Oh, Canada: Contemporary Art from North North America

Oh, Canada: Contemporary Art from North North America, organized by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), and curated by Denise Markonish, is the largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever produced outside of Canada. Comprising of more than 100 artworks by 62 artists and collectives from across the country, Oh, Canada is vast in both scale and scope. Accordingly, the exhibition will be presented at Esker Foundation, Glenbow, Illingworth Kerr Gallery (IKG), and Nickle Galleries. This unique collaboration will encourage dialogue, debate, and a deeper understanding of local, regional, and national contemporary practice.

Much of the artwork in Oh, Canada embodies qualities often attributed to Canadians: curiosity, humour, absurdity and self deprecation. The artists selected by Markonish span multiple generations and work in all kinds of media. There are works that explore landscape and its powerful hold on the Canadian psyche; the exploration of the uncanny; aboriginal histories and the effects of colonialism; traditions of storytelling; the idea of the North, identity issues and the Canadian cultural mosaic; a return to craft and more. Oh, Canada proves that despite stereotypes and kitschy assumptions about what it means to be Canadian, out country and our creativity cannot be easily defined.

Artists featured at the IKG include Gisele Amantea, Amalie Atkins, Cedar Tavern Singers AKA Les Phonorealistes, Janice Wright Cheney, Ruth Cuthand, DaveandJenn, Eryn Foster, Kristan Horton, Sarah Anne Johnson, Clint Neufeld, Ned Pratt, Michael Snow, Charles Stankievech, And Mitchell Wiebe.