Glow House

Tribute to Kelly Mark

February 21 to March 14, 2026

To mark one year since the death of much-loved conceptual artist Kelly Mark, a group of organizations, artists and curators across Canada worked together to present her singular work, Glow House, in tandem for one night: 21 February 2026.

Originating with a three-week presentation at Deluge Contemporary Art (Victoria), Glow House was also presented by Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin (Lethbridge), University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), One Night Stand (Winnipeg), Hamilton Artists Inc. (Hamilton) and the Kelly Mark Estate, with parallel installations taking place in Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.

A text by Robin Metcalfe, reflecting on his long-running curatorial work with Kelly Mark, is available here: Ghost of the Machine. 

Kelly Mark (b. 1967, d. 2025) was a conceptual artist who lived and worked in Toronto. She was known for isolating moments of the everyday in ways that were unpretentious and unglamorous but full of warmth, ritual and wit. Time, duration, measurement and process are essential focal points in Mark’s multidisciplinary practice. Time’s governance of our reality, especially its undeniable grasp over working-class experiences, is a central concern in her oeuvre. Mark’s practice is embodied in a variety of media such as sculpture, video, installation, drawing, photography, sound, multiples, performance and public interventions.

Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad, including The National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), The Darling Foundry (Montréal), Musee d’Art Contemporain (Montréal), MSVU Art Gallery (Halifax), Bass Museum (Miami), University of Houston (Texas), Real Art Ways (Hartford), The Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), Ikon Gallery (UK), Dundee Contemporary Arts (Scotland), The Physics Room (NZ) and Netwerk Centre for Contemporary Art (Belgium). Mark represented Canada at the Liverpool Biennale in 2006 and the Sydney Biennale in 1998. She was also a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in 2002. Notable public collections include The National Gallery of Canada, The Canada Council Art Bank, Art Gallery of Ontario and Global Affairs Canada. She is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

A brief history of Kelly Mark’s Glow House:

One house and 35 to 40 television sets distributed throughout and all tuned to the same channel. The small flicker of light emanating from each TV is then turned into a “pulse” of light throughout the entire house. As the scenes change, from whatever television program is airing at the moment, the house flashes and pulses as all televisions are in sync with one another. Gives the eerie impressions that the entire house has been gutted to create one vast illuminated space. During commercials it is as if fireworks are going off inside…

Previous iterations include:

Glow House #1
House, 30–40 television sets, coaxial cables, splitters and signal booster. Solo off-site project for Plug In ICA. Winnipeg MB, 2001. Curated by Cliff Eyland and Les Newman.

Glow House #2
House, 40–50 television sets, coaxial cables, splitters and signal booster. Solo off-site project for The Ikon Gallery. Birmingham UK, 2003. Curated by Jonathan Watkins and Deborah Kermode.

Glow House #3
House, 40–50 television sets, coaxial cables, splitters and signal booster. Solo off-site project for The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Toronto, 2005. Curated by Reid Sheir.

Glow House #4
House, 35–40 television sets, coaxial cables, splitters and signal booster. Commissioned by Micah Lexier for the exhibition Here Now or Nowhere, off-site projects for The Prairie Art Gallery. Grand Prairie AB, 2009. Thanks to Jayne & Cameron Tofer.

Glow House is organized by Deluge Contemporary Art and guest curated by Kegan McFadden.

Writer, curator and artist, Kegan McFadden’s research considers under-represented art histories with a focus on place and the power of the anecdote. Primarily an essayist, McFadden has published throughout Canada’s artist-run network, as well as with Border Crossings, Canadian Art, C-Magazine, fuse, Visual Arts News among other journals for nearly 20 years. While his writing has been translated into French, Japanese, Inuktitut and Spanish, Kegan’s curatorial projects have been exhibited across Canada and internationally since 2005. In 2018 Kegan was appointed executive director of the Victoria Arts Council, where he has actively contributed curatorial and editorial projects that have reshaped the cultural landscape of the city. In 2021 Deluge presented McFadden’s solo show & Other Bouquets.

Before moving to Victoria, Kegan had the privilege of including Kelly Mark's work in two exhibitions (How Much Longer at The Belkin Satellite, Vancouver 2007 and So Many Let Downs Before We Get Up, Platform Centre, Winnipeg 2011). Kegan will be giving a talk Wednesday 25 February through the University of Lethbridge, sponsored by Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin on the topic of “Curating Ghosts.” This event will be streamed and takes place at noon GMT.

Glow House | Tribute to Kelly Mark curatorial committee: Anthony Cooper, Stefan Hancherow, Dean Baldwin Lew, Micah Lexier, Kegan McFadden, Robin Metcalfe, jake moore, Su Ying Strang, Adam Whitford, Collin Zipp.

The Estate of Kelly Mark is represented by Olga Korper Gallery.

Photos courtesy Todd Eacrett | Deluge Contemporary.