OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 22, 2023 /CNW/ – As 2023 comes to a close, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) highlights key moments that marked the year, from visitor attendance and satisfaction highs to cross-Canada community engagement programming and unprecedented Indigenous staffing. The Gallery also looks ahead to 2024 with a preview of upcoming exhibitions.
The Gallery was honoured to welcome U.S. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau on March 24 to tour the Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment exhibition, organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection with the exceptional support of the NGC, a visit that attracted widespread public attention and social media activity.
The Riopelle: Crossroads in Time happening on October 26 marked the Gallery’s most attended public opening of 2023, attracting over 2,000 guests to celebrate the Canadian artist’s legacy – a number reminiscent of the record-breaking Àbadakone exhibition opening in 2019. The opening was part of the Gallery’s popular Free Thursday Nights, which are currently supported by the Sobey Art Foundation.
A visitor survey conducted by the Gallery between July 1 to September 17, 2023, revealed that visitor satisfaction was at 94% and that 56% of the surveyed visitors were attending the Gallery for the first time. It also showed a growing younger audience: 50% of visitors surveyed were under the age of 35 during that period.
As of December, Indigenous staffing – notably within the Indigenous Ways and Decolonization department (IWD) – is at the highest level in the Gallery’s history. Moreover, the IWD team currently includes three Inuit employees: an Associate Curator, a Senior Manager and a Curatorial Assistant – which is unprecedented for the gallery sector in Canada. With the establishment of the Indigenous Ways and Decolonization department in 2022, the Gallery took a bold step in realizing its commitment to centre Indigenous ways of knowing and being in all it does.
The National Gallery of Canada’s mandate is to further knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art among all Canadians. In 2023, the Gallery’s in-person and digital community engagement programs reached people in every province and territory, in over 150 different geographic communities. Highlights included a virtual talk with 2022 Sobey Art Award shortlisted artist Krystle Silverfox of Whitehorse and Mary Bradshaw, Director of Visual Arts at the Yukon Arts Centre, and an intensive metalworking workshop with Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts 2022 recipient Brigitte Clavette and high school students in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
On August 1, the Gallery marked Emancipation Day by celebrating the launch of Deanna Bowen’s pathbreaking installation, The Black Canadians (after Cooke), and by becoming a signatory to the United Nations Declaration for People of African Descent. The near-full-house Q&A event saw an emotional standing ovation for the artist.
LOOKING AHEAD: 2024 EXHIBITIONS
Kan Azuma: A Matter of Place
March 1 – June 16, 2024
This exhibition showcases the photographic works of Kan Azuma (b. 1946, Tokyo, Japan), highlighting the artist’s poetic, lyrical and contemplative interpretation of the Canadian landscape. The artworks poignantly visualize Azuma’s intimate experiences with the places he travelled to in Canada, the United States and Japan, from the late 1960s until he stopped making photographs in the early 2000s. With a thematic emphasis on the artist’s internalized gaze, the show offers a welcoming space for visitors to reflect on their own encounters with their surroundings, in particular those related to migration and the diaspora (the dispersion of people away from their ancestral homeland).
60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2024
April 20 – November 24, 2024
Canada Pavilion, Venice
Kapwani Kiwanga will represent Canada at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Kiwanga’s presentation in Venice will be curated by Gaëtane Verna, Executive Director, Wexner Center for the Arts. The exhibitions on view at the Canada Pavilion are commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and produced in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canadian representation in 2024 is made possible through the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.
Radical Stitch
May 17 – October 20, 2024
From the earliest beads crafted from shell and seed, to trade beads and computer pixels, First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists have used beads to tell stories, honour loved ones and celebrate beauty. Techniques and understandings pass from one generation to the next. Ancestors wrapped loved ones in beaded prayers and provided for their families and communities by creating for trade and sale. More recently, many Indigenous people have been learning to bead as a way to culturally reconnect, and as an act of resistance. Artists from across Turtle Island/North America exemplify the most exciting current practices and suggest future directions. Ranging from wearable works, portraiture, installation and video, these artists sew us into relation with one another, connect the past to the present, reflect on personal and communal existence, create new meaning and redefine representation and cultural determinism. Organized and circulated by the Mackenzie Art Gallery.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch
June 14 – August 18, 2024
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch is the first retrospective exhibition of the multimedia work of Mohawk artist Shelley Niro, who is based in Brantford, ON. Spanning four decades of photography, film, painting, installation, sculpture and mixed media practice, this major exhibition highlights the themes Niro constantly returns to: Indigenous Matriarchy, Past is Present, Actors and Relations. Niro’s persistent vision is to represent Indigenous women and girls, advocating for self-representation and sovereignty. Featuring over 70 works, some in series (totalling 136 pieces) coming from public and private collections across Canada and the US, as well as new work to be debuted in Hamilton. The exhibition also includes close to 20 artworks from the NGC’s permanent collection. Organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Hamilton with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian and the curatorial support from the National Gallery of Canada.
Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction
October 25, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction foregrounds a robust if overlooked strand in art history’s modernist narratives by tracing how, when, and why abstract art intersected with woven textiles (and such pre-loom technologies as basketry, knotting and netting) over the past century. With more than 150 works by an international and transhistorical roster of artists, this exhibition reveals how shifting relations among abstract art, fashion, design and craft shaped recurrent aesthetic, cultural and socio-political forces, as they, in turn, were impacted by modernist art forms. Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
About the National Gallery of Canada
Ankosé / Everything is Connected / Tout est relié
The National Gallery of Canada (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. 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, NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years. For more information, visit gallery.ca and follow us on X, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. #Ankose #EverythingIsConnected #ToutEstRelié.
SOURCE National Gallery of Canada
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