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McMaster Museum of Art

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McMaster Museum of Art

http://museum.mcmaster.ca - The MMA is a public, non-profit, art gallery situated in the heart of McM Alll exhibitions are FREE & open to the public.

No advance booking is required.

07/21/2026

As we prepare for our fall exhibitions, let’s revisit About Abstraction: 1911–1966. M(M)A Director and Chief Curator Mary Reid takes us on a tour of this retrospective, tracing the first 55 years of the abstract art movement. From Kandinsky and Braque to contemporary voices, the exhibition highlights how artists used colour, rhythm, geometry, and gesture to challenge convention and rethink how we experience the world.

Save the Date — We are hosting the Opening Reception for our Fall exhibitions on Thursday, September 17, 5 to 8 p.m. We can't wait to welcome everyone back to the museum.

07/07/2026

COMING SOON—Connected Histories: The Telegraph in Nigeria

Curated by Nnamdi Nnake
Exhibition Dates: September 1 to December 4, 2026
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2026, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. (remarks at 6 p.m.)

Drawing on Nnake’s research at McMaster University, this exhibition explores how telegraph networks contributed to Nigeria’s economic, political, and social development. It traces how telegraph technology was transformed by local Nigerian contexts, though it was introduced to promote British imperial interests. Featuring historical telegraph apparatus, large-format images and practice sets, this exhibition highlights both the infrastructure and everyday experiences of telegraphy in colonial Nigeria, while underscoring the contemporary legacies and future relevance of the technology.

The telegraph symbolized colonial power, but it also fostered innovation, labour, and community among Nigerians, and it interacted closely with the landscape. Despite its significance, Nigeria’s telegraph history remains underexplored. The exhibition addresses such gaps by examining telegraphy’s material dimensions, raising questions about innovation, technology-in-use, maintenance and repairs, showcasing how communication systems shape and respond to society.

Image Credit:

Duckworth, E. H., (British,1894-1972)
Men on a ladder, working on intersecting telegraph, telephone or power lines; street and buildings in the background
Copyright © 2026 the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University Libraries. Courtesy of the Melville J. Herkovits Library of African Studies E. H. Duckworth Photograph Collection, Northwestern University Libraries

06/30/2026

COMING SOON — Interior Chinatown: Morris Lum | 林耀基在華埠

Curated by Yan Wu
Exhibition Dates: August 25, 2026 to December 4, 2026
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2026, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. (remarks at 6 p.m.)

Interior Chinatown: Morris Lum | 林耀基在華埠 is the artist’s first institutional mid-career survey. Bringing together works from a photographic practice spanning more than a decade with newly commissioned pieces, the exhibition approaches Chinatown as both subject and method in Lum’s work. Restaurants, storefronts, places of worship, association halls, interiors, streetscapes, and community spaces appear quiet, often uninhabited, yet charged with social life. Shaped by access, trust, repetition, and care, these images reveal Chinatown not only as a place to be represented, but as the world through which Lum’s practice has taken form.

This exhibition is produced in collaboration with Markham Public Art and and the Varley Art Gallery

The artist acknowledges the support of Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada and Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario

06/11/2026

LAST CHANCE to see our exhibitions at M(M)A by Friday June 26—iARTS EXPO: 2026 Graduating Cohort & About Abstraction: 1911–1966.

Starting from June 1, M(M)A is open from Tuesday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission as always, no registration required.

Work featured:
Sydni Soobratee
Fragments of a Home I Carry
Clay, glaze, fabric, thread, photographic transfer, ribbon, polymer clay, wire, floral twine, crochet thread, and wood

Installation photography by Joseph Hartman.

06/04/2026

entrance found at the before our current exhibitions.

iArts EXPO: 2026 Graduating Cohort

About Abstraction: 1911–1966

Starting June 1, M(M)A is open on Tuesday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission as always, no registration required.

05/29/2026

SUMMER HOURS:
Starting June 1, 2026, M(M)A is open from Tuesday to Friday, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. ✨

Free admission, as always. No registration required. See you in the museum!

Swipe to see some of our current exhibitions on view and self-guided tours ➡️

05/27/2026

🔍 Please note: the museum is closed today, Thursday, May 27, for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The workshop “Raving Through Artworks in M(M)A” on Thursday, May 28, will still take place as planned at Togo Salmon Hall, Room 118.

05/05/2026

✨ We’re open this Saturday for May @ Mac Open House!

Join us at the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) for drop-in tours of our current exhibitions, featuring artwork by the 4th-year graduating cohort of the Integrated Arts (iArts) program, alongside selections from the Museum’s permanent collection exploring the early beginnings of abstraction. Tours are approximately 15–20 minutes long. Tours provided from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Click the link in our bio for an audio self-guided tour to learn more about sculpture and architecture across campus 🔗

Slides 2 and 3: installation photography by Joseph Hartman

Slide 4: Man Releasing Eagles sculpture by George Wallace, located at Arts Quad.

04/28/2026

Congratulations! to Christina Leslie on being named one of the two finalists for this year’s Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize 2026. All the best to Christina in her continued success in the growth of her artist practice and curatorial work.
Christina Leslie is an artist living and working in the Toronto area. Her lens-based practice delves into Black presence and subjectivity, identity, migration, marginalization, and her West Indian heritage. Her contemporary photographic works explore the intersections of history, memory, and race to create thought-provoking visual narratives.

McMaster Museum of Art (M(M)A) has recently acquired the series Pinhole Remix, 2020 for the museum collection. Her most recent series titled Pinhole Parishes was inspired by familial stories of Jamaica’s post-independence era. The images, created through improvised photographic tools and long exposures, evoke memory and presence.

In 2023, Leslie participated in M(M)A’s BIPOC Curatorial Mentorship Program, which has supported early career Black and Indigenous artists and curators through hands-on museum experience and professional development. Supported by McMaster University and Canada Heritage through the MAP program aimed to build capacity for transformation in the cultural sector by amplifying diverse perspectives and accelerating pathways into arts professional employment.

In addition to her artistic practice, Christina is an independent curator. She recently curated The Great Unseen (2025) at M(M)A. The exhibition was based on a curatorial framework and methodology evolved from her personal Caribbean heritage and diasporic perspectives that concentrated on Black, Caribbean, and diasporic artists in the M(M)A Collection and three invited contemporary artists. This brought artistic inclusion of all these artists from communities that have historically been excluded from dominant art historical paradigms.

Leslie is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.

Christina Leslie (Canadian, b. 1983)

Image Credits:

1&2) Pinhole Remix, 2020 (printed in 2025 except Stephanie, 2021)
Monique, Aundre, Caleb, Dad, Ro, Stephanie, Carol and Melissa
pigment prints on archival paper flush mounted to aluminum composite panels
21 x 16 inches each
Museum of Art Collection Trust, 2025

3) Pinhole 11 (2024) from Pinhole Parishes series by Christina Leslie

4) Artist photograph: Christina Leslie (2025) by Kwame Delfish.

04/22/2026

🔍 A Sculpture Made with Coat Hangers?

In this episode of Collection Highlight, MMA Educator (Campus & Community Engagement) Teresa Gregorio takes a look one of the museum’s most iconic sculptures, Scottish artist David Mach's Likeness Guaranteed, located in the museum stairwell!

Created after Mach’s 1996 visit to Hamilton, and informed by his research into the museum’s collection, the work draws on themes of Scottish immigration, the city’s steel industry, and its surrounding landscape—connecting local history with material and form. The sculpture takes inspiration from two works in the collection: George Reid’s The Call to Dinner (1886–1887) and an ancient Lucanian Kalyx-krater, bridging European traditions with a Canadian context. Through the use of metal coat hangers, Mach also introduces a subtle sense of humour while reflecting Hamilton’s industrial history.

Can you guess how many coat hangers are in this piece? 🤔

Address

McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, ON
L8S4L6

Opening Hours

Tuesday	12pm - 5pm
Wednesday	12pm - 5pm
Thursday	12pm - 5pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+19055259140

Website

http://museum.mcmaster.ca/

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