OTTAWA, ON, March 2, 2023 /CNW/ – A stirring affirmation of the female creative voice, Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists of the Modern Moment challenges the notion of the quintessential Canadian artist. Uninvited opens this evening as part of the National Gallery of Canada’s popular Free Thursday Nights. On view until August 20, 2023, the exhibition celebrates the extraordinary talent of women settler and Indigenous artists from the dynamic interwar period, as seen in nearly 200 paintings, photographs, sculptures, baskets and beaded works. Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection with the exceptional support of the National Gallery of Canada, Uninvited also features some 30 works from the Gallery’s collection.
”The National Gallery of Canada is delighted to be the fourth and final stop for the McMichael’s major exhibition devoted to women artists, who paved the way for subsequent generations of women,” said Angela Cassie, Interim Director and CEO, NGC. “Serving all Canadians is part of our core mission. We strive to increase the representation of people from historically underrepresented and excluded communities, including the voices of women artists, to ensure the development, preservation, and presentation of our collection for the learning and enjoyment of generations to come.”
“In the 1920s,’30s, and ’40s, the Canadian art world was in the thrall of the all-male painting collective The Group of Seven, widely celebrated for their depictions of dramatic and sensuously painted unpeopled landscapes,” added exhibition curator Sarah Milroy, Chief Curator at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. “But women artists of the day had other concerns: portraiture, city life, immigrant experience, social injustice, resource extraction, and the cultural ways of Indigenous peoples. Shown together in this exhibition, these works convey a vibrant picture of Canada in a period of sometimes overwhelming change, a complex story with multiple vantage points long obscured in the story of Canadian art.”
In a complementary initiative, the Gallery’s department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization, in collaboration with its Learning and Community Engagement team, have created an adjacent Ancestors’ Gallery, a ‘show within a show,’ which presents works by once-known Indigenous artists from the NGC’s collection.
The National Gallery of Canada’s presentation of Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment is supported by Reesa Greenberg. PACART is the exclusive transportation provider.
About the National Gallery of Canada
Ankosé: Everything is Connected / Tout est relié
The NGC is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means “everything is connected”—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. The NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, the NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years.
To find out more about the Gallery’s programming and activities, visit gallery.ca and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. #Ankose #EverythingIsConnected #ToutEstRelié.
Located on 100 acres of forested land along the Humber River, the McMichael is a major public gallery uniquely devoted to collecting the art of Canada.
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is located on the original lands of the Ojibwe Anishinaabe and Huron-Wendat People. It is uniquely situated along the Carrying Place Trail which historically provided an integral connection for Indigenous people between Ontario’s Lakeshore and the Lake Simcoe-Georgian Bay Region.
The McMichael’s permanent collection consists of over 7,000 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and contemporary artists who have contributed to the development of Canadian art. To find out more, visit mcmichael.com.
SOURCE National Gallery of Canada
CONTACT: Media enquiries: For more information, images, or to book an interview, please contact: Josée-Britanie Mallet, Senior Officer, Media and Public Relations, National Gallery of Canada, bmallet@gallery.ca
