Winter Count at the National Gallery of Canada

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has opened its new exhibition, Winter Count: Embracing the Cold, a sweeping exploration of winter’s deep cultural, historical, and artistic significance.   

Named for the pictorial calendars used by Plains Indigenous nations such as the Lakota, Winter Count reflects on themes of survival, adaptation, and kinship, portraying winter as a transformative force that shapes human experience. Featuring more than 150 works from the early nineteenth century to today—including paintings, sculpture, objects, and works on paper—the exhibition brings together a rich range of perspectives: Indigenous, Canadian settler, and European. We are proud to see several works from the McMichael’s permanent collection represented, including pieces by Franklin Carmichael, Lawren S. Harris, Clifford Maracle, Annie Pootoogook, Krystle Silverfox, and Tom Thomson.  

Developed by the NGC’s departments of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization, Canadian Art, and European, American, and Asian Art, Winter Count offers a nuanced, layered conversation about winter’s cultural and artistic resonance. Historic Indigenous belongings appear alongside works by contemporary artists such as the Inuit printmaker Pitseolak Ashoona and the Cree artists Duane Linklater and Kent Monkman, illuminating threads of ancestral knowledge, storytelling, and critical commentary.  

Connections are also drawn between Canadian painters such as Maurice Cullen and Clarence Gagnon and the French Impressionists Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, revealing their distinct yet parallel approaches to capturing light on snow. Further comparisons examine the shared visual language among Canadian artists—including J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren S. Harris—and their Scandinavian counterparts through the lens of winter.  

Winter Count: Embracing the Cold is on view at the National Gallery of Canada until March 22, 2026.