Exhibitions > Archive

An Embarrassment of Riches: The Collection in Focus

May 7 - September 30, 2012

Since 1992, CUAG has built, cared for and promoted the University’s art collection as a rich resource for discovery, research and learning.

We presented our first exhibition in September of 1992; An Embarrassment of Riches marks our approaching 20th anniversary with a major exhibition that occupies the entire gallery and focuses on art acquired by donation and purchase since 2006.

The exhibition includes an impressive core of contemporary photography by such artists as Robert Bourdeau, Justin Wonnacott, Jocelyne Alloucherie, Charles Gagnon, Lorraine Gilbert, Geoffrey James and Michael Schreier.

Videos presented include Kent Monkman’s cheeky Dance to Miss Chief and Zacharias Kunuk’s epic Nunavut series.

The printmakers featured span centuries and continents – from Lucas van Leyden and Hans Sebald Beham to Clarence Gagnon and John J.A. Murphy to Pitseolak Ashoona and Ibrahim Miranda Ramos.

Delicate drawings by Ivan Eyre, Jane Martin, Kananginak Pootoogook and Ron Bloore act as a quiet counterpoint to the Pop-inspired work of Michèle Provost, Mark Marsters,and Cynthia Girard, and a group of vividly-coloured 18th-century Indian Ragamala miniatures.

The diverse sculptures featured include Liz Magor’s handy Tool Kit, several 19th-century argillite carvings by Haida artists including Owt’iwans (also known as Andrew Brown) and Gunter Nolte’s minimalist steel piece, Step Up and Over.

An Embarrassment of Riches celebrates the University’s art collection and the many stories it tells.  While we recognize that in the twenty-first century these stories will reach audiences through diverse routes, many of them virtual, we are confident that art objects continue to stir our curiosity about the worlds they lay before our eyes.