Sylvia Nickerson is a local comics artist, writer and illustrator who has received national acclaim for her stark and poignant work. This month, she began an artist residency at the AGH. Though we had planned to launch her multi-media installation, including graphic and sculptural work in our physical exhibition space in the David Braley and Nancy Gordon Sculpture Atrium, we are of course temporarily closed due to COVID-19.   Nickerson has creatively adapted … Continued

We interviewed Nancy Fedorovitch, whose foundation aims to give significantly to the performing and visual arts sectors, including the Art Gallery of Hamilton. We discussed her relationship to Hamilton, the arts, and the value of supporting arts institutions in our communities.  Connor: I’m curious first about your relationship to Hamilton as someone committed to supporting the arts within … Continued

Last year, Ottawa-based artist Meryl McMaster made international waves with her newest body of work, As Immense as the Sky (2019), exhibiting it in Canada, the UK, France, and Australia. Three years in the making, the series of nineteen photographs captures McMaster’s travels to central and southern Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Newfoundland as she retraces the … Continued

The late Ojibwe artist Carl Beam was one of the foremost figures of contemporary art in Canada. Working in a variety of media, he examined the political and social concerns that have shaped Indigenous and Western relations throughout history. In the late 1970s, during the formative years of his career, Beam began making photo-based collage works that combine appropriated and personal imagery and text with gestural painting. Drawing on elements of Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism, Beam’s collage works boldly challenged prevailing definitions of Indigenous art and established him as a major contemporary … Continued

Last month, REITZENSTEIN marked the conclusion of his yearlong residency at the AGH with an astonishing achievement: the completion of his thirty-foot-long tree drawing Maple (2019–20) (fig. 1). Over the past year, the artist, together with Gallery participants, steadily developed the collaborative artwork by writing rows of the word “maple” in dozens of different languages. Given the painstaking labour involved in creating Maple, Gallery visitors were often surprised to learn of its ephemerality. The work’s temporary existence is purposeful, underscoring the performative and process-oriented aspects of REITZENSTEIN’s practice. But for those lamenting that this immensely popular piece no … Continued