Keeper’s by Kendra Yee, Toronto’s Artist-In-Residence 2025-2026

About this event

Kendra Yee, the City of Toronto's Artist-in-Residence (2025–2026), presents Keeper's, a reimagined corner store that draws on the artist’s personal narratives alongside histories uncovered through research with the City of Toronto Archives. Together, these stories and materials honour Toronto’s history of Chinese-founded family businesses, represented as a series of new ceramic sculptures embedded with archival imagery that interpret objects commonly found in convenience stores. Rooted in Yee's exploration of her family's immigration to the Prairies during the era of the Chinese Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act, Keeper’s weaves household accounts with records of Toronto's Chinese community from the 1890s to the 1950s. The resulting installation is a journey of discovery, inviting visitors to consider the preservation of stories and the communities who shape them.