McMichael Announces Landmark Exhibition and Publication on Female Artists of the Twentieth Century

June 26, 2021 to January 23, 2022
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

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The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment on June 26, 2021. This major exhibition gathers nearly 300 works by a generation of extraordinary female painters, photographers, and sculptors of a century ago, including garments, beadwork, baskets, and quillwork boxes made by Indigenous women artists during this pivotal inter-war period. Curated by McMichael Chief Curator Sarah Milroy (CM), the exhibition debuts alongside a multi-authored academic publication of the same name, and takes a long-overdue look at the artistic endeavours of women in this period.

The inspiration for Uninvited arose from an awareness of the skewed narratives of Canadian art history as it has been traditionally told, a narrative that has long overlooked artistic production by women, and by Indigenous women particularly, during the heyday of the Group of Seven. While members of the Group of Seven were indeed mentors to many female artists, they nevertheless did not invite any of their female peers to join their ranks – a fact that has cast a long shadow over the way we have come to understand the trajectory of Canadian art. Uninvited is presented at the McMichael concurrently with the exhibition A Like Vision: The Group of Seven at 100, offering a rich and lively challenge to the Group’s recent centenary celebrations.

Best known as the spiritual home of the Group of Seven, the McMichael is committed to extending the gallery’s curatorial vision and collections beyond its now-canonical holdings. As the only publicly funded art gallery devoted solely to Canadian art, the McMichael increasingly acquires and displays art from every region of Canada, from coast to coast to coast, historic or contemporary, male or female, settler or Indigenous, new immigrant or first-wave settler.

For the first time, the art of the famed Beaver Hall Group of painters from Montreal (among them Anne Savage, Emily Coonan, Prudence Heward, and Lilias Torrance Newton) will be shown alongside the paintings of Emily Carr from British Columbia, and sculptures by Toronto artists Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Frances Loring, and Florence Wyle. Uninvited also incorporates the contribution of women from immigrant communities during this period, such as the painters Regina Seiden and Paraskeva Clark, as well as the work of Canadian expatriates like the avant-garde photographer Margaret Watkins, who left her home in Hamilton for the US and Scotland.

Alongside this revolutionary exhibition, the McMichael is proud to present an accompanying exhibition catalogue featuring essays from 39 artists, thinkers, curators, art historians, and writers, together with providing fresh outlooks on aspects of Canadian art that have long been relegated to the shadows. Introductory essays from Chief Curator Sarah Milroy, art historian Jocelyn Anderson and Katerina Atanassova, Curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada, anchor the publication, examining the ways in which women artists of the day negotiated their professional relationships with male colleagues, built their own careers and developed their own networks of support. As well, Kristina Huneault, Professor and Graduate Program Director at Concordia University, explores the complexities of presenting art by Indigenous women alongside settler art.

Please note that the McMichael Canadian Art Collection will be closed as of 12:01 am on Saturday, April 3 until further notice while Ontario is under provincewide “emergency brake” shutdown measures. The McMichael’s grounds and trails remain open but are not being maintained while the Gallery is closed. For more information about ticketing, shopping, programs, and virtual offerings please check our FAQ page for the most recent updates.

About the McMichael Canadian Art Collection

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, and the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of over 6,500 works by historic and present-day Canadian artists, including the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, as well as Indigenous artists. The Gallery is located on 100 acres of northern landscape and hiking trails at 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in the City of Vaughan. For more information, please visit mcmichael.com.

Photo: Suzanne Duquet (1916–2000), Group, 1941, oil on canvas, 127 × 149.8 cm, Collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Gift of the artist, 1996.94, Photo: MNBAQ, Jean-Guy Kerouac, © Estate of the artist