Time and Tide

Mar 10
4 min read

Updated: Apr 18

FCG Pier: Time and Tide

Curated by Emma Hardy

March 20 - April 8

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 21 @ 1 - 3pm

Forest City Gallery's Pier Wall returns with a new exhibition, Time and Tide. The exhibition, curated by Gallery Intern, Emma Hardy, will spotlight artworks from five local artists who reflect on climate change within their communities.

Time and Tide responds to the term “solastalgia” (coined by Australian environmentalist and philosopher Glenn Albrecht) which describes the existential distress and feelings of powerlessness brought about by changes to the environment/climate. It is “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault... [It] is a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.” Furthermore, Global North countries are responsible for around 92% of carbon emissions, while Global South countries bear the repercussions. This disproportionality results in effects such as coastal erosion, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, increased intensity of storms/hurricanes, and rising sea levels. Therefore it is important to highlight the works of artists who illustrate these underrepresented experiences of climate change.

Time and Tide embodies the impending march of time as we continue past the point of no return for our climate, and represents the knowledge that our livelihoods have been and will continue to be negatively affected by climate colonialism.

Join us at the gallery for the Opening Reception on Saturday, March 21, 2026 from 1–3pm!

Curator's Bio:

Emma Hardy

Emma Hardy arrived in Canada in 2022 as an international student from the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. She has since cultivated her art to reflect her longing for home and an authentic relation to her heritage despite being so displaced from it. Her work is centred on the Caribbean environment and is further contextualized by her experience as an immigrant. She thereby reconciles these themes by using the ocean and bodies of water as an embodiment of change, movement, interconnectedness, and power.

Being able to step back and look at her home country from a third-person perspective has highlighted how underrepresented and over looked their issues are. The Caribbean region is defined as nations which are washed by the Caribbean Sea — a force of nature which connects its people, yet due to climate change can also be the demise of its inhabitants. She believes that as people from theCaribbean, we must unite on the common ground of our issues rather than reflect colonial mindsets of separation and exclusion.

Artist Bios:

Maya Dugas

Maya Dugas is an emerging visual artist based in London, Ontario, and is currently studying Visual Arts at Western University. Her practice explores environmental themes, memory, and human relationships with natural ecosystems through painting, collage, and mixed media. Often working with vibrant colour and layered imagery, Maya creates compositions that balance visual beauty with underlying environmental concerns. Many of her works draw inspiration from oceans, wildlife, and landscapes, reflecting both personal experiences and broader ecological issues. Through her work, she aims to encourage viewers to reflect on the fragile relationship between human activity and the natural world.

Instagram: @_mayadugas @artbymayadugas

Emily Kings

Emily Kings is a ceramicist and mixed-media artist currently in her fourth and final year of her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Western University, majoring in Museum and Curatorial Studies. Her work reflects her interest in natural history, specifically towards wildlife that is deemed “unwanted” or ignored by Western society. The medium of Emily’s work heavily influences the themes she explores. Primarily a ceramicist, she highlights the dichotomy of clay as delicate yet enduring to reflect the fragility of nature and ecosystems. Alongside her ceramics, Emily involves found objects, natural materials, textile, and printmaking in her practice, preferring a multi-disciplinary approach to her work. She is happiest within nature, free from the demands of civilization.

Instagram: @c.rawlspace

Alex Lengyel

Alex Lengyel is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the lines between the representational and the abstract. Inspired by art and nature, his work draws on memory, his visits to museums, time in the garden, growing up in Miami, and his lifelong fascination with symbols and objects in an attempt to find meaning and beauty through the process of making. He holds a BFA from The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago.

Instagram: @blankstairs

Laura Lima Nishida

Brasil-born and London-based, Laura Lima Nishida is a multimedia artist currently pursuing a BFA at Western University. With a background in animation and illustration, she has received awards for her storytelling and character design. In 2019, she earned a gold medal at the provincial level of the Skills Canada Competition and a silver medal nationally in the 2D Character Animation category. During her time at Western, she has expanded her practice to include oil painting and ceramics while revisiting her passion for drawing. Her work focuses primarily on portraiture and more recently explores mixed-media abstraction through spontaneous, material-based processes.

Instagram: @laura.limanishida

Rebecca St. Pierre

Rebecca St. Pierre is a photographer, digital composite artist, writer, and poet. She creates from her home in London, Ontario, where she has focused her camera lens on the natural world for 40 years. Nature is her muse and mentor.

In 2019, Rebecca started enriching her artistic expression and dedication to protecting rapidly-disappearing ecosystems by exploring composite photography. Her subsequent ethereal images, created without using AI, have encouraged curiosity and contemplation as she invites viewers to reflect on how Nature is interconnected, interdependent, and indispensable.

Rebecca’s photography has been published in numerous magazines, shown in 41 exhibitions, and juried into Legislative Assembly of Ontario “Art à la Carte” shows and the London Arts Council Traffic Signal Box Wrap Project.

Instagram: @rebeccamstp

Thank you to our funders the London Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and the London Community Foundation for their support to make our exhibitions and programming free and accessible for all.