For the 2026 edition of Pictura, Yasmeen Dajani and José Mendizábal present a duo exhibition bringing together two complementary approaches to painting and drawing, where intimacy, memory, and collective identity become spaces for reflection.
In Darling over and over, Yasmeen Dajani presents a series of 8 to 15 drawings depicting everyday scenes rendered through a dense, ornamental visual language. Oscillating between familiarity and strangeness, her works explore how we build narratives about our lives through repeated gestures and domestic spaces, while placing the viewer in an ambiguous position between intimacy and distance.
In Pure Diplomacy, José Mendizábal presents a series of 12 to 15 paintings inspired by Ecuadorian social life and archival imagery. Moving between intimate scenes and larger, more dynamic compositions, his work reflects on mestizo identity, cultural memory, and the negotiation of heritage within a diasporic experience. His paintings create a dialogue between past and present, as well as between Latin American and North American cultural spaces.
Bringing these two practices together, the exhibition creates a dialogue between private and collective forms of memory. Domestic rituals and social gatherings become sites where transmission, identity, and cultural presence intersect.
Yasmeen Dajani is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist whose drawing practice explores domestic spaces, everyday rituals, and interpersonal relationships. Through a dense and meticulous visual language, she examines ideas of belonging, connection, and shared memory.
José Mendizábal is an Ecuadorian-Canadian artist whose painting practice explores the relationships between memory, mestizo identity, and cultural heritage. Drawing from archival imagery and scenes from everyday life, his work creates a dialogue between personal and collective histories within a diasporic context.
