VITRINE
The Art History Vitrine hosts month-long exhibitions dedicated to the public expression of art historical research, methods, and objects of study. Since 2006, professors and graduate students have curated installations in this display cabinet on themes as varied as Canadiana, print culture, postcards, as well as architectural drawings and models, often using original works of art by Concordia students.
Current exhibition
'Kingdoms within Kingdoms' - Cynthia Hammond’s research-creation in a French garden, 2023-26
Dr. Cynthia Hammond’s site-responsive work on the gardens of Château de La Napoule, created by self-taught architect and landscape designer Marie Clews (1880-1959), brings to light the inter-war period, when these grounds were home to a menagerie of all-white exotic birds who were specifically chosen for their colour and appearance. The title, Kingdoms within Kingdoms, was drawn from Clews’s writings shortly before her passing, in which she reflected on the interconnected worlds of flora and fauna over which she had reigned while transforming the site into a protected heritage site and artists’ retreat.
Previous exhibition
Open the Body: What Lies Beneath and Who Decides
Summer 2026
This exhibition explores what it means to open something in order to understand it. Across anatomy, warfare, natural history, and systems of collecting, the works reveal how bodies and worlds have long been studied, organized, and controlled through acts of observation. To open the body is not simply a gesture of discovery. It is also a process shaped by power, curiosity, fear, and desire.
Featuring works created for the Winter 2026 course ARTH 349 Studies in the History of Print: Art and Science in Print (16th to 18th Centuries) taught by Kristina Parzen.
