Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to launch our winter exhibition: The Performance of Being, curated by Wayne Baerwaldt and Jennifer McRorie featuring Leesa Streifler. This exhibition will run from November 14th, 2025 until January 3rd, 2026.

• Public Reception: Friday, November 14th, 2025 | 7 PM
• Exhibition Open: Friday, November 14th, 2025 – Saturday, January 3rd, 2026 | During regular gallery hours

These events are FREE, as our mandate is to ensure events like this are open to the public. Our galleries are also wheelchair accessible.

The exhibition explores Streifler’s sustained interest in the representation, performance and politics of “Othered,” marginalized and non-conforming bodies. Drawing on her own lived experience and informed by feminist theory, her powerful, emotionally-charged, and expressive works present figures that defy social conventions, behavioural ‘norms’ and traditional gender roles to engage in critical discourse on body-image, sexuality, agency, performativity, relationships, motherhood, illness and aging. Drawn from public and private collections nationwide, this survey brings together over one hundred works in drawing, painting, mixed media, photography and installation, exemplifying the significant contributions of Streifler’s critically-acclaimed practice towards feminist art in Canada.

This exhibition is curated by Wayne Baerwaldt & Jennifer McRorie. It is organized by the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery in partnership with the Nickle Galleries (Calgary, AB), Art Gallery of Swift Current (Swift Current, SK), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (Brandon, MB) and Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art (Winnipeg, MB).

Funding for this exhibition is provided by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage Museum Assistance Program, the City of Moose Jaw, SK Arts, Government of Saskatchewan, SaskCulture, Saskatchewan Lotteries and Canada Council for the Arts. Support for the exhibition is provided by the National Gallery of Canada.

More information can be found on our website and the media release below; for further inquiries, reach out to us by emailing info@plugin.org or calling 204-942-1043.

Image: ‘Contained: Candy Apple Pin-up’, chromogenic print, 2003, courtesy of Leesa Streifler