Atelier Next Door

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Atelier Next Door

We are Atelier Next Door. An artist-led studio and gallery based in the art district of Toronto.

10/04/2026

In studio with the artists

Exhibition Opening Reception this Thursday, Oct 8 at 5pm

10/02/2026

Opening Reception Thursday, Oct 8
5pm to 9pm

09/30/2026

In the past, Farhat Ali’s work has drawn directly from the world of South Asian manuscript painting. More recent works, including the series here, have transitioned in many ways but still lean into the meeting of tradition and modernity. Here, compositions are drawn from European Renaissance painting and 19th to early 20th century photography from the Indian subcontinent. Incongruity and absurdity are the prevailing sentiments in many of these works, meshing with layers of commentary on the colonial period from which the source imagery is drawn. Those based on photographs originally intended to document the life, customs and traditions of the British South Asia.

09/29/2026

Returning artist Rahat Ali was initially interested in pursing sculpture as a medium, but various practical concerns led him to instead use stone dust to create drawings. Sculpture remains his primary subject matter, however, as we see in these depictions of icons representing Buddha and the bodhisattvas (those who help other to achieve enlightenment) made in ancient Gandhara, a primarily Buddhist kingdom that once flourished in northern Pakistan and adjacent Afghanistan. The drawings may be read on one level as reverential reflections on these figures, but the sculptures that Rahat depicts are imperfectly preserved specimens from museum collections in Europe and America, some bodies missing limbs, some limbs missing bodies. This jarring note unsettles the work from being purely devotional, or solely an homage to the original sculptors, to also comment on the fate of Pakistan’s cultural heritage.

09/28/2026

Ronaque Ali’s paintings have always found inspiration in the life of the town around him, and have focused on the unremarkable, daily occurrences of these surroundings. Perhaps initially unintended resonances with Company-style works in earlier series are accentuated in his latest set of paintings. The term ‘Company school’ is used to describe paintings made for the European population that started settling in South Asia in greater numbers in the 18th century; these watercolours were intended to capture aspects of life that were novel or unusual to Europeans. In Ronaque’s hands, this artform that was originally an outsider interest in local life is now depicted by a local and for a local audience, and honors rather than documents and fixes in an antiquated past.

09/22/2026

Curated by Marika Sardar, this exhibition brings together the work of brothers Ronaque Ali, Rahat Ali, and Farhat Ali, whose distinct artistic practices are shaped by their shared upbringing and life in Badin, Sindh. United by family and place, each artist offers a unique perspective through their individual approach to medium, subject, and form.

09/10/2026

Featuring the work of three contemporary artists and brothers who live and work together, this exhibition is a window into their practice and artistic heritage through a contemporary lens.

06/23/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Sunday’s Curator’s Talk and Tour. Your curiosity and engagement made the afternoon truly meaningful.

At the heart of our mission is a commitment to creating a platform where art becomes a starting point for conversation, reflection, and the exchange of ideas. We believe exhibitions come to life through the perspectives of those who experience them, and gatherings like these remind us of the importance of looking closely and engaging in dialogue.

We’re grateful to everyone who spent the afternoon with us. We will be sharing highlight snipets of the talk for those who were not able to attend in person. ✨

06/16/2026

On Sunday, June 21, senior curator and critic Narendra Pachkhédé will lead a special Curator’s Talk & Tour of Figures, Fables, Histories, offering a critical and intimate reading of the exhibition he has curated.

Drawn from the Dawani collection, the exhibition brings together thirteen artists and twenty works across figuration, fable, memory, satire, political history, and the charged act of looking. Rather than presenting the collection as a survey, the talk will open it as a field of encounters: with the vulnerable body, the haunted image, the remembered landscape, and the eye of the collector.

The tour will move through the exhibition’s key works and ideas, asking how images carry history, how beauty can hold unease, and how a private collection becomes a public conversation.

All are welcome.

Light refreshments will be served — because even serious looking should have its pleasures.

06/11/2026

Join us tonight at 6pm for the opening reception of Figures, Fables, Histories ✨

collection

Address

1357 Dundas Street West
Downtown Toronto, ON

Website

https://www.and1357.com/

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