The Georgian Bay area has served as a rich source of creative inspiration for Canadian artists. From J.E.H. MacDonald’s etched images of Georgian Bay to Ed Bartram’s recent print works, Georgian Bay’s iconic beauty continues to be immortalized through extraordinary works of art. Like MacDonald, contemporary artist Ed Bartram spends his summers in the Georgian Bay area.

In Inuktitut, the word Nunannguaq translates into “in the likeness of the earth,” which refers to a complex system used (like a map) to record ancient pathways. While travelling across the vast northern territories, the Inuit were guided by maps imprinted in the community’s collective memory rather than on skin or ivory.

Winnipeg artist Diana Thorneycroft is known for creating provocative and controversial photographs that challenge her audience’s viewing experience. Her seemingly comical images composed of innocent subjects—dolls and toy figurines—and set against the landscapes of the Group of Seven and their contemporaries reveal, upon a closer examination, a deeper and darker meaning.

The Journals of Susanna Moodie, Margaret Atwood's best known book of poems, inspired by the writing of Susanna Moodie, was published in a limited edition format with Charles Pachter's interpretive graphic works in the 1980s. The marriage of graphic work with literary text created a unique art form, the livre d'artiste. The exhibition explored the unique collaboration between these two artists.

When you think of traditional Northwest Coast art, you think of beautifully carved and painted totem poles, masks, bentwood boxes, canoes, and jewellery—decorated with traditional mythological creatures such as thunderbirds and sisiutls. What you don’t expect to see is a silver bracelet carved with the image of a raven flying away with a Starbucks cup, or a raven affixed to a wooden Celtic cross.

Yousuf Karsh, the iconic Canadian photographer known for his portraits of prime ministers, presidents, movie stars, authors, philosophers, scientists, artists, popes, and other luminaries of the twentieth century, was also a commercial and industrial photographer. The Yousuf Karsh: Industrial Images exhibition was a culmination of Karsh’s industrial and commercial work with Ford of Canada, Atlas Steel in Welland, Ontario, and Sharon Steel in Pennsylvania, and a variety of other commercial images.

A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan included artworks dating from 1947 to 2008. The production of Canadian war art started in 1916 with the implementation of the Canadian War Memorials Fund which, by 1918, had produced over 800 works. These were subsequently shown in England, the United States, and Canada. The Second World War (1939-1945) brought another program, the Canadian War Records.

Sheet1 Explore Although they are worlds apart, Chinese artists from Huxian, Jinshan, and Qijiang and Canadian artists from Baker Lake and Cape Dorset share a common bond; their art depicts their concerns about nature, spirituality, and their ever-changing social environments. After touring throughout China, the exhibition, a collection of thirty-two colourful Chinese drawings and eighteen Canadian Inuit drawings made its first North American appearance at the McMichael.

In her first retrospective in over two decades, The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition spanned over forty years of Daphne Odjig’s artistic career and featured over fifty of her works, including examples of history paintings, murals, legend paintings, erotica, abstractions, and landscapes. Together these pieces communicate the breadth of Odjig’s engagement with her personal, political and cultural history.

Born in an igloo on October 3, 1927 east of Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Kenojuak Ashevak charmed Canadians and the rest of the world with her unique vision and keen sense of design. Kenojuak began to draw in 1957 at the encouragement of James Houston and became one of the best-known Inuit artists of her time. Like most Inuit graphic artists, she relied on the considerable skills of print shop staff to transfer her drawings into print.

In celebration of a career spanning more than four decades, Joe Fafard was featured in a major retrospective exhibition that chronicled the full scope of this remarkable Saskatchewan artist's career and featured over 60 pieces of his oeuvre. Focusing primarily on Fafard’s extraordinary sculptures—which vary in size from small clay figures to large bronze and steel works, the exhibit explored Fafard’s portraiture work of family, friends, Aboriginal heritage, politicians and others.

For many artists, drawing is an important component of their creativity. Drawing Conclusions presented 25 pieces by Canada's most prominent contemporary artists and approximately 70 drawings by members of the Group of Seven, demonstrating the importance of freehand drawing in the training of artists throughout of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This exhibition provided a rare opportunity to view drawings that are seldom exhibited due to their sensitivity to light.

Although admired as one of Canada’s literary giants, very little is known of Reaney’s visual art practice. The Iconography of the Imagination: The Art of James Reaney introduced Reaney as an artist and provided an overview of his artistic production from the 1940s to the mid-1990s, and examined his art in relation to his writings. Reaney states that art has been a “constant” in his life, and much like his writing grew out of a desire to “keep a record” (Jean McKay, “What on earth are you doing, Sir?” ArtScape, Issue 5, June 2006, 10).

Miller Brittain’s life as an artist is defined partly by the large and diverse body of drawings and paintings that trace a course of self examination, interpret the life and people around him, and probe his spiritual and emotional landscapes. Brittain (1912-1968) was a figurative artist at a time when landscape painting of the Group of Seven and their followers held sway in Canadian art.

This exhibition featured works on paper by members of the Group of Seven who, in addition to their well-known paintings of uninhabited landscapes, also depicted scenes from local communities. Works by Lawren S. Harris, Franklin Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson and A.J. Casson representing Toronto; Cobalt, Ontario; Gaspé, Quebec, and other communities were displayed alongside information related to the artists’ experiences in working with their subjects.

Stones, Bones and Stitches is an exhibition of Inuit works from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection’s permanent collection based on a new publication by Tundra Books written by McMichael curators Shelley Falconer and Shawna White.

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection was the premiere and only Canadian art gallery to host The Art of Robert Bateman. A native of Toronto, Robert Bateman is a name familiar to most, if not all, Canadians. Although best known around the world as a wildlife artist, Bateman’s art also encompasses other subjects – landscapes, portraits, and still lifes – each created with a careful and knowledgeable attention to the principles of composition and design. His genius lies in his ability to distil complexity into elegant simplicity thereby creating art that is accessible and enjoyable at many levels.

Newfoundland-based, nationally acclaimed realist painter Mary Pratt is renowned for her beautiful, sensuous still life paintings, Two of these paintings, Glassy Apples and Peach Compote, provided the inspiration for two editions of Japanese woodblock prints developed by Pratt in collaboration with Japanese master printmaker Masato Arikushi of Vancouver. These prints were the primary focus of Mary Pratt: Allusions.

Art and Society included more than forty works from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada – including paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture – looks at three generations of Canadian artists and their visions of the role of art in shaping society.

James Houston, known as Saumik or “the left-handed one” in the Inuit language of Inuktitut, was the leading proponent in establishing printmaking in Kinngait. Houston approached his friend and fellow artist Osuitok Ipeelee during the now legendary conversation they had about the reproduction of a single graphic. After Houston demonstrated the printing technique with ink, a newly carved tusk, and tissue, Ipeelee agreed that there were indeed many interesting possibilities to be found in this new medium. The group became larger as the most talented and enthusiastic printmakers joined and the first catalogued collection was released in 1959. Noted Kinngait artists Parr, Niviaksiak, Pudlo Pudlat, Pitseolak Ashoona, Napatchie Pootoogook, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Mangitak Kellypalik, the renowned Kenojuak Ashevak, and many others all made important contributions.