Past Exhibitions

Among the great treasures of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is a group of 54 jewel-like miniatures by the artist Clarence Gagnon.

Presenting a selection of works by Anishinaabe/French artist Caroline Monnet, this exhibition centers on a recent series of sculptures that explore language reclamation and intergenerational transmission through an engagement with the idea of land as a carrier of ancestral memory. Meaning “the one who listens” in Anishinaabemowin, the title, Pizandawatc, comes from the traditional name of Monnet’s maternal family before surnames were changed by the Oblate missionaries at Kitigan Zibi, in the Outaouais region of Quebec. The title honours the artist’s great-grandmother, Mani Pizandawatc, who was the first in her family to have her territory divided into reserves. At the same time, the title references a receptive way of being in the world, reflected throughout Monnet’s artistic practice.

In the late 19th century, the Impressionist movement found a footing in Canada, and Quebec artists quickly responded with works of rare beauty and sophistication. Many Quebec artists trained in France during this period, carrying the pollen of European modernism back with them to Canadian soil. Landscape and city scenes were staples of their work, and this show will assemble a choice collection of master works that trace a journey from the bustling streets of Montreal—then Canada’s financial capital—down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City and through the beloved Charlevoix region. The exhibition will offer not just a magisterial statement on the outstanding quality of Quebec painting, but also a glimpse into the heart and soul of a culture, seen through the eyes of her most beloved and foundational artists. The survey will include works by William Brymner, Ozias Leduc, James Wilson Morrice, Henrietta Mabel May, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, Maurice Cullen, Clarence Gagnon, and others, and will be drawn from a host of public and private collections. To accent these works, archival photography and objects of material culture from the period will be added to deepen the viewer’s experience of the moment in which the artists were working. The result will be an immersive time-travel experience like no other.

For the month of June, the McMichael will welcome Toronto-based artist Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka to the Tom Thomson Shack for an artist residency. During the residency, Hatanka will use the shack where Thomson painted some of his most beloved canvases as her studio space, creating a new large-scale work that will remain on view until mid-October.

This rare examination of the work of painter Alexander Young (A.Y.) Jackson (1882–1974) in the decade before the Group of Seven’s formation in 1920. Curated by historian Douglas Hunter, Jackson’s Wars will feature rarely seen paintings made during the artist’s trips abroad to study painting in Italy, Belgium, and France, as well as his evocative depictions of rural Quebec and Ontario made upon his return. Of particular note will be a handpicked selection of Jackson’s paintings made during the First World War depicting the devastation of the battlefields in France, which would have a lingering impact on his interpretations of the Canadian landscape. Jackson’s Wars: A.Y. Jackson before the Group of Seven provides an opportunity to reframe the legacy of one of Canada’s most significant artists.

This exhibition includes more than 100 photographs taken by John Macfie (1925–2018), a settler trapline manager who worked in Northern Ontario in the 1950s and 1960s. Macfie travelled with a camera, recording life in Anishinaabe, Cree, and Anisininew communities during a period of intense and rapid change. The people and places of Attawapiskat, Sandy Lake, Mattagami, and other communities across the Hudson's Bay watershed are revealed through his lens in ways that emphasize the warmth and continuity of community life. Curated by nîpisîhkopâwiyiniw (Willow Cree) curator, writer, journalist, cultural advocate, and commentator Paul Seesequasis, the exhibition centers the lives and resiliency of the Indigenous people represented, many of whom have been identified by Macfie and Seesequasis.

The Subtle Body: Betty Goodwin and David Altmejd from the Collection of Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex February 17 – May 15, 2024 About the Exhibition Highlighting an important recent gift from Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex, this exhibition pairs the work of the late [...]

Bertram Brooker: When We Awake! February 10 to June 2, 2024 About the Exhibition Bertram Brooker: When We Awake! examines the career of Bertram Brooker (1888–1955), the first Canadian artist to exhibit abstract paintings, in 1927. Curated by Michael Parke-Taylor, the exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of Brooker’s oeuvre [...]

Ghosts of Canoe Lake: New Work by Marcel Dzama December 9, 2023 – June 9, 2024 About the Exhibition Marcel Dzama's delicate and fantastical drawings made with ink, watercolour paint and root beer catapulted the Winnipeg-born artist to international fame in the late 1990s. Since then, [...]

Cobalt: A Mining Town and the Canadian Imagination November 18 to April 21, 2024 About the Exhibition Cobalt, Ontario—some 500 kilometres north of Toronto—was established in 1904 following the discovery of rich silver, cobalt, ore, and nickel deposits. At peak production in 1911, Cobalt provided approximately one eighth of the world's [...]