Exhibitions

Patriot Loves: Visions of Canada in the Feminine

May 9 - July 10, 2011

From its birth as a nation which nests a diversity of cultural nations, Canada/Kanata is a native land for some and an adopted home for others.

Multiculturalism has become the benchmark of Canada’s national identity and a point of pride for Canadians. Art, in its multitude forms of expression, continues to serve as a powerful means of articulating the nature, legacy, and fable of our cultural mosaic as a site of belonging.

2011 marks the 40th anniversary of True Patriot Love, Joyce Wieland’s landmark solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.

Few artists have articulated their passion for Canada as powerfully as Wieland. Her deep love for Canada is reflected in her famous words, “I think of Canada as female. All the art I’ve been doing…is about Canada.”

Taking Wieland’s woman-centered expression of Canadian nationalism as its starting point, Patriot Loves presents several of her key works with those of Nadia Myre and Cynthia Girard, contemporary artists exploring related issues.

Featuring paintings, drawings, textiles and videos, the exhibition examines some of the historical, political and cultural threads that inform and enrich our notions of patriotic loves for this inherited or adopted land.