Outdoors
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgArt is in our nature. Beyond the galleries, you can explore 100 acres of forested land in the Humber River Valley – from a ridgetop ‘wilderness garden,’ planted by the McMichaels to echo the northern forest beloved of the Group of Seven, to the heritage waterway important to indigenous peoples in this area.
Lawren Harris: Leaps and Bounds
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgThe leading member of the Group of Seven, Lawren S. Harris has become one of the most recognizable figures in landscape painting in Canada. A lesser known side of Harris’s story is that he spent the second half of his career as an abstract painter.
Higher States: Lawren Harris and His American Contemporaries
Gallery 10 - Special Exhibition 10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgLawren Harris sought greater and greater heights as his career progressed; from mountains to states of mind, he aimed to go higher. This iconic Canadian landscape painter took a seemingly unexpected turn toward abstract art in 1934 – the year in which he moved to the United States, where he remained until 1940. Higher States frames Harris in the larger North American context during his years in New Hampshire and New Mexico, and features an important presentation of his US counterparts, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, and Marsden Hartley. Guest curators Dr. Roald Nasgaard and Gwendolyn Owens investigate the evolution of Harris’s painting from landscape to abstraction and demonstrate his integral role in cross-border artistic developments.
Morrisseau at the McMichael
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgIn July 1979, the McMichael was honoured to host Norval Morrisseau as artist-in-residence. For three weeks, Morrisseau worked in the Tom Thomson Shack where visitors could engage with the artist and see his painting process. He worked on sixteen paintings which were commissioned by the McMichael.
Steve Driscoll + Finn O’Hara: Size Matters
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgA Primary Exhibition organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection for Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Size Matters brings together the work of painter Steve Driscoll and photographer Finn O’Hara for their first-ever exhibition at a public art gallery. These Toronto-based artists face a dichotomy familiar to many Millennials: urban lifestyles combined with a love for the outdoors. Their work is a creative response to the need for a sense of scale.
The Group of Seven Guitar Project
J.E.H. MacDonald once noted that Lawren Harris was compelled to sing a tune when he sat nearby the natural rhythms of water to paint en plein air.During the summer of 2017 – Canada’s 150th year – the McMichael Canadian Art Collection will become a place to wander, celebrate and delight in acoustic space.
Artist in Residence: Zachari Logan
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgZachari Logan’s artist residency at the McMichael, and related artwork commissioned by the gallery, folds seamlessly into Passion Over Reason as a 21st-century complement to Tom Thomson’s subject matter and Joyce Wieland’s strategically ‘feminine’ approaches to art making. Like Thomson, Logan (b. 1980) has Scottish roots but was born in Canada. Logan’s pastel and paint celebrations of flora and fauna in dense configurations would make any naturalist swoon, and the tender treatments of the human body interwoven among them make us think twice about sexually suggestive flora which is commonly associated with women artists.
Passion Over Reason: Tom Thomson & Joyce Wieland
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgConsider this exhibition to be a love letter to Tom Thomson and Canada – two subjects at the core of the 2017-year as we celebrate Canada’s 150th year and the centenary of Thomson’s death. Passion Over Reason will take a critical approach to our fascination with Thomson and show how today’s current culture of hipster or lumbersexual fashion, as well as cultivation of outsider creed, has confirmed what Wieland pointed to in the 1970s: Thomson is Canada. This exhibition will also allow for an account of feminist approaches to the topic of Canada in art then and now.
Tom Thomson Shack: Artist Residency Project
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgDr. Sarah Stanners and Zachari Logan in conversation highlighting the connection of this very special artist residency to the thesis of the Passion Over Reason exhibition.
Tom Thomson’s Last Spring
10365 Islington Ave, KleinburgAn evening of art, history and music to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the mysterious and early death of Tom Thomson. Starting at 5 pm, the event will include a presentation by the McMichael’s Executive Director, Ian Dejardin, along with readings by Murdoch Mysteries’ Yannick Bisson and a musical performance by Kathryn Briggs and Terry Tufts.