Drag, Punk, and Post-Capitalism

The University of Manitoba's School of Art is pleased to announce the opening of two Master of Fine Art thesis exhibitions, running concurrently at the School of Art Gallery (255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road) from May 22 to June 19, 2026.

Both exhibitions open with a shared reception on Friday, May 22, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM — all are welcome.

Séamus Gallagher: It's A Mess

Lens-based media artist Séamus Gallagher presents It's A Mess, a thesis exhibition that draws on their expansive practice at the intersection of video game engines, 3D modeling, drag performance, and photography. Working across photographs, videos, and installations, Gallagher builds maximalist worlds that engage with hauntology, queer ecology, camp, mimicry, the limits of representation, and failure as a form of liberation.

Gallagher's background as a drag performer is central to their practice, which is characterized by an elaborate, costumed aesthetic rooted in set construction and world building. Their work has been exhibited at major institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, the Museum of Fine Arts of Leipzig, the Portrait Gallery of Canada, and the National Gallery of Canada, and has screened at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. In 2023, Gallagher mounted their first solo museum exhibition at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, as part of that year's MOMENTA Biennale de l'image.

Thesis Examination: Monday, May 26 at 9:30 AM, School of Art Gallery

Christina Oyawale: Punk Care Commons

Christina Oyawale's thesis exhibition, Punk Care Commons, is an image-based installation rooted in the history of queer punk anti-aesthetics. Deploying the notion of the "expanded zine," the work weaves together past and present histories of anarchic communities — Black, queer, punk rock, and beyond — engaged in family abolition: a Marxist feminist framework that seeks equitable relations through the communalization of care.

The physical installation functions as a commons — a gathering space that invites punks, queers, and social deviants to convene and dream up a post-capitalist world. The work asks viewers to consider how collective "mothering," the communal energy of the mosh pit, food and housing security, safe drug supply, and sexual pleasure might help us imagine alternative futures. Oyawale's practice draws on the Debordian technique of détournement, appropriating image archives and found text to expose the absurdity of hegemonic structures such as the nuclear family, whiteness, and heteronormativity.

A queer disabled interdisciplinary image artist, curator, and writer originally from Toronto and now based in Winnipeg, Oyawale holds a BFA in Photography with a minor in Music and Culture from Toronto Metropolitan University. Their work has been shown and published through Gallery 44, esse arts + opinions, and C Magazine.

Thesis Examination: Monday, May 26 at 1:30 PM, School of Art Gallery

Both exhibitions run through June 19, 2026. The School of Art Gallery is located at 255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg. 

For more information, visit the School of Art website.