Earth Dreams in Colour: Soft Explosions

Drawing from the Art Gallery of Guelph’s permanent collection, Earth Dreams in Colour explores how artists use colour not only as a formal strategy, but as a way of relating to Nonhuman life, Land, Water, one another, and to the self. Rooted in saturated hues and playful forms, the works presented here spark what might be called soft explosions—sensory intensifications that reveal colour as a mode of connection, perception, and feeling. Rather than presenting nature as a backdrop or object to be observed, the artists approach Land, Water, bodies, and materials as sentient, relational, and co-constitutive. In this context, colour becomes more than visual—haptic, emotional, and affective.

Through abstraction, figuration, vivid chromatic choices, and material play, the works invite us to feel our way through the world, attuned to the subtleties of sensation and exchange. Here, intimate and intuitive impressions emerge along the porous boundary between self and world, artist and earth. The result is a tender yet vivid topology of experience—one that gestures toward the many ways we hold, and are held by, the world around us. These works suggest that colour is not merely surface, but a portal into deeper forms of relation, recognition, and reciprocity.

Image details: Myra Kukiiyaut, Games on the Land (detail), 2000, wool duffel and felt, cotton embroidery floss, 161.9 x 146.1 cm. Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 2003. Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Collection at the Art Gallery of Guelph.