Chasm continues a series of recent exhibitions exploring the permanent collection at the McMaster Museum of Art through critical curatorial frameworks. This exhibition offers diverse and transcultural perspectives and interpretations of the museum’s holdings, including recent acquisitions.
Chasm takes the unique vantage point of critiquing the power dynamics of colonialism from within the museum, informed by the transcultural positions of resistance that seek Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation.
Guest curator and former M(M)A Senior Curator Pamela Edmonds, and M(M)A Adjunct Senior Curator Betty Julian present this critical and exploratory exhibition as a project making connections to art discourses and ideologies related to modernism, critiques of the white cube gallery, alterity, and ontological space. Our interests are to consider and to actively shift hegemonic paradigms through a radical rethinking of the exhibition space.
Our curatorial conversations on how to activate critical dialogue within museums through exhibitions are meant to encourage and expand informed engagement. Our critical and curatorial tasks have been to find ways through our work to redress and resist the cultural amnesia surrounding intersecting systems of colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism and the anti-Black racism inherent in the foundation of our art institutions.
The full exhibition will be available for viewing until December 8, our fourth floor will remain on view until January 26.
Artists: Marissa Y Alexander, Sonny Assu, Nicolas Baier, Catherine Blackburn, Deanna Bowen, Joseph Calleja, Douglas Clark, Chris Cran, Paul Cvetich, Cathy Daley, Max Dean, Stan Douglas, FASTWÜRMS, Gerald Ferguson, Yves Gaucher, Betty Goodwin, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Angela Grauerholz, Spring Hurlbut, Clarissa Inglis, Alfredo Jaar, Svava Thordis Juliusson, Anselm Kiefer, Kapwani Kiwanga, James Lahey, Rita Letendre, Gino Lorcini, Liz Magor, John Massey, Guido Molinari, Shelley Niro, Ed Pien, Margaret Priest, Arthur Renwick, Susan Schielle, Takao Tanabe, Michael Thompson, Graham Todd, Serge Tousignant, Jan Wade, Shellie Zhang
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 28, 5-8 PM
Please join us for an evening celebrating the opening of the collection exhibition Chasm, co-curated by Pamela Edmonds and Betty Julian. Remarks will begin at 6:30PM. We are excited to share that many of our exhibiting artists will be in attendance. This event is free and all are welcome!
Talk with Christina Leslie
Wednesday, October 25, 12:30-1:20 PM
Curators in Conversation
Wednesday, November 1, 12:30-1:20 PM Please register
Talk with Alex Jacobs-Blum This event was cancelled, please enjoy the virtual talk and tour here.
Left: Nicolas Baier, Octobre, 2000. Digital print on Duraflex paper mounted on rolled steel. Gift of Miriam Shiell, 2012.
Link to Publications Archive for a complete list of publications
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
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Barbara Astman, Carl Beam, Meryl McMaster, Sorel Cohen, Joseph Beuys, Bidemi Oloyede, Christina Leslie, Jeff Thomas, Micah Lexier, László Moholy-Nagy This exhibition brings together artworks drawn from the M(M)A permanent collection that present diverse ways of exploring self-imaging and subjectivity through different types of photo-based media. Expanding the genres of portraiture and self-portraiture, selected works […]
Coins in the McMaster Museum of Art: The Greek and Roman Collections
Ancient Greek and Roman coinage represents the intersection of politics, economics, and art; no other medium in the ancient world more closely reflects the decisions of administrations, the expectations of civic bodies, and detailed craftspersonship. Coins are among the most ubiquitous artifacts from Classical antiquity and despite their small size, are among the most instructive […]
This catalogue documents a multi-year art-science project called Immune Nations, produced on the occasion of its exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Initiated in 2014 and co-led by Steven Hoffman (York University), Sean Caulfield (University of Alberta), and Natalie Loveless (University of Alberta), Immune Nations brought together scientists, policy experts, […]
Peripheral Vision(s) includes scholarly essays by some of the most prominent Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices within the fields of Indigenous art history and art criticism today.
Animals Across Discipline, Time & Space brings together works by five North American artists who use animal imagery to critically and dramatically address how we animals interact with the world around us.
To promote and stimulate learning, interest and continued enjoyment about the visual arts, the Museum will organize an annual programme of temporary exhibitions for presentation year round.
Exhibition proposals/submissions are accepted on an on-going basis.
The Director/Curator will select and establish the annual exhibition programme in collaboration with the curatorial team. An exhibition schedule will be presented by the Director/Curator to the Advisory Board of the Museum once each year
PROCEDURE:
Proposals are accepted from artists and curators.
REQUIREMENTS:
10-20 digital images, project description, and CV.
Carol Podedworny, Director and Curator
McMaster Museum of Art
University Ave, McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L6 podedwo@mcmaster.ca
ASSISTANCE:
The McMaster Museum of Art is a third party recommender for Ontario Arts Council (OAC) Exhibition Assistance Grants.
The 2023-24 Exhibition Assistance Program opens on June 7, 2023, and closes on January 16, 2024. Our deadlines for the programming year are:
September 7, 2023, 1 p.m. ET
December 7, 2023, 1 p.m. ET
Please follow the guidelines established by the Ontario Arts Council, apply directly through their website, and submit the following with your applications:
Brief artist statement
Confirmation letter from the gallery/museum/venue
Budget
CV
Digital images of work