End of ‘Transformations’ marks a new beginning for Agnes Etherington Art Centre

It’s not a demo-lution but a revolution. After only two years, Agnes Etherington’s famous graffiti mural, Transformations, is set to bedemolished on Aug. 17 to build Agnes Reimagined. The mural, commissioned in 2022, was made possible through the works of Oriah Scott, EronOne, HONE, HUNGR, AJ Little, Emily May Rose and guest graffiti artists from across the Montreal-Toronto corridor. Symbolizing the changes occurring within the contemporary art scene, the mural broadens Agnes’ cultural impact outside of strictly institutional art. For Director and Curator of the Agnes, Emelie Chhangur, Transformations directly reflected the changes occurring inside the Agnes. When she arrived, there were significant transformations, including expanding the curatorial team and increasing the amount of BIPOC staff to 80 per cent. These structural and transformative changes within the gallery were not easily visible from the outside. “Transformations was the most outrageous and most visual of the signalling that things are changing here—this place has changed,” Chhangur said in an interview with The Journal. Transformations helped to outwardly manifest creativity on campus and showcase graffiti as a respectable art form. Graffiti artists are often kept outside the sanction of high art and the mural helped to destigmatize this often alienated form of...