The Album examines the family photo album as a sourcebook, asking how photographs shape what can be known about a life, especially when the archive is marked by absence as much as presence. Drawing on photos of her parents’ wedding day, their youth, and recent recorded family conversations, the artist considers memory as something that shifts and is shaped by access to photography. Leslie’s video works extend these questions by imagining archival scenes, opening space for collective remembrance to meet the limits of the record.
Christina Leslie is a Toronto-based artist and independent curator whose lens-based art practice delves into decolonization, identity, migration, marginalization, and her West Indian heritage. Using experimental photography and text, she explores the intersections of history, memory, and race to create thought-provoking visual narratives.
She holds a B.F.A. from OCAD University (2006) and an M.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design (2022). Recently, she served as Interim Assistant Curator at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton and curated their latest collection exhibition THE GREAT UNSEEN (May–Oct 2025).
Leslie has delivered numerous artists talks at major institutions and conferences, including the SPE Conference in Philadelphia (2010), the Position as Desired symposium at the Royal Ontario Museum (2011), and the McMaster Museum of Art (2022, 2023). She was also a featured speaker at the Caribbean Art Meet-Up at the National Gallery West in Jamaica (2025).
Leslie has extensive experience as a juror and most recently served as an Ontario Arts Council juror for the 2025 Visual Arts Projects assessments.
Leslie’s photographs have been shown at major institutions worldwide, including GAMU in Prague, Oakland University in Michigan, the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada’s Pier 21, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Caribbean Art Fair in Jamaica, the McMaster Museum of Art, Paris Photo, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Toronto, and galleries in Hamilton including Latchman Gallery and Smokestack Gallery. Her recent solo exhibitions include Likkle Acts at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Nov 2024–Apr 2025), Pinhole Portraits and Places at Stephen Bulger Gallery (May–July 2025), and Sugar Coat at the Ottawa School of Art (July–Aug 2025).
Her artwork is held in the permanent collections of the Wedge Collection, the Art Gallery of Ontario, TD Bank, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, the McMaster Museum of Art and Doris McCarthy Gallery.
In 2026, works from Sugar Coat acquired by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery received CCPERB designation recognizing their outstanding significance to the study of the arts.
She is a 2026 Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Award finalist award recipient.
Leslie currently has a public artwork on display on the south facade of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery through Summer 2026.
Leslie is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.
