Past
Exhibitions

This exhibition presented a unique opportunity to view recent work by Toronto-based artist Kim Dorland alongside masterworks from the McMichael’s permanent collection by Tom Thomson, David Milne, Frederick Varley and others.

Karine Giboulo’s Small Strange World(s)

SEP 12, 2013 — JAN 26, 2014

Montreal-based Karine Giboulo is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates work in two- and three-dimensional form. A large portion of her oeuvre is made up of dioramas populated by doll-like figures.

Mary Pratt

JAN 14 — APR 27, 2014

Mary Pratt, one of Canada’s leading photorealist painters, has become one of our country's most distinguished artists. She brings a sharply focused, contemporary lens to deceptively simple subject matter, demonstrating sophisticated skill rooted firmly in the history of painting.

Diversity is the hallmark of Newfoundland and Labrador art. There has never been a shared aesthetic or approach to art making beyond a widely shared use of realism, or at least figuration, employed in a variety of different ways.

Arctic Exposure: Photographs of Canada’s North brought together images made between 1881 and 2013, revealing an ongoing fascination with the peoples, places, and mythologies of the North.

Taking place outdoors on the McMichael grounds on summer nights, tomorrow’s snow was a brief, performative glimpse into the vision of Beijing-born, Canadian-raised artist Terence Koh. Inspired by a passage from Margaret Atwood’s novel Cat’s Eye, the piece recreated the look of freshly fallen snow, with an 8-year-old boy and girl, dressed in white, making snow angels.

Charles Edenshaw

JUN 28 — SEP 21, 2014

Haida artist Charles Edenshaw (1839–1920) is now recognized as one of the most innovative West Coast artists of the turn of the twentieth century.

Morrice and Lyman in the Company of Matisse

OCT 10, 2014 — JAN 4, 2015

This exhibition examined the dialogue between two important Canadian artists, James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924) and John Lyman (1886–1967), put into context with the French master, Henri Matisse (1869– 1954).

Vanishing Ice offered a glimpse into the rich cultural legacy of the planet's frozen frontiers. International in scope, it traced the impact of glaciers, icebergs, and fields of ice on artists' imaginations, and explored connections between generations of artists who have adopted different styles, media, and approaches to interpret the magical light and fantastic shapes of ice.

"The seven artists of the PNIAI came together in order to collectively fight for the inclusion of their work within the Canadian mainstream and the contemporary art canon.

Journey into Fantasy - in Inuktitut, Ingirrajut Isumaginnguaqtaminnut - featured the work of Inuk artist Pudlo Pudlat and celebrated the one-year mark for the collaboration with York University in Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage (MICH).