Curated by Senta Ross
Featuring works by Germaine Arnaktauyok, Rita Briansky, Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, Berthe Des Clayes, Elizabeth M. Eastman, Frances M. Gage, Judy Garfin, Melissa General, Dorothy Knowles, Marion Long, Frances Loring, Laura Muntz Lyall, Meryl McMaster, Shelley Niro, Daphne Odjig, Jessie Oonark, Eleeshushe Parr, Kathleen Daly Pepper, Nancy Pukinnak, Lottie Rood, Louise Scott, Carol Wainio and Esther Warkov
In the image-saturated age of the selfie, portraits are an all too common experience. Each time we find ourselves in front of the camera, we become aware of the hair that is out of place, the angle of our head and the context in which we are seen. Each image captures something beyond our likeness – our social habits, our mobility, our taste – and presents it for others to see.
From Her Perspective brings together a number of portraits from the KWAG Permanent Collection. Produced by Canadian women artists and spanning over a century, the portraits in this exhibition exist in paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture. As much as a portrait says about its subject, it is also an insight into the artist producing it. Each work bears the spirit of the time and place in which it was created and helps us to understand the woman behind the work.
Taken together, this exhibition encourages a deeper understanding of the human condition through an expanded appreciation of what constitutes a portrait.
Premier Exhibitions Sponsor:
This exhibition is funded in part by KWAG's Women of Influence for Women's Art
Meryl McMaster (Canadian, b. 1988). Terra Cognitum, 2013. Digital chromogenic print, 91.4cm x 127cm. Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Collection. Purchased in part through the support of the Elizabeth L. Gordon Art Program, a program of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation and administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, 2019. © Meryl McMaster / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montreal. Photo: Meryl McMaster.