In Theft of Scarcity, Joseph Tisiga transforms a communal feast into a powerful meditation on abundance, protection, and the enduring effects of colonial dispossession. Learn how this newly acquired work connects histories of scarcity and resistance with contemporary conversations about community and survival.
This article presents an excerpt from Jessica Bradley’s catalogue essay on Margaux Williamson’s mid-career survey Interiors (2021–22), reflecting on the artist’s evolving painting practice. Bradley highlights Williamson’s ability to build immersive, contemplative compositions in which ordinary interiors become sites of visual and emotional inquiry.
Now on view in Early Days, Barry Ace’s Fox Tail Moccasins reflects the artist’s distinctive approach to merging Indigenous cultural traditions with the visual language of modern technology. Learn how Ace draws on Anishinaabe teachings, historical imagery, and innovative materials to create works that bridge past, present, and future.
In this Director’s Choice essay, Sarah Milroy explores David Milne’s Passing Car, 1913, a vibrant depiction of modern New York painted at the height of the artist’s early career. The article considers Milne’s innovative painterly language, his complicated relationship with urban life, and the lasting significance of this rare surviving city scene in the McMichael collection.
Melanie Authier’s dynamic abstract paintings create immersive spaces charged with movement, light, and shifting sensation. Highlighting a recent acquisition to the McMichael’s collection, this article explores how Authier transforms memory, atmosphere, and the language of painting into richly layered contemporary abstraction.
The paintings of Bess Harris capture the spirit of the landscape through a vivid, intuitive approach shaped outside formal academic training. An artist, writer, and critic deeply embedded in Canada’s modernist art community, she made significant yet often overlooked contributions to Canadian art history.
Marking the third anniversary of Uses of Enchantment: Art and Environmentalism, this article revisits Shary Boyle’s haunting explorations of apocalypse, fantasy, and environmental anxiety. Featuring an excerpt by writer Ruth Jones, it examines how Boyle’s imaginative works reflect contemporary fears surrounding climate change and ecological collapse.
A newly installed work by Toronto artist Aaron Jones transforms the Grand Hall—discover how Lithic layers image, material, and meaning to explore identity, resilience, and the search for grounding.
Look back at the McMichael’s history with the renowned artist Kenojuak Ashevak and her time spent at the gallery.
With Stan Douglas: Tales of Empire, the McMichael presents a focused survey of the artist’s work, bringing together key projects that relate to the enduring impositions and contradictions of empire.
Tom Thomson’s sketch and canvas depicting Algonquin Park during the spring thaw are among the most prized holdings of the McMichael.
