{"id":37223590361,"date":"2026-06-02T08:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mcmichael.com\/?p=37223590361"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:02:15","slug":"artists-on-contemporary-canadian-landscapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcmichael.com\/fr\/curators-notebook\/artists-on-contemporary-canadian-landscapes\/","title":{"rendered":"Curator\u2019s Notebook: Artists on Contemporary Canadian Landscapes at the McMichael\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Curator's Notebook<\/a> \n

\n Artists on Contemporary Canadian Landscapes at the McMichael <\/h1>\n <\/div>\n\n juin 2, 2026 \u2014 Jennifer Withrow<\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n
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\"Image<\/div>
Michelle Sound, Sky Glabush, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In 2007, the ground shifted in Canadian art history.\u00a0<\/span>Beyond Wilderness<\/span><\/i>, co-edited by John O\u2019Brian and Peter White and featuring a diverse roster of curators, art historians, artists, and thought leaders from across Canada and beyond, challenged the entrenched connection between national identity and landscape art that had taken root during the decades-long popularity of the Group of Seven. The book traces how, beginning in the 1960s and continuing in the decades that followed, contemporary landscape art channelled the increasingly complex social, economic, political, technological, and environmental factors that have transformed the ways in which artists<\/span>\u2014<\/span>and audiences<\/span>\u2014<\/span>understand their relationship to place.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We at\u00a0the\u00a0McMichael enthusiastically share this view that the Group of Seven\u2019s legacy must be continuously interrogated and recontextualized within the larger, evolving stories of Canadian art.\u00a0So\u00a0when Gabrielle Moser,\u00a0director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art\u00a0at Concordia University, approached us about launching a national series of events marking the twentieth anniversary of\u00a0<\/span>Beyond Wilderness<\/span><\/i>, it was only natural that we\u00a0would\u00a0say yes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, June 24, the McMichael curator, John Geoghegan, led a panel discussion featuring the artists Sky Glabush (London), Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka (Toronto), and Michelle Sound (Vancouver). Each artist spoke about his or her approach to artmaking, recent projects, and elaborated on a work of their own that has recently come into the McMichael collection. Hatanaka and Sound talked about how their artistic practices draw on natural forms through connections to personal and family histories. Hatanaka uses natural inks to print the sculptural formations of blowing Arctic snow onto handmade Japanese paper, intertwining her interest in her family heritage with her own extensive experiences in the Arctic. Sound takes photographs of her family\u2019s ancestral territories, tears them, and then repairs them, blending traditional mending and decoration techniques with colourful contemporary materials. Glabush reflected on how forms and phenomena from the natural world serve him as portals to creative exploration and have provided sanctuary at critical periods of his life. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, the discussion affirmed the premise put forward by\u00a0<\/span>Beyond Wilderness <\/span><\/i>twenty years ago<\/span>\u2014<\/span>that the natural world remains a powerful and enduring source of inspiration in contemporary artmaking and is channelled by artists today to communicate new and urgent truths about individual and shared experience. At its most affecting, this art is imbued with each maker\u2019s unique story: the territories of their past and present, and what they see on the horizon. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Alexa Hatanaka (b. 1988)<\/h3>\n

Nuna\/Land (Arena)<\/h4>\n
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2018-2019
\nlinocut using oil ink with the addition of powdered iron ore (from the Baffin Island iron mine) on Haini Kozo paper from the Kashiki Seishi paper mill, Japan
\n179.1 \u00d7 100.3 cm
\nMcMichael Canadian Art Collection
\nPurchased with the generous support of the Edith Kennethea Dunn Memorial Acquisition Fund for Canadian Women Artists<\/span>
\n2022.10<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Sky Glabush (b. 1970)<\/h3>\n

Gleanings<\/h4>\n
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2018
\noil and sand on canvas
\nMcMichael Canadian Art Collection<\/span>
\nPromised gift from a private collection<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Michelle Sound (b. 1977)<\/h3>\n

Swan River<\/h4>\n
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2023
\nembroidery thread, seed beads, mink-fur pompoms on inkjet print on paper
\nMcMichael Canadian Art Collection<\/span>
\nPurchased with the generous support of The Dr. Michael Braudo Fund of the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation
\n2023.41.3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Michelle Sound<\/h3>\n

Indian Reserve No 150 E<\/h4>\n
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2023
\nembroidery thread, seed beads, mink-fur pompoms on inkjet print on paper
\nMcMichael Canadian Art Collection<\/span>
\nPurchased with the generous support of The Dr. Michael Braudo Fund of the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation
\n2023.41.1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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