PATRICK MIKHAIL
WATCHING
CHERYL PAGUREK
AUGUST 22 TO OCTOBER 24, 2026
ARTIST RECEPTION:
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2026
2 P.M. TO 5 P.M.
PATRICK MIKHAIL IN MONTREAL IS PLEASED TO PRESENT AN EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST CHERYL PAGUREK EXPLORING THE THEME OF SURVEILLANCE
PATRICK MIKHAIL in Montréal is pleased to present an exhbition of works by Ottawa artist CHERYL PAGUREK that explores the theme of surveillance and features photographic, video, and interactive video works. The presentation will launch her latest interactive digital collage Refresh, in the context of her previous examinations of the omniscient gaze of surveillance, the forms it takes in society, and our changing perception of its presence. Featuring works that span 17 years, the exhibit reveals the changing power relationships that have evolved around the concept of watching: who is watching and who is being watched?
The photographic series High Value Targets, created in 2009, contrasts military footage with intimate recordings of the personal space of the artist’s garden, locating a private world of beauty within a larger world of conflict. The framing of viewfinder targets and night vision scopes evokes state control, the relationships of knowledge and power implicit in the act of photography, and the intertwining of photography and war. By 2018, nine years later when the short film White saucer: surveillant eye was made, society had become more aware of the wide net of electronic surveillance and data collection that monitors our everyday communications, transactions and locations. In the film, a drone’s eye view tracks the artist’s movements, matching the aerial perspectives of news media, police and military footage of world events.
The exhibit culminates by fast-forwarding another 8 years to 2026, when Refresh was created to engage with the now widespread acceptance of pervasive digital surveillance, and our ease with picturing ourselves on camera in public spaces and social media. In a new twist, the interactive collage flips the power dynamics of watching, so that the gallery visitor is given agency by being surveilled. They now become part of the creative act of building a lively collage, precisely because they are being watched and their movements tracked.
Garden imagery once again fosters a sense of renewal and hope, this time bringing the materiality of drawing and painting into the digital realm of code. Keenly observed scenes from the artist’s garden, each view captured in several artistic media, are never seen whole. Rather, they are fractured into collage pieces and recombined to form newly imagined reconstructions. A potent mix of organic, human and technological touchpoints comes together in a hybrid work, a responsive installation that evolves in real time, while reflecting the world around it. In an era of legitimate concern about the uses of code and technology, here they are harnessed for the creation of beauty and a connection to the handmade. The coded algorithms are designed to evoke lyrical visual juxtapositions, fueled by viewers’ actions.
The Watching exhibit’s timely contemplation of surveillance is characterized by the artist’s ongoing concern for holding oppositions in tension. She accentuates interconnections between the contrasts of public and private, power and vulnerability, past and present, physical and virtual, urban and natural worlds, to craft a cohesive whole from disparate source materials.
BIOGRAPHY
Cheryl Pagurek’s early training in sculpture and printmaking is key to her constructive and layered approach to artmaking. Her path to photography originated in the documentation of ephemeral installations; these explorations continued in video, eventually leading to the embodied experience of interactive media, where movement guides navigation through the artwork. Based in Ottawa, Canada, Pagurek’s artistic practice now highlights the constructed nature of lens-based media, while embracing the creative expression offered by computing and technology.
Her work has been shown widely in Canada and internationally, including exhibits at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery (Halifax), Patrick Mikhail Montréal, Vu (Québec), Gallery 44 (Toronto), the Ottawa Art Gallery, Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), and numerous film screenings in Canada, USA, Brazil, France, Colombia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, the Netherlands, Norway, Ethiopia, and Greece. Her 2024 exhibit States of Being at Art-image (Gatineau, QC) featured her second interactive video and audio installation. Her 2024-2025 presentation Winter Garden at Surrey Art Gallery (BC) situated an interactive digital collage in the lobby of the Surrey Arts Centre. She received the 2020 Corel Endowment for the Arts Award celebrating the integration of technology and the arts.
MEDIA ARTS BIOGRAPHY
Cheryl Pagurek is a Canadian video and digital media artist. Her artistic practice highlights the constructed nature of lens-based media, while embracing the creative expression offered by computing and technology. Her work in video, photography, digital and interactive media has been shown widely in Canada and internationally, including exhibits at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery (Halifax), Patrick Mikhail Montréal, Vu (Québec), Gallery 44 (Toronto), the Ottawa Art Gallery, Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), Surrey Art Gallery (BC), and numerous video screenings in Canada, USA, Brazil, France, Colombia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, the Netherlands, Norway, Ethiopia and Greece. Her 2024 exhibit States of Being at Art-image (Gatineau, QC) featured her second interactive video and audio installation. She received the 2020 Corel Endowment for the Arts Award celebrating the integration of technology and the arts.