The Magazine

Shelley Niro’s Erratic Love offers a powerful introduction to the artist’s multidisciplinary practice, weaving together Haudenosaunee histories, personal memory, and connections to the natural world. Learn more about the sculpture’s rich symbolism and watch David Hartman’s documentary exploring the ideas and experiences that have shaped Niro’s work for more than four decades.

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.

Renowned for her luminous paintings of women and children outdoors, Helen McNicoll brought a fresh and modern vision to Canadian Impressionism. Learn more about Easter Lilies from the McMichael collection and Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey, a landmark retrospective now on view at the National Gallery of Canada.

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.

As part of a national series marking the twentieth anniversary of Beyond Wilderness, the McMichael hosted a panel discussion examining the evolving role of landscape in contemporary Canadian art. Artists Sky Glabush, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, and Michelle Sound reflected on how place, nature, and personal history continue to shape artistic practice today.

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.

Join us in celebrating the recent achievements of Congolese-born, Montreal-based artist Moridja Kitenge Banza, from the launch of his first monograph to the debut of the inaugural Congo Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Plus, enjoy a newly released short film on his practice.

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.

As the 2026 Venice Biennale opens, this article highlights Canadian artists with close ties to the McMichael whose work is part of the international exhibition. From Bonnie Devine to Abbas Akhavan, discover how these artists’ practices connect conversations taking place at the McMichael to the global contemporary art stage.

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.