NOT/FOR THE MONEY
Online: Thursday, July 31, 2025
Zoom Launch: Friday August 8, 2025 at 11AM EDT
Contact [email protected] to RSVP
Zoom Launch: Friday August 8, 2025 at 11AM EDT
Contact [email protected] to RSVP
The Embassy Cultural House is pleased to present Not/For The Money, a group exhibition that highlights work by artists and cultural workers that examines themes related to money, capital, and value.
Money is a very urgent issue for many artists. An aspect of this issue is the general public’s inability to value the arts and cultural workers’ vital role and impact within any community. There is a lack of understanding in the way cultural workers survive and build meaningful lives, often with a minimum of resources. The issue of money, the impact of economic disparity, and insecurity dominates many of our lives. Without a stable income, most people struggle to afford basic necessities that are required for quality of life.
The theme of money is addressed frequently within the art world, but usually it is in the context of the art “market,” commercial auctions, and wealthy collectors. Many artists work to imagine and engender new relationships, value systems, and ways of being. As journalist Eric Reguly wrote in The Globe and Mail business section, “You don’t necessarily need buckets of money to succeed. Sometimes imagination and the courage to break the rules can do the trick.”
Not/For the Money includes works by Ron Benner, Karl Beveridge, Lily Cho, Matthew Dawkins, Holly English, Soheila Esfahani, Kelly Greene, Jamelie Hassan, SF Ho, Michael Maranda, Alistair MacKinnon, Patrick Mahon, David Merritt, Mohamed Monaiseer, Sheri Osden Nault, Wanda Nanibush, Shelley Niro, Claudia Sambo, Ruth Strebe, and Jeff Thomas. The project has been organized by Ron Benner, Jamelie Hassan, Olivia Mossuto, and Mireya Seymour.
Money is a very urgent issue for many artists. An aspect of this issue is the general public’s inability to value the arts and cultural workers’ vital role and impact within any community. There is a lack of understanding in the way cultural workers survive and build meaningful lives, often with a minimum of resources. The issue of money, the impact of economic disparity, and insecurity dominates many of our lives. Without a stable income, most people struggle to afford basic necessities that are required for quality of life.
The theme of money is addressed frequently within the art world, but usually it is in the context of the art “market,” commercial auctions, and wealthy collectors. Many artists work to imagine and engender new relationships, value systems, and ways of being. As journalist Eric Reguly wrote in The Globe and Mail business section, “You don’t necessarily need buckets of money to succeed. Sometimes imagination and the courage to break the rules can do the trick.”
Not/For the Money includes works by Ron Benner, Karl Beveridge, Lily Cho, Matthew Dawkins, Holly English, Soheila Esfahani, Kelly Greene, Jamelie Hassan, SF Ho, Michael Maranda, Alistair MacKinnon, Patrick Mahon, David Merritt, Mohamed Monaiseer, Sheri Osden Nault, Wanda Nanibush, Shelley Niro, Claudia Sambo, Ruth Strebe, and Jeff Thomas. The project has been organized by Ron Benner, Jamelie Hassan, Olivia Mossuto, and Mireya Seymour.
“The economic insecurity of artists during the pandemic and the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on people living in poverty has left many in a state of despair and vulnerability. Can we subvert the concept of money, its flourishing greed and digitization, to shift our focus to a just recovery which ushers in a more equitable, sustainable and fair society? This exhibition will tackle this urgent question.” —SF Ho, from an Embassy Cultural House exhibition proposal, 2020
In 2020, during the pandemic and as the ECH was being relaunched, some of us began a conversation with SF Ho about money and art. We submitted proposals to art spaces as the project idea “percolated” (SF). While our proposal was initially unsuccessful, SF continued to pursue this idea in their individual art works. It is with profound gratitude that the ECH team acknowledges the intellectual contribution that SF has brought to our collective and this online exhibition over the past five years.
In 2020, during the pandemic and as the ECH was being relaunched, some of us began a conversation with SF Ho about money and art. We submitted proposals to art spaces as the project idea “percolated” (SF). While our proposal was initially unsuccessful, SF continued to pursue this idea in their individual art works. It is with profound gratitude that the ECH team acknowledges the intellectual contribution that SF has brought to our collective and this online exhibition over the past five years.
Further Reading
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Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants — Epictetus
Books Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books, 2009. Maranda, Michael. Interrogating the Canadian visual artist labour force. Art Gallery of York University, 2020. McWilliams, David. Money: A Story of Humanity. Simon & Schuster, 2024. Sacco, Joe. Paying the Land. Metropolitan Books, 2020. Smith, Sarah E.K. Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America. UBC Press, 2025. Varoufakis, Yanis. Talking to my daughter about the economy or, how capitalism works–and how it fails. Bodley Head, 2017. |
Links / Articles
From The Walrus : “The Death of the Middle-Class Musician" by Luc Rinaldi From Ontario Arts Council : Arts Across Ontario: a new way to measure culture sector impact Money Museum, Zurich, Switzerland We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.—Ursula K. Le Guin, 2014 Commercial endeavours enabling and profiting from the obliteration of innocent people’s lives must cease. — Francesca Albanese, 2025 |
This exhibition is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, London Arts Council, and the Embassy Cultural House community.
