Coast to Coast to Coast: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
Dana Claxton (b. 1959), Headdress–Shadae, 2019, LED firebox with transmounted lightjet chromogenic transparency 152.4 x 101.6 cm, Purchase, BMO Financial Group, 2020, 2020.5. Image courtesy of the artist.
About the McMichael
Located in the village of Kleinburg just outside of Toronto, the McMichael is the only museum in Canada devoted exclusively to Canadian art. The gallery is surrounded by a network of outdoor trails, a sculpture garden, and forty hectares of conservation land with breathtaking views of the Humber Valley. Its mission is to develop insightful and accessible exhibitions that explore Canada’s artistic past while also breaking new trails on the art of our time. As an institution, the McMichael was at the forefront of collecting Indigenous art as fine art beginning in the 1970s and continues to champion the work of leading Indigenous artists today.
This exhibition was organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario.
The Albuquerque Museum presents Coast to Coast to Coast; Indigenous Art from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection on view at the Albuquerque Museum January 27, 2024 – April 21, 2024. This exhibition, originally presented as Early Days, is the first large-scale survey of Indigenous art from Canada to be presented internationally.
Coast to Coast to Coast: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is the first large-scale survey of Indigenous art from Canada to be presented internationally. Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders—scholars, writers, knowledge keepers, and contemporary artists—the exhibition explores the powerful tensions and continuities that exist between the present and the past, and the artists’ relationships with the land, with their ancestors, and with each other.
Coast to Coast to Coast features an impressive range of historic and contemporary Indigenous art from across Canada. The McMichael’s founders made early forays into collecting Indigenous art, including major acquisitions of Inuit drawings, prints and sculptures; masks, rattles, and headdresses from the Northwest coast of British Columbia; as well as extensive acquisitions of paintings and prints by the Woodland School of artists in Ontario. Since then, the museum’s collecting activities have grown to embrace the diversity and vitality of Indigenous art in Canada. Today, Coast to Coast to Coast presents an overview of one of Canada’s most extraordinary collections, featuring objects ranging from eighteenth-century ceremonial regalia to the work of the vanguard artists of the ’60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, such as Norval Morrisseau, Carl Beam, and Alex Janvier, and leading contemporary Indigenous artists like Kent Monkman, Meryl McMaster, and Rebecca Belmore. This exhibition invites a deep connection with the issues that lie at the heart of Indigenous experience, revealing cultures that are vibrant and transforming in the twenty-first century.
Details subject to change.