Frances Ouellette in OFFCUTS at the VAV Gallery
May 4-9, 2026
Speculative Life Biolab
Speculative Life Biolab
photo: Frances Ouellette
Frances Ouellette’s microscopy prints explore the hidden material qualities of everyday matter through close-up photographic observation. Presented as part of OFFCUTS, a collaborative exhibition celebrating sustainable art-making, the works draw attention to materials that are often overlooked, discarded, or destined for landfill.
OFFCUTS brought together artists working with reclaimed and repurposed materials, foregrounding the environmental consequences and possibilities of material choices. Ouellette’s microscopy practice offers another way of approaching materiality: rather than transforming discarded matter into something new, it magnifies and recontextualizes what is already there. Through shifts in scale, ordinary materials become unfamiliar landscapes, inviting attention to their textures, structures, and latent visual qualities.
OFFCUTS brought together artists working with reclaimed and repurposed materials, foregrounding the environmental consequences and possibilities of material choices. Ouellette’s microscopy practice offers another way of approaching materiality: rather than transforming discarded matter into something new, it magnifies and recontextualizes what is already there. Through shifts in scale, ordinary materials become unfamiliar landscapes, inviting attention to their textures, structures, and latent visual qualities.
The exhibition emphasized material lifecycles and the creative potential of working with what already exists, positioning material reuse not simply as an environmental strategy but as a generative artistic practice.
OFFCUTS was a collaborative exhibition at the VAV Gallery between Art Matters Festival and the Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) that celebrated sustainable art-making practices.
OFFCUTS was a collaborative exhibition at the VAV Gallery between Art Matters Festival and the Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) that celebrated sustainable art-making practices.
