Couzyn van Heuvelen
CAMP
October 11, 2025 - January 4, 2026
Curated by Erin Szikora and Leila Timmins
Organized and circulated by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 25 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Born in Iqaluit, Nunavut, but living predominantly in Southern Ontario, Couzyn van Heuvelen’s artistic practice explores Inuit cultural sovereignty and the tools and technologies of living on the land. Known for his large-scale sculptural works, van Heuvelen’s playful approach seamlessly blends traditional practices with contemporary materials and fabrication processes, asserting the resiliency and adaptability of Inuit culture.
The sculptural installations in this exhibition build from van Heuvelen’s earlier investigations into hunting and fishing practices by shifting focus to the chores and communal spaces that take shape around the harvesting and preparation of food. Drawing on the seasonal practice of setting up camp in warmer months, van Heuvelen participates in the celebration that takes place when Northern communities gather to hunt and fish together. It is here where skills are passed from one generation to the next and the sustenance provided by the land is gathered, then shared with friends and neighbours. Van Heuvelen honours these practices in his work, reenacting the processes of catching fish, fleshing seal, tanning hides, and preparing mattaq in materials new and familiar to his artistic practice, including wool, soap, and steel.
This work is shaped by the artist’s own formative experiences with his family and his desire to connect with the love and labour of his homelands. Here he demonstrates how the camp is a site for shared learning, community-building, and joy. By situating viewers in this conceptual and cultural space, CAMP addresses the critical role of land-based practices in Inuit self-determination, food sovereignty in the North, and the pleasures of celebrating in community around food.
Couzyn van Heuvelen is an Inuk sculptor and multi-disciplinary installation artist based in Bowmanville. He holds a BFA from York University and an MFA from NSCAD University.
His work has been included in many group exhibitions across Canada, including the inaugural exhibition INUA at WAG-Qaumajuq (2020), the touring exhibition ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ Among All These Tundras (2018–19), and Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity at the Power Plant (2022). Van Heuvelen is currently represented by Fazakas Gallery in Vancouver, BC.
The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Ontario for this exhibition.
Erin Szikora is the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Guelph. Often working with emerging and early career artists, she is interested in projects that deconstruct assumed authority and hierarchies, carving space for the building of new, more just futures. Her work follows an ethos of care and places relationship and community building at its core. Of mixed settler (Scottish and Hungarian) and Haudenosaunee (Cayuga, Six Nations of the Grand River) ancestry, she holds a BA in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories from OCAD University. Szikora recently served as Interim Curator at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, and previously held the position of Associate Curator, Exhibitions at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.
Leila Timmins is the Interim CEO and Senior Curator at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. With over ten years of curatorial experience, she works collaboratively with artists and positions exhibitions as social gestures, foregrounding critical conversations and public engagement. Previously she worked as the Curator of Exhibitions and Public Programs at Gallery 44 and has held positions at Workman Arts, Gallery TPW, The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, The Images Festival and the Helen and Morris Belkin Gallery, as well as taught in the curatorial studies department at OCADU. She holds an honours BA in Art History from the University of British Columbia, and an MA in Art History from the University of Toronto with a focus on contemporary Canadian Photography. Currently, she is the Chair of the Durham College Fine Art Advisory Committee and sits on the Education and Community Engagement Committee at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2017, she was awarded the ARCCO Emerging Cultural Leader award and the FOCUS Curatorial Residency with the Institut Francais in Paris. She is a founding member of EMILIA-AMALIA feminist working group.
