Robert Langen Art Gallery Presents Traces & Echoes: Between Places
Published:
WATERLOO, ON — Memories last forever. Some places stay with us long after we have left them, returning unexpectedly with the scent of cedar or the shimmer of light across a lake at dusk. Traces & Echoes: Between Places, a collaborative installation by artists Michelle Breslin and Barbara Greczyn, explores the enduring connections between landscape, memory, loss, and human experience.
The exhibition opens at Laurier's Robert Langen Art Gallery this fall and will be on view from September 8 to November 27, 2026.
The public is invited to an opening reception on Wednesday, October 7, from 7 to 9 pm at the Robert Langen Art Gallery, located on the main floor of the Laurier Library. The event is free and open to the public.
Drawing from their intersecting personal experiences of grief and melancholy, Breslin and Greczyn bring together moving image and sound in an immersive installation that unfolds through two independent yet connected works. Through images and soundscapes, the artists explore Ontario’s forests, roadsides, waterways, and skies as vessels for memory and sites of emotional resonance.
Michelle Breslin is a multimedia artist whose practice brings together music composition, sound design, photography, and video to explore connection, shared experience, and emotions that often defy words. Her work grew from grief and a search for connection. Returning to the Toronto Islands, the Leslie Spit, and other places that hold personal significance, Breslin created moving imagery and composed the exhibition’s soundscape, allowing layers of memory to unfold at their own pace.
Barbara Greczyn is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist working in photography, video, and installation. She holds an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University. Greczyn’s video work developed through years of road trips with her brother and children. Filmed primarily from a moving vehicle, her videos capture roadsides, waterways, shifting light, and the quiet moments in between, transforming familiar journeys into contemplative meditations on place and memory.
Traces & Echoes: Between Places was originally presented as a photography, video, and sound installation during the CONTACT Photography Festival at Beaver Hall Gallery in Toronto in May 2026. For its presentation at the Robert Langen Art Gallery, the project has been reimagined through moving image and sound, offering audiences a new way to experience the artists’ ongoing exploration of landscape, memory, loss, and human connection.
“The Robert Langen Art Gallery is excited to open the 2026–27 academic year with this collaborative exhibition,” said Suzanne Luke, University Art Curator. “The artists’ distinct approaches to image and sound create a space for audiences to reflect on the meaning of place, experiences and what memories mean to us.”
Exhibition Information
Traces & Echoes: Between Places
- September 8–November 27, 2026
- Robert Langen Art Gallery
- Laurier Library, Main Floor, Waterloo campus
Opening Reception
- Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm–9 pm
- Free and open to the public
Gallery Hours
- Monday to Thursday: 9 am - 10 pm
- Fridays: 9 am - 5 pm
- Saturday–Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm