CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area)

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CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area)

CAFKA is a non-profit, artist-driven organization that presents a free biennial exhibition of contemporary art in the public spaces of Waterloo Region

CAFKA is a non-profit, artist-run organization that presents a biennial exhibition of contemporary art projects in the public spaces of the City of Kitchener and across the Region of Waterloo, inviting the public to meet regional, national and international artists and to experience the art they create. CAFKA promotes art education through its YouTube channel CAFKA.TV, and through its Big Ideas in

Art & Culture series of artist talks and symposia. CAFKA creates experiences that are unexpected, surprising and memorable - setting up encounters with contemporary art that are intended to stimulate feelings, provoke thoughts and begin conversations. CAFKA is supported by the City of Kitchener, Musagetes, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the City of Waterloo, individual donors and its many, many volunteers.

09/02/2026

CAFKA 25TH ANNIVERSARY:
SPEAKERS ARENA

Performances on Benoît Maubrey’s modular sculpture, made from over 400 loudspeakers.

CARL ZEHR SQUARE
200 KING ST W
KITCHENER, ON

SEPTEMBER 18
7:30 PM

BIRD DANIEL PRESENTS

🎤 PORTRAITURES
7:30 - 8 PM
Portraitures is the project through which Toronto-based and Sudbury-native musician Mark Scherzinger explores authentic creativity, crafting gentle, introspective songs that unfold like late-night confessions amongst friends.

🎤 ERIC FOLINO .folino
8:15 - 8:45 PM
With poetic lyrics and sounds that embody a distinct musical texture, Eric Folino is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada with a story to tell; the chapters of which follow a sequence of recognized growth.

🎤 MEAGAN AVERSA
9:00 - 9:30 PM
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Meagan Aversa melts dreamy and dark tones together to shape her introspective songs.

SPEAKERS ARENA is supported by the Keith and Winifred Shantz Fund held at Waterloo Region Community
Foundation.

Thank you to the City of Kitchener for supporting this presentation during Ontario Culture Days.

Thank you to Catalyst137 for their production support.

08/27/2026

🎈 CAFKA’s 25th Birthday Party 🎉

🗓 September 16, 2026
🕰 5-11pm
🏟 Victoria Park Pavilion
🗺 80 Schneider Avenue, Kitchener, ON

In 2001, Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener + Area launched our first biennial: CAFKA.01: AND THEN WE TAKE BERLIN. Since then, we’ve created 13 more biennials, many special exhibits, and free public art programs. We’re proud of our avant-garde contemporary art contributions to our community, and our kooky, punk, DIY ways of making art together for over 25 years.

So, come celebrate CAFKA’s birthday with us!!

The entry: free
The food: delicious
The bar: 💸
The performances: 🎧📺⚒️👁️
The vibes: 🔮💌🕺🪄🃏

See you there, with party hats on! 🥳

As always, thank you to our supporters at the City of Kitchener, the City of Waterloo, the City of Cambridge, the Region of Waterloo, Waterloo Region Community Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and our wonderful donors for your essential and enduring support bringing contemporary art experiences to the public spaces we all share.

07/23/2026

points of return ➰〰️➿

Join us next Thursday for a Big Ideas in Arts and Culture talk with Montreal-based artist, Aman Sandhu.

Thursday, July 30
6-8pm
Queen Street Commons (43 Queen St. S. Kitchener)

Queen Street Commons is has an accessible entrance through the back alley and an accessible washroom inside the café.

In this lecture, Aman Sandhu moves through anecdotes, music, philosophical texts, images, and encounters drawn from his artistic practice, tracing the associations that continue to shape his work. Labour, Black study, diasporic aesthetics, and improvisation become recurring points of return, opening onto questions of time and the conditions under which artistic practice takes place.

Aman Sandhu is a Montreal-based artist and writer. He holds an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the class of Rita McBride. Sandhu is pursuing a PhD in Humanities and Fine Arts at Concordia University. His doctoral research explores the possibilities of Afrological improvisation as a method for artistic practice. Working across installation, drawing, sound, and text, his practice takes the form of exhibitions, performances, public conversations, and lectures.

Headshot photo credit: Monse Muro
Installation photo credit: Max Slaven
Poster: Nat Sharpe ()

Thank you to Musagetes and The Working Centre for supporting the presentation of Aman Sandhu’s Big Ideas in Art + Culture lecture.

07/13/2026

Boring Earth, Bikes, and Brews

Saturday, July 18
2-5pm

This Saturday, July 18, hop on your bike and meet us at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery for the opening of Boring Earth: spontaneous gift!

The opening, including an artist talk, runs from 2-4pm. Then we’ll ride down to Short Finger Brewing Co. for some bites and bevs (alc and NA).

Boring Earth is a Toronto-based collective concerned with discrepant, more-than-human worldings and the portals that jamb between. Their research considers eclipsed and emergent modalities of socionatural relations, muddling extractive dualities through pluriversal inquiry, elemental knowing, and play. A collaboration between artists Patrick Cruz and Laila Fox, and a slippery roster of rocky, watery, animal, vegetal, ethereal, and bacterial bodies, Boring Earth challenges the One-World myth, conjuring plural ways of perceiving/believing/relating in urbanized and invisible ecosystems.

We hope to see you there, on wheels, with bells on! 🚲🌱

06/30/2026

Come on out to the Community Picnic tomorrow from 4-10pm at Waterloo Park!
CAFKA will be present with a big and beautiful colouring sheet designed by our very own Kathy Lam (Marketing Coordinator, Programming Committee member, and illustrator extraordinaire).
We hope to see you around 🖍️☘️☀️🧺

04/25/2026

Come on over! Next Saturday we'll be hanging out and doing some spring cleaning in our office, Studio 7 at Globe Studios (141 Whitney Place, Kitchener).
Join in and do some rummaging, or bring ephemera to add to our community archives.
We might even screen some CAFKATV 📽🍿

04/06/2026

IT'S TIME TO MEET

You're invited to CAFKA's Annual General Meeting for snacks, important decisions, exciting announcements, and song!

Monday, April 20
7pm
The Yeti Café (14 Eby St N, Kitchener, ON N2H 2V6)

On the agenda:
CAFKA members will vote to adopt our audited financial statements and approve the Board slate. 💼
CAFKA Staff and Board will recap last year, acknowledge our funders, and announce for the *first time* the CAFKA.27 biennial artists roster and exhibition planning! 🌟

You're welcome to show up throughout the evening, but all presentations and voting will take place between 7-8pm. Then it's 100% karaoke. 🎤

We hope to see you there!

Photo: Monster Pageant by Stephanie Florence, 2025. Photo by Phi Doan.

Address

141 Whitney Place, Studio 7
Kitchener, ON
N2G2X8

Telephone

+15197445123

Website

http://www.cafka.org/

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