Feb 15 to Apr 26, 2020

Emotional Landscapes

Location

Main Gallery

Artist(s) For a list of all featured artists, see below

Curator(s) Tak Pham

About the Exhibition

Jessica Karuhanga and Alex R. M. Thompson, with F. Carmichael, A. J. Casson, A. Y. Jackson, J. E. H. MacDonald and F. H. Varley

Emotional Landscapes juxtaposes works from the Varley Art Gallery of Markham’s collection with the contemporary practices of Jessica Karuhanga and Alex R. M. Thompson. Building on the nineteenth century English Romantic tradition, the Group of Seven (including Frederick H. Varley—for whom the Varley Art Gallery is named) captured the raw and emotional nature of places like Algonquin Park creating a sublime beauty that deeply affects many viewers. The Group often depicted landscapes that are devoid of human bodies. However, still noticeable within their works are marks indicative of human activity. The result is emotional and melancholic images that continue to exist and bear witness to human presence even long after it is gone.

Responding to this established, and at times problematic, narrative of historical Canadian landscape painting, Karuhanga and Thompson propose a political and contemporary view of nature and landscape, one that acknowledges the consequences of the humans that live and work in it. The sublime beauty, prominent in the Group of Seven’s work has been replaced by a terrible blight on the environment affecting everyone that exists within it. Instead of the melancholic passivity seen in the Group of Seven’s work Karuhanga and Thompson emphasize the inherent effects of human activities on the environment

The Varley Art Gallery of Markham gratefully acknowledges Partners in Art as the lead sponsor of this exhibition. This was made possible with the support of the Varley-McKay Art Foundation of Markham.