Exploring Undergrowth: In conversation with Christiana Myers 

Guest curator Christiana Myers has gathered eight emerging artists from Atlantic Canada for the probing, playful exhibition Undergrowth. CCAG publications coordinator Trevor Corkum recently caught up with Christiana to ask a few questions about the show. 

Undergrowth is supported by the RBC Foundation and is on view until January 11, 2026. 

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For anyone who hasn’t seen the exhibition, what might viewers expect from Undergrowth?  

Undergrowth encourages viewers to lean into the environment of the show and to explore rather than just observe. It’s full of colour, texture, and strange, shifting forms that feel somewhere between organic and imagined. It has a bit of a garden energy to it, but more like a nature that’s shifted beyond the natural into something a little uncanny.  

Were there particular ideas or concepts you were working with as you put the show together?  

It’s about how meaning moves and how ideas spread, change, and come back in new forms. I kept thinking about underground networks, where something might go dormant for a while but still be alive under the surface. The show is really about those cycles—how things reappear, connect, and transform when they meet.   

What were you looking for as you selected artists for the show?  

I approach curating as a collaboration with the artists. I’m interested in what’s driving their curiosity and how it overlaps with the ideas I’m thinking through. For Undergrowth, I connected with artists whose work resonates with themes of communication, transformation, and change. They each bring such thoughtful, layered approaches that invite multiple ways in and keep unfolding the more you spend time with them.  

Finally, what other projects are you working on currently?  

My biggest project at the moment is my PhD research, which looks at how contagion metaphors are moving through contemporary art after COVID. There’s definitely some crossover with Undergrowth in how both explore the spreading and shifting of meaning. I’m also really excited about putting together the exhibition publication for Undergrowth, which will come out in the new year.  

Christiana Myers is a curator, writer, educator, artist, and arts policy worker based in Menagoesg (Saint John, New Brunswick). Her research-driven work explores the physical, environmental, and institutional systems that shape how we connect and create.