This exhibition examines the ways in which artists, across time and cultures, have depicted war. It orchestrates a dialogue between historical pieces from the McMaster Museum of Art collection and contemporary works by artists from geographies affected by present-day turmoil, particularly Southwest Asia. Unlike their predecessors, these artists do not merely capture battle scenes and tragic casualties. Instead, they employ nuanced conceptual approaches based on lived experience, raising critical questions about the detrimental legacies of conflict. They emphasize how war evades representation, and elucidate the immense losses, ruptures, and agonies that constitute the reality of the world’s interconnected societies.

The M(M)A collection offers traditional portrayals of war, to be scrutinized like archival materials that emerged from specific contexts. Complementing them are recent artistic productions that interrogate war’s less perceptible horrors. Whereas the collection features conventional mediums, the contemporary time-based works—characteristically elusive, ephemeral, and dynamic—shed light on the futility of capturing the multifaceted and far-reaching impact of organized violence. The exhibition identifies conflict as the culprit behind the most harrowing calamities of our time, including mass destruction, dispossession, and displacement. War has long cast a dark shadow over human history, but art has increasingly helped reveal the abuses of power, as well as the alarming fragility of our collective existence.

Art bears witness, levels critique, and catalyzes resistance, especially at a time when war continues to wreak havoc at an unimaginable scale. For artists to foreground war is not to transport us to an anomalous realm, that of strangers in distant, unfathomable places. Communities here in Canada, as well as elsewhere, suffer the devastating repercussions of armed aggressions, which obliterate countless lives and haunt survivors with perpetual trauma. For many, war’s all-encompassing harm is eternal, lurking all around.* This exhibition is an invitation to contemplate the role that art can play in creating spaces for empathy and reckoning.

Exhibition Dates: August 14, 2025–October 31, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 25, 5 – 8pm (remarks at 6pm)

This exhibition features works by invited contemporary artists Noor Abed, Haig Aivazian, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Mona Hatoum, Lamia Joreige, Hussein Nassereddine, and Raeda Saadeh, in dialogue with historical works from the M(M)A collection, by artists Jost Amman, Otto Dix, Albrecht Dürer, Francisco Goya, William Hogarth, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, Antonio Tempesta, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Utagawa Yoshiiku, and Ichieisai Yoshitsuya.

*The exhibition’s title is borrowed from Sargon Boulus’ poem Daughter of War (2008).

For accessibility/accommodations concerns or requests, please email museum@mcmaster.ca

Cover Image: Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, still from Ali’s Boat, 2015, single-channel animation film, 6:37 minutes, black and white, sound. Courtesy of the artist.

Curator biography:

Amin Alsaden is a curator, scholar, and educator whose work focuses on transnational solidarities and exchanges across cultural boundaries. With a commitment to advancing social justice through the arts, Alsaden’s curatorial practice contributes to the dissemination of more diverse, inclusive, and global narratives by challenging hegemonic knowledge and power structures. His scholarly research examines modern and contemporary art globally, with specific expertise in the Arab-Muslim world and its diasporas. He has lectured and published widely, and regularly serves as an invited speaker, critic, and jury member at various art, curatorial, and design programs.