Collection in Conversation: Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich

Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich and award-winning writer and curator Emily McKibbon will present an intimate conversation exploring family histories, inherited memory, and the ways art can give form to stories that have been lost, fragmented, or left unspoken. Drawing from Jaouich’s deeply personal painting practice, the conversation will consider how she turns to family photographs, oral histories, cultural symbols, and imagination to trace her Armenian, Egyptian, and Lebanese heritage and reckon with histories of migration and displacement. 

This talk is presented as part of the ongoing series Collection in Conversation, in which artists with works in the Doris McCarthy Gallery Collection participate in discussions about their work, practice, and approach to artmaking, with other contemporary artists, writers, activists, and professionals.

Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich's work Trace (2025), is held in the Doris McCarthy Gallery Collection, acquired in 2026.

Free, open to the public. Registration required. Light refreshments will be served.

This is a seated program. The Student Lounge is wheelchair accessible. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca.

Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich is a Canadian artist of Armenian, Egyptian, and Lebanese descent, exploring themes of genealogy, intergenerational trauma, and historical violence through her paintings. Her work is deeply rooted in her family's history of diaspora, immigration, and genocide, drawing from oral histories, photographic archives, and inherited objects. Ahmarani Jaouich transforms these sources into narratives that blend memory with imagination, resonating with ancestral grief. Her practice advocates for a continual process of listening, believing that addressing ancestral grief liberates present and future generations. 

Currently residing on the unceded indigenous lands of Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, QC, Canada, on Kanien'kehà:ka Peoples territory, she has received recognition through the Lilian Vineberg Scholarship, Merit Scholarship, and Tom Hopkins Memorial Award. Her artworks have been exhibited at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Patel Brown, CLARK Center, articule, Printemps du MAC and Arsenal New York. Ahmarani Jaouich’s paintings are held in corporate collections, including Hydro-Québec, RBC, Scotiabank, as well as in private collections across New York, Los Angeles, Prague, Barcelona, Milan, Toronto, and Montreal. Ahmarani Jaouich is represented by Patel Brown.

Emily McKibbon is an award-winning writer and curator of settler descent, with over fifteen years' experience in Canada and internationally. She has worked in curatorial, collections and research capacities at Art Windsor-Essex; MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; and others. Emily’s writing has been published in The Malahat Review, Canadian Art, C Magazine, PRISM international, Room Magazine, The New Quarterly, BlackFlash, and other literary and arts periodicals. She is currently based in Toronto, where she is Manager, Special Collections Operations, at Toronto Public Library. 

Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich is a Canadian artist of Armenian, Egyptian, and Lebanese descent whose painting practice explores genealogy, intergenerational trauma, and historical violence. Deeply rooted in her family’s histories of diaspora, immigration, and genocide, her work draws from oral histories, photographic archives, and inherited objects. She transforms these sources into narratives that weave memory and imagination, resonating with the complexities of ancestral grief. Her practice is grounded in a continual process of listening, with the belief that attending to ancestral grief can create pathways toward liberation for present and future generations.

Ahmarani Jaouich lives in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, Quebec, on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá Nation. She is a recipient of the Lilian Vineberg Scholarship, Merit Scholarship, and Tom Hopkins Memorial Award. Her work has been exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Patel Brown, CLARK Center, articule, Printemps du MAC, and Arsenal New York. Her paintings are held in institutional and corporate collections, including the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Hydro-Québec, RBC, and Scotiabank, as well as in private collections in the United States, Italy, Czechia, Spain, and Canada. Ahmarani Jaouich is represented by Patel Brown.

Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich is a Canadian artist of Armenian, Egyptian, and Lebanese descent whose painting practice explores genealogy, intergenerational trauma, and historical violence. Deeply rooted in her family’s histories of diaspora, immigration, and genocide, her work draws from oral histories, photographic archives, and inherited objects. She transforms these sources into narratives that weave memory and imagination, resonating with the complexities of ancestral grief. Her practice is grounded in a continual process of listening, with the belief that attending to ancestral grief can create pathways toward liberation for present and future generations.

Ahmarani Jaouich lives in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, Quebec, on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá Nation. She is a recipient of the Lilian Vineberg Scholarship, Merit Scholarship, and Tom Hopkins Memorial Award. Her work has been exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Patel Brown, CLARK Center, articule, Printemps du MAC, and Arsenal New York. Her paintings are held in institutional and corporate collections, including the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Hydro-Québec, RBC, and Scotiabank, as well as in private collections in the United States, Italy, Czechia, Spain, and Canada. Ahmarani Jaouich is represented by Patel Brown.