The Thomsons of Durham, an exhibition of historical art, offers an overview in pictures and text of the forty years Tom Thomson’s family lived in Durham Region. Photo panels feature information about Thomson himself (an early associate of the Group of Seven) and about Scottish immigration, the artist's home environment, and the family's connections with the 1837 Rebellion and the U.S. Civil War. Original art works by Tom Thomson share the limelight with the art of his siblings: Fraser, Henry, Margaret and George. The exhibition explores the influences of family heritage on their work as well as that of their famous brother.

W. J. Wood was a painter and printmaker from Midland, Ontario, who had strong connections to the Group of Seven, but remained on the fringes of their artistic milieu for much of his life. His preferred subject matter included intimate scenes of everyday life in a small community. The New North: W. J. Wood and the Group of Seven, the first show of his paintings in more than twenty years, brings together works loaned by the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Hart House at the University of Toronto, and private collectors within the region.

The Belleville Public Library Art Gallery is very pleased to present Inspired by the Group of Seven, a juried show of work in all media by our local artists. The main gallery will showcase the jurors' selections, while the outer gallery will play host to a number of works created by children from the community.

Horizons Canada highlights works from Glenhyrst's Permanent Collection, including etchings by Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, and A. Y. Jackson produced in collaboration with master printer Nicholas Hornyansky. Canadian landscape will further be explored through the drawings of Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald and David Milne; and paintings by A. J. Casson, Homer Watson, William Clapp and others. This exhibition offers interpretations of the Canadian landscape by several Group of Seven members as well as by artists whose work influenced or was influenced by the Group.

The Burlington Art Centre joins in the Group of Seven Project with a Spring landscape-based exhibition, Essence of Place. Five Ontario artists—Dawn White Beatty, Ursula Reese, Jim Reid, Rosemary Simpson, and Mary Toplack—draw inspiration from the Group to portray the Niagara Escarpment, offering varying approaches to imagery and interpretation.

This exhibition revisits the Group of Seven, an unconventional group brought together by work, friendship, and a passion for art and the outdoors, by initiating a dialogue with a group of seven present-day artists also addressing aspects of the natural environment. Simon Frank, Sue Detwiler, David Hind, Millie Chen, Tor Lukasik-Foss, Shelley Niro, and Reinhard Reitzenstein will each create an artwork in response to an original Group of Seven oil sketch. Done in the field, the oil sketches represent source material produced in direct response to natural surroundings. The selected sketches will now act as the impetus for the creation of seven new works. Cambridge Galleries would like to acknowledge the generous loan of artworks from the Permanent Collections of Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario and the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario.

Dennis Lukas, who was born and raised in Grimsby, recognized his calling as an artist early in life. As a teenager he initiated a friendship with A. Y. Jackson that continued for the remainder of Jackson's life. Lukas also studied with Arthur Lismer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, and was acquainted with Lawren Harris. Lukas's paintings show his familiarity with the works of the Group; in his personal reinterpretation of the landscape tradition created by these icons of Canadian art Lukas painted the equally iconic silhouette of a mountain form in a myriad of different contexts and colours. In other paintings his connection with the Group can be seen in the inspiration he draws from direct experience of the land.

For A. Y. Jackson, painting the picture was just the beginning; his involvement in the art world was all-encompassing. As artist, exhibitor, advocate, and collector, Jackson was the ideal patron of the arts and of artists. It was a role that suited him. Well-connected, knowledgeable, vocal, and determined to consolidate the place of the Group of Seven in the nation’s consciousness and its art history books, Jackson was extremely influential in shaping public collections. His connection with the Art Gallery of Hamilton and his friendship with the then director, T. R. MacDonald, during the crucial collection-building decades of the 1950s and 1960s allowed him to contribute an informal strategy whereby the Group of Seven member would help shape the Jackson Collection in Hamilton.

As the niece of the celebrated artist A. Y. Jackson, Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves grew up under the artistic influence and ideals of the Group of Seven. Her uncle was a particularly strong influence on her artistic style. His perception of Canadian identity as defined through the environment is evident in Groves's paintings. Her engagement with the Canadian landscape tradition, the Group of Seven and questions of cultural identity will be explored in an exhibition of selected paintings from the McMaster University collection. Teresa Gregorio, a fourth-year Art History student at the School of the Arts at McMaster University, is curator of the exhibition. A pamphlet will accompany the exhibition.

The F. B. Housser Memorial Collection provides an intimate view of the close-knit world of the Group of Seven and their associates in the 1920s and 1930s. Fred Housser wrote the first book on the Group and was a good friend of the artists. He and his first wife, Bess (an artist who later married Lawren Harris), were early private collectors of the Group's work. In 1944 the artist Yvonne McKague Housser, Fred’s second wife, donated the Collection to London’s new art gallery, laying the foundations for its modern Canadian art holdings, and providing a poignant testament to the bond between the donor and her husband, who died soon after their marriage. An Intimate Circle remounts the Collection with related works from other institutions.

The Varley Art Gallery in Unionville is celebrating several of the founding members of the Group of Seven with a new exhibition entitled Towards the Spiritual in Canadian Art. This exhibition focuses on the powerful spiritual elements in the work of Frederick Varley and Lawren Harris as well as some of their contemporaries, including Emily Carr and Alexandra Luke, and traces the line of descent to the next generation of Canadian artists, here represented by Betty Goodwin, Harold Klunder, Ted Rettig, and others. Works are drawn from the AGO collection, from Father Donovan's renowned collection at St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto, and from other private collections.

In artist/curator Dennis Geden's narrative accompanying this exhibition, he recounts stories his father used to tell about an adventure in Algonquin Park in 1924, convincing himself that Lawren Harris and his friends John D. Robins and Dr. Salem Bland were there too—and in Geden's telling, the story includes a new fate for Tom Thomson. The exhibit features the 1925 Harris portraits of Robins and Bland, several of Geden's own works, other historical works, old photographs, and various artefacts that relate to the narrative—though, in actuality, the narrative relates to the objects. In this case the short story illustrates the images. In the darker corners of his otherwise upbeat story, Geden relates the events of September 11, 2001 to the First World War, both events being stop-points for the Western world that eventually require refocusing on what matters and moving on. The "lost river" of the exhibition's title meanders so much it loses its course and needs help finding its way again.

Through generous loans from private sources and OMAH's permanent collection, the paintings, commercial designs and personal objects of Franklin Carmichael and contemporaries will be displayed and explored. In addition to his membership in the Group of Seven, Orillia's famous native son was also a respected commercial designer, teacher, illustrator, printmaker and founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour.

The artist and collector Isabel McLaughlin was born in Oshawa in 1903. Her passion for collecting grew from her enthusiasm for and vast knowledge of art, as well from her friendships with artists during a long life (she died in 2002 at the age of ninety-nine). Her collection has come to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in various stages, beginning with her initial gift in 1987 to commemorate the opening of the newly designed and expanded Gallery. Miss McLaughlin's gift is a testament not only to her generosity but also to the importance of the artist's eye in the practice of collecting. Of the 308 works she donated to the Gallery, thirty-nine are by members of Canada's famed Group of Seven. This exhibition is the Robert McLaughlin Gallery's contribution to the province-wide celebration of the eighty-fifth anniversary of the first exhibition of the Group of Seven.

At one time famously dubbed the "Hot Mush School," the Group of Seven are today considered national icons. Although their paintings are deeply loved by most Canadians, some present-day artists and art historians are critical of the image of Canada they represent. Hot Mush and the Cold North will explore some of the conflicts surrounding the art and mythology of the Group of Seven. It will include significant works by members of the Group from the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as responses to their subject matter by the artists Edward Burtynsky, Colwyn Griffith, Lorraine Gilbert, and Kent Monkman.

The Group of Seven first entered Carleton University's collection in 1970 when Mrs. Frances Barwick donated two Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald drawings from the collection of her brother, Douglas Duncan. The Barwicks had a major art collection of their own; their generous 1985 bequest to the University included work by A. Y. Jackson, F. H. Varley, Arthur Lismer and FitzGerald, as well as a substantial monetary gift, which allowed the Carleton University Art Gallery to be founded in 1992. Group Dynamics features paintings and works on paper by members of the Group of Seven donated to Carleton since 1970. The exhibition includes landscape paintings by J. E. H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris, and Jackson; Edwin Holgate prints; and portraits by Frederick Varley and Arthur Lismer.

In the time of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, the great Canadian wilderness became enshrined in the artistic consciousness of a young nation not just because of its extraordinary beauty, but also because it was seen as symbolic of the principles of purity, conservation, and majesty. This exhibition examines how the concept of "wilderness" was portrayed in the work of Thomson and the Group. The savage changeability of the northern landscape had a great influence on the painters' chosen mode of translation, particularly in the painting methods and stylistic constructs they developed.

We plan to juxtapose paintings by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven with modern-day large-scale works from our collection. The works we have selected share similar landscape subjects and key compositional elements, such as the treatment of light, and in each painting, the artist has taken a parallel viewpoint in the execution of their work. For instance, the effect of the white swirling waters emerging from the darkness in Tom Thomson’s A Rapid (1915), in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, is echoed in David Bierk’s painted photograph of a waterfall in Algoma.

Beginning in the 1920s, Fredrick Simpson Coburn depicted Canadians in their relation to the land. In scenes from his rural life in Northern Quebec, Coburn often included people and horses working the land, showing them as willingly dependants of a powerful wilderness. Along with his contemporaries, Coburn felt there was a need in Canadian art for pictures of real people at work in their country. The exhibition, The Noted Landscape, will include sketched drawings by F. S. Coburn; these sketches are beautiful in their economy of line and subtle use of colour. They are a reminder of the vast number of preliminary paintings done by the Group of Seven. In both paintings by the Group and sketches by Coburn one can quickly identify the immediate focus of the artist, as well as the certainty in the artist's hand as he worked to communicate his sense of the landscape. This exhibit demonstrates one of the Group's most important techniques in capturing Canada’s changing landscape. To illustrate the landscape of Norfolk we have also selected Folk Art pieces from private and public collections from the area, including our own Permanent Collection.

Lawren Harris is a household name in Canada and his stark and cool paintings of mountains and lakes have achieved an iconic status in our national cultural imagery. This summer Gallery Stratford is pleased to be a participant in the province-wide celebration of the 85th anniversary of the Group of Seven’s first exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Eight paintings by Lawren Harris are on loan from the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, including the stupendous Lake and Mountains, the centrepiece of the exhibition. Harris was convinced that art must express spiritual values as well as representing the visible world. He traveled to the north shore of Lake Superior in 1921 and returned there for the next seven years, seeking to convey the spirit of the northern Canadian landscape. In his later work he moved away from landscape and representation into abstraction. In the selection of paintings included in Lawren Harris: From Landscape into Abstraction, the natural progression from the four monumental landscape paintings of Lake Superior, the Rocky Mountains and Baffin Island towards the four, stunning abstract paintings is made visible. Encapsulated within Gallery Stratford’s exhibition is the dramatic revelation of an art historical shift in Canadian painting.

There can be no doubt that Franklin Carmichael was passionate about the landscape of Northern Ontario. This exhibition of his work reflects on his experience in the northern region and captures its distinctive spirit. Rhythmic forms of land, water, sky, and cloud infuse the work with the energy that Franklin must have felt as he painted these plein-air works. The exhibition includes selected sketches, which give an intimate view of the artistic process and Carmichael's personal experiences within the region. Fully rendered oil paintings and a selection of Carmichael’s renowned watercolours confirm his connectedness to the land and his contribution to Canadian art.

Could Chiarandini have influenced the works of Carmichael, Lismer, Casson, Harris, and A. Y. Jackson? He painted and exhibited with them, but, due to his outspoken temperament, Chiarandini never got to show his work in the galleries of the day—he was blackballed. He continued on with his work and eventually received accolades from his colleagues as well as from the prestigious O.S.A. (Ontario Society of Artists). Today, over sixty years later, Albert Chiarandini’s works are in private collections the world over, and we are thrilled to own a large, permanently displayed Chiarandini Collection (donated by Mr. Bruce Smith) here at the Georgina Arts Centre & Gallery. So, was it the Group of Seven who influenced Chiarandini, or was it Chiarandini who influenced them? Come on in and decide for yourself!

During the early years of Hart House Theatre, members of the Group of Seven participated in re-conceptualizing stage design. Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson all contributed to a series of stunning set and costume design for productions. Lismer became art director for the Theatre during a brief period in the 1920s, and went on to direct his Stage Design course at the Ontario College of Art to keep inventing and constructing sets for Hart House. This exhibition will include both elements taken from these designs, including an 8’ x 8’ painted silk drop attributed to Lismer, and a set rendering by MacDonald for the Chester Mysteries, staged in 1920. Pegi Nicol McLeod and Fred Coates, contemporaries of the Group of Seven and important figures to the practice of set design at Hart House Theatre, will also be featured. The exhibition juxtaposes examples of set design from the theatre with works by all artists taken from the Hart House Permanent Collection, offering a compelling example of how works from the stage and the studio can inform each other.

In May 1920 the Group of Seven held their first exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Throughout the years, Toronto Public Library has collected illustrated books, graphic designs, prints, catalogues, vertical files, photographs, and publications of all kinds that were either designed by members of the Group of Seven, or were written by others about them. Ranging from original paintings to souvenir postcards, the Group of Seven exhibition in the TD Gallery examines one of Canada's most influential artist collectives.

This exhibition will include many of the familiar favourites among the paintings by the Group and their contemporaries held in the University of Toronto Art Centre collections. It will explore the Group’s point of view toward nature, especially as related to/inspired by period poetry. Quotations from relevant poems will be included in the accompanying wall texts/labels. The University of Toronto Art Curator, Liz Wylie, will be assisted in creating this exhibition by a group of University of Toronto Fine Art Department students registered in the department’s exhibition course, who are working under her supervision.

This summer and fall, the AGO celebrates the eighty-fifth anniversary of the Group of Seven's first show with an intimate exhibition featuring works by Arthur Lismer, including paintings, drawings, works on paper, and other archival material, all from the Gallery’s permanent collection. This installation highlights Lismer’s achievements as a prominent member of the Group, as well as his later work. An accompanying installation will focus on his role as an educator and his legacy as founder of the AGO's Gallery School in 1930.

In association with the exhibition Cities of Canada, McMichael presents Urban Images: All That We Can't Leave Behind, an exhibition that engages the relationship between the urban landscape and the mythic wilderness in Canadian art and culture. Drawing on the collections of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Art Gallery of Ontario, the exhibition considers the significance of the urban for artists creating images of the unpeopled landscape of the north. The urban—all that we can’t leave behind—becomes the unseen but defining backdrop and suggests that the widely accepted idea of the "true north" as wilderness is firmly rooted in the artists’ urban experience. Focusing primarily on the work of Lawren Harris, the exhibition also includes major works by Kathleen Daly Pepper, George Pepper, Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, Calvin Atkins and A. J. Casson.

The Station Gallery is partnering with a Port Whitby neighbour, the Captain James Rowe House, to present The Great Canadian Landscape. To celebrate the Group of Seven’s passionate visions of Canada’s rich landscape, the gallery’s annual art competition will feature views of the Group of Seven's work by present-day Ontario artists working in all media. The exhibition is being mounted while the Gallery undergoes a major expansion, and it will be complemented by young people’s interpretations of our vast and beautiful land.

Paintings of uninhabited wilderness landscapes by Group of Seven members and their contemporaries have become icons of Canadian identity. The AGW’s upcoming exhibition, A Screen of Trees, focuses on other themes explored by the Group of Seven and their colleagues, including scenes of industrialization, urbanization, and technology, as well as the representation of women, aboriginal groups, and other diverse communities. A Screen of Trees questions the Romantic notion of Canada encouraged by the work of many artists and scholars, giving a more balanced view by revealing the absence or presence of specific economic, social, and cultural realities in Canadian art in the years between 1910 and 1950.