Artist Talk: Contemporary Landscape in Canadian Art
How do contemporary artists approach landscape—and what does it mean to make art about land, place, and belonging in Canada today?
Dive deeper into Fresh Air: New Acquisitions in Context with the artists Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, Michelle Sound, and Sky Glabush in a panel discussion hosted by the McMichael’s curator, John Geoghegan, now available on our YouTube channel. Working across painting, textiles, printmaking, and installation, each artist reflects on how land, memory, identity, and lived experience shape their individual practices.
On view at McMichael from April 11 to July 26, 2026, and scheduled to tour in 2027, Fresh Air presented a selection of recent acquisitions in dynamic dialogue with long-held works from the McMichael’s permanent collection. Through unexpected juxtapositions and thematic groupings, the exhibition explored themes of cultivation, belonging, and landscape from a wide range of perspectives—bringing together works by Frederick Varley, J.E.H. MacDonald, and A.J. Casson into dialogue with new acquisitions by Ben Reeves, Melanie Authier, Brenda Draney, and others.
In the discussion, each artist speaks to a work of their own that has recently entered the McMichael’s collection. Hatanaka describes her use of natural inks to print the sculptural formations of Arctic snow onto handmade Japanese paper, reflecting her family heritage as well as her own extensive experience in the Canadian North. Sound reflects on her practice of photographing her family’s ancestral territories, tearing the images, and repairing them using traditional mending techniques and contemporary materials. Glabush speaks to the way forms and phenomena from the natural world serve as portals to creative exploration—and as a source of sanctuary at critical moments in his life.
Together, their perspectives affirm that landscape remains a powerful and enduring source of inspiration in contemporary Canadian art—and that it is being channeled today to communicate new and urgent truths about individual and shared experience.
Whether you were able to attend Fresh Air or are discovering it for the first time, this conversation offers a vivid and moving introduction to three of Canada’s most compelling artists.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University, Montreal.
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