Exhibitions

Dawit L. Petros: From the Edge of the Horizon I

Dawit L. Petros is known for his thoughtful engagement with photography, video, sculpture, and installation. From the Edge of the Horizon, an exhibition presented in two parts at Remai Modern and the University of Saskatchewan’s College Art Galleries, traces the arc of his career, gathering works that chart his longstanding inquiry into geography, identity, and migration.

The exhibition’s title refers to a recurring motif in his work: the horizon line, which, for Petros, is not just a visual or geographic marker of perspective, but a site where colonial and contemporary histories of displacement intersect and co-mingle. Drawing connections between local geographies and global histories, the works in the exhibition invite viewers to consider how we see and interpret real and imagined borders, and how those borders shape both individual and collective identities. They also prompt reflection on the act of looking itself—asking us to consider how framing, distance, and point of view affect what we understand about place, history, and belonging.

Born in Eritrea, Petros also lived in Ethiopia and Kenya before his family moved to Canada. Arriving in Saskatoon as a young child, he entered a landscape and culture very different from his East African origins. Over time, he and his family became part of a close-knit Eritrean community and established a strong sense of connection in the Prairie city. Petros has described Saskatoon as foundational to his artistic practice.