Wing-Hann Wong.  Each guest speaker will offer a short presentation  as an opening into collective conversation on  how they have sustained their artistic process in a moment defined in part by digital…Find out more

Critical Distance and the Embassy Cultural House are pleased to announce a celebratory book launch for Not/For the Money, an online exhibition featuring works by artists and cultural workers examining themes related to money, capital, and value. Featuring contributions from Ron Benner, Karl Beveridge, Lily Cho, Matthew Dawkins, Holly English, Soheila Esfahani, Kelly Greene, Jamelie Hassan, SF Ho, Michael Maranda, Alistair MacKinnon, Patrick Mahon, David Merritt, Mohamed Monaiseer, Sheri Osden Nault, Wanda Nanibush, Shelley Niro, Claudia Sambo, Ruth Strebe, and Jeff Thomas, the Not/For the Money exhibition catalogue will be available for perusal and purchase, alongside artists’ multiples, postcards, and prints by Anahí González, Incé Husain, and others, and a full complement of past publications by ECH. 

Find out more

Critical Distance is pleased to present Hard Feelings: a somatic workshop series led by Indu Vashist. The full series comprises 5 workshops in total for $120 CAD and includes the following: Session 1 is a two-part workshop taking place over two hours. For the first hour, we will discuss the structural reasons why the art world is shrinking. Arts Councils on every governmental level are oversubscribed and underfunded. This is resulting in far fewer artists receiving funding and fewer places to showcase work. Without this systemic analysis, individual artists experience rejection from the granting or showcasing system as social rejection. These emotions can trigger a physical response. We literally feel rejection as pain.  In sessions 2–5, Indu Vashist will lead…Find out more