Art at the G7 Summit

Sara Angelucci works across photography, video and audio, exploring the social and historical contexts within which images are created, from family albums to found photographs. The Nocturnal Botanical Ontario series is a close study of local plants. Working at night, Angelucci wandered through urban areas and Crown lands to photograph the details of flora and fauna. The resulting photographs invite reflection on the diverse species found on the land, their plight in the face of today’s ecological challenges and the importance of environmental stewardship.

Kenojuak Ashevak was an internationally celebrated Inuit artist whose art practice led to the development of the contemporary Inuit drawing and printmaking tradition. Her colourful works have played a significant role in defining Canada’s visual identity, and are recognized around the world for their bold forms and strong emblematic composition. Many of her works feature Arctic birds, specifically owls and ravens, allowing Ashevak to explore compositional devices of balance, colour, form and texture, while playfully conveying Inuit oral histories.

Amalie Atkins is a Ukrainian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in storytelling, often exploring ancestral connections, reasons communities flee their homelands and the ways they persevere. The film The Diamond Eye Assembly, from which this image is drawn, is based on the culture, sites and mythologies of the Ukrainian Doukhobors and Mennonites who settled in the Prairie region. Through a folktale-like aesthetic, Atkins depicts women going about everyday tasks—celebrating the resilience of the artist’s ancestors and culture.

Pierre Aupilardjuk

b. 1965, Repulse Bay, Nunavut
Lives and works in Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), Nunavut

Shary Boyle

b. 1972, Toronto, Ontario
Lives and works in Toronto, Ontario

John Kurok

b. 1977, Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), Nunavut
Lives and works in Kangiqliniq, Nunavut

This collaborative sculpture by Inuit ceramicists Pierre Aupilardjuk and John Kurok, in collaboration with Toronto-based artist Shary Boyle, is the result of a month-long artist residency at Medalta, a world-renowned ceramic arts facility in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Working together, these three artists of different backgrounds, cultures, genders and ages created an imaginative and dynamic depiction of the Inuit sea goddess Nuliajuk conversing with other spiritual entities. A key figure in Inuit cosmologies, Nuliajuk is a symbol of the interconnectedness between humans and the natural world, highlighting our dependence on the environment—and on one another.

Calgary artist Ashleigh Bartlett explores the interplay between representation and abstraction in her work, reflecting on the historical trajectory of painting through a feminist lens and strategies like collage and translation. Growing Pains explores colour and form, creating a sense of movement, depth and complexity. The title of this work evokes the discomfort that often accompanies growth, reflecting the broader reality that, despite the many challenges of working together, cooperation is vital to meaningful collective success.

Quebecois artist Jean-Jacques Besner was a commercial and interior designer whose work was at the intersection of art and technology. He is known for his modernist public artworks and metal sculptures, and for his contribution to the Expo ‘67. With its interplay of light and shadow, Son de flûte (flute sound)is an example of the artist’s interest in aesthetics and movement.

Catherine Blackburn is a multidisciplinary Dënesųłinë artist and jeweller known for contemporary interpretations of traditional Indigenous art forms. Beadwork is a major aspect of her practice, as she combines historical and contemporary techniques to address subjects of Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization and representation. Inspired by her late grandmother’s talent for garment making and beadwork, Bodies and Homelands shows the artist seated with her back to the camera, wearing an embroidered deer hide cloak.

Ukrainian Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky is one of Canada’s most celebrated photographers. He is known for his large-scale photos that examine the relationship between industry and the natural environment. His visually striking images both captivate and underscore the widespread impacts of human activity on the environment. Through this photographic form of activism, Burtynsky highlights the need for sustainability while also celebrating the enduring beauty in the world—even in landscapes altered by human presence.

Jack Hamilton Bush is one of Canada’s most renowned painters, achieving international success with his large-scale abstract canvases. With a keen eye for colour, light, composition and form, Bush would often move between paintings and prints to explore his artistic ideas and concepts. Over the course of his long career, he experimented with colour and technique to explore the joy found in everyday experiences. Slow Lean exemplifies his use of bold colour, strong lines and asymmetrical balance to create striking works of playful simplicity.

Paul Butler is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in community, collaboration and artist-led activity. In addition to his longstanding studio practice, Butler is the creator of The Collage Party, a nomadic collective studio that has invited people of all backgrounds and artistic levels to come together and create collages in a social setting for more than 20 years. Someone, with its merging of human form and natural imagery, evokes themes of harmony, unity and interdependence between people and their environment.

Mark Dicey is a painter who creates colourful abstract works inspired by the history and development of abstract art. His paintings feature dynamic colours, undulating lines and layered textures and shapes drawn from direct observations of his day-to-day life, creating a sense of rhythm and energy. Above & Below is highly representative of Dicey’s work, featuring intense colours and layered shapes. His distinct visual style and commitment to spontaneity reflect his engagement with the tradition of abstraction as a dynamic and evolving process, rather than a fixed historic style.

Erik Gamble was an abstract painter whose vibrant abstract works explore colour, shape, line and texture. His works are emotionally robust and symphonically resonant, often visually connecting with his passion for music. Cunning Stunts features Gamble’s loose brushwork and tendency to define space with colour and texture rather than with heavy linework, which gives his work a spontaneous quality befitting his exploratory approach to painting.

Claude Goulet was a Canadian abstract painter who worked in a variety of media and techniques. Whether using oil and mixed media or less conventional materials like sand, he created textured geometric compositions capturing a dynamic interplay of colour, light and perception. Equilibre énergetique (energy balance) is a term that refers to the balance between energy absorbed and energy expended. As a result, the work helps highlight the importance of balanced energy production and consumption to ensure an efficient use of resources and the maintenance of a healthy whole.

Shawn Hunt is an Heiltsuk artist who combines his Scottish, French and First Nations heritage to push the boundaries of traditional Northwest Coast formline design. In his work, he uses innovative materials and motifs to create abstract, surreal and sculptural artworks based on ancestral Heiltsuk cosmology. The Race is a dreamscape scene capturing the modern sentiment of “keeping up” while still connecting to cultural identities. This work, in conjunction with the Amalie Atkins photograph, evokes the idea of moving forward together in collaboration and community

Alexander Young (A. Y.) Jackson was one of the most influential painters in Canadian art history and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Focusing almost exclusively on landscapes, Jackson was interested in depictions of the land that combined authentic representation with a bold, colourful and reverent expression of place. His work captured a monumental and optimistic time in Canadian history by showcasing the connection to the land as a form of national pride and identity. Algoma Landscape, donated by Maryon E. Pearson to Global Affairs Canada, captures the rugged beauty of the Algoma region in Northern Ontario.

Alex Janvier was a member of the Cold Lake First Nations and one of Canada’s most acclaimed artists. Janvier was instrumental in bringing Indigenous art to the global stage, where it earned recognition as an important contemporary practice. His paintings blend abstract and representational images with bright, often symbolic colours and curved line work to convey the cyclical nature of life as well as healing, humility and rebirth. Pond Wader is characteristic of Janvier’s approach to composition, with a central burst of colour radiating outwards, and reflecting the vibrancy of the land and waters that connect all living things.

Roy Kiyooka was a multidisciplinary Japanese-Canadian artist and an important figure in Western Canadian art. Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Calgary, Kiyooka explored themes of identity, displacement and culture. Squared Hex features a pattern that evokes traditional Japanese woodcutting motifs restrained in a series of squares, reflecting the experiences of many Canadians navigating cultural identity within the confines of a dominant culture.

Rita Letendre was a celebrated Quebecois-Abenaki painter known for abstract works featuring dynamic forms and shapes. Grounded in metaphors of light, darkness and movement, Letendre’s practice was an ongoing commitment to the process of discovering the self and established her as a key figure in Canadian art history. Méar features Letendre’s vibrant colour palette and signature arrow motif, which she increasingly incorporated into her work as her interest in her Indigenous heritage grew.

Nigerian-born Canadian artist Emmanuel Osahor explores beauty as an essential element of survival and a precursor to thriving. Reflecting a reverence for the natural world, his immersive paintings depict garden spaces as complex sanctuaries, blending reality and imagination to evoke human care while addressing the social inequalities that hinder or limit access to such spaces. For Osahor, these garden spaces layered with paradox are often contested sites of privilege that offer leisure, escape and refuge, requiring constant care, social awareness and environmental stewardship.

Caroline Ouellette is a Quebecois artist whose work explores the medium of glass and themes of resistance and fragility. Taking the form of a vase or decanter, Chardon (thistle) highlights the utility of glass while also incorporating elements of its floral namesake. The tension between traditional and contemporary forms celebrates the beauty of innovation and the ways humans work with and transform natural materials.

Serbian-born Maritime artist Maja Padrov explores the sculptural possibilities of functional pottery and glaze chemistry. She is interested in different media and the way they can be emulated and reinterpreted using basic studio pottery techniques, such as wheel throwing and hand building, or extensive glaze testing. Crafted from high-fired stoneware, Articulate showcases her skill in combining traditional methods with innovative approaches.

Finnish-born Maritime artist Sanna Rahola is known for her intricate handmade felt works, in which she layers carded wool to form vivid images and unique compositions that often resemble pastel or paint. Building on a long tradition of winter landscapes in Canadian art history, Rahola transforms a familiar subject using textile. Acadian Forest is particularly notable for its custom-made live-sawn yellow birch frame. By embedding materials pictured in the scene, Rahola brings the Maritime forest to life.

Sabrina Ratté is a Canadian multimedia artist living and working in Paris, France. She uses emerging media techniques to create digital ecosystems that explore the connection between technology and nature. Using tools like virtual reality and animation, Ratté imagines the evolution of new worlds, particularly without humanity. For this self portrait, the artist used 3D scans of her own body to investigate the place of the female body in both the digital world and in nature. Here, Ratté’s cyborg/goddess claims her rightful space in this lush—albeit simulated—setting.

Jean Paul Riopelle is considered one of the most important Canadian artists of the twentieth century. A prolific artist, he is best known for his large-scale abstract expressionist paintings, which he created by applying thick layers of colour with a trowel or palette knife. Riopelle’s signature technique is visible in this painting from the mid-1950s, a brilliant example of the artist’s skill during his most influential period. The work has a dramatic handling of pigment, exploring texture and form while emphasizing movement and spontaneity.

Enookie Saggiak's diverse practice is influenced by the Arctic landscape and his Inuit heritage. His sculptures, which incorporate natural materials and traditional motifs, build on both a rich tradition of Inuit artistry as well as a thriving contemporary art scene in the community of Kinngait. Snowmobile celebrates a vital mode of transportation while evoking the unique contemporary experience of living in the North through the use of hyper-local materials such as stone and antler.

Moses Salihou is a Cameroonian-Canadian painter who blends portraiture and abstraction to explore themes of identity, community and belonging. His work is deeply informed by his African origins and his experiences in North American society, which can be seen in his thick application of paint with a palette knife, a distinct technique used by renowned Canadian painter Jean Paul Riopelle, whose work is also displayed at the G7 Leader’s Summit. Salihou applies this technique in Homme (Portrait 2), creating a textural intensity that mirrors the internal complexities of identity alongside the external markers of culture.

George Sawchuk was a self-taught sculptor who created environmental installations integrating art with the natural world. Working mainly in wood and found objects, he was known for creating and maintaining a Forest Gallery in the area around his British Columbia home. Rebirth illustrates his unique approach to sculpture and his deep connection to nature, combining found objects and natural materials to create a dialogue between the man-made and the natural world.

Robin Smith Peck is a mixed-media artist who works in painting, printmaking and collage. Her work explores personal memory and what it means to be human. Originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, Smith Peck has lived and worked in Alberta for some time. Drawing inspiration from remote Northern communities and natural environments, she creates layered, textural compositions that evoke landscape and traces of memory. Swimming on the ‘C’ Side exemplifies her ability to delve into the intricacies of the human experience and natural and built environments.

Sheila Spence is a photographer, activist and arts administrator living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her lens-based works investigate themes of identity, community and representation. Deeply inspired by her prairie home, she has spent her career documenting the people and places that surround her. In this triptych of photos, Spence highlights the nuance of the prairie landscape, reflecting her close relationship with her home environment.

Jeremy Stanbridge is a painter and printmaker from British Columbia who explores the interplay of colour, shape and perspective to create visual illusions. His work examines how these elements influence optical perception, contributing to the op art (optical art) painting genre. Abstract Painting (Goforcrysham) features a delicately rendered abstract surface with soft blurring and subtle colouring. With a tartan-like design evoking his mother’s Scottish roots, this work plays with light, shape and illusion.

Jim Thomson was an Ottawa-based artist who worked in clay to create unique and experimental ceramics. His sculptures of everyday objects took on architectural or other transformative forms, making them seem unfamiliar. His ceramics are characterized by unusual shapes and sharp edges, rough textures and dark, earthy tones. The View From Here, Dark perfectly illustrates Thomson’s approach, evoking layers of sediment or bedrock through glazing and texture.

Inspired by the natural world and known for using challenging glass techniques, Ione Thorkelsson sources materials from the world around her to create speckled textures and unique colours. Reflecting a deep connection to the land, many of her works use casts created from found objects such as skeletons, feathers, roots and trees. These vases are named for the bright red of the cardinal—a vividly coloured bird common in many parts of Eastern Canada, but a rare sighting in the artist’s home province of Manitoba as well as in Alberta.

Yves Trudeau was a prominent sculptor whose modernist style and innovative public art works significantly shaped the artistic landscape in Quebec. Trudeau was involved with several associations to promote the rights and status of artists during his life. Mur Fermé et Ouvert, meaning “closed and open wall,”is one of a series of similarly titled works that explore the contrast of openness, signifying light and hope, and a walling off, symbolizing sorrow and hate. The simplified forms, industrial materials and integrated message are characteristic of Trudeau’s larger oeuvre.

Bert Weir was a painter, eco-activist and former member of the Canadian Armed Forces from Parry Sound, Ontario. He was known for his colourful, semi-abstract works, often rooted in the intrinsic relationship between the natural and spiritual worlds. Owl Lake Reflections is characteristic of Weir’s renderings of the northern Ontario wilderness, depicting the rippling waves of the Ontario lake where Weir resided every summer.

Jessica Winters is an Inuk artist from Labrador whose detailed paintings reflect both scientific and culturally informed knowledge. Her practice is heavily influenced by her studies in biology, which she leverages to advocate for the preservation and protection of the Arctic environment and Inuit ways of life. Winters’ photorealist depictions of lichen, granite and snow are created through a sustained process of observation, conveying her keen curiosity and an intimate knowledge of the tundra.

Kyran Yeomans is a Haida carver, photographer and filmmaker who comes from a long line of esteemed Haida artists. His works, ranging from detailed miniatures to monumental totem poles, blend traditional Haida design with contemporary aesthetics. Sunrise is a bronze panel featuring a sun figure, reflecting the sun’s vital role as a source of energy and life, and its symbolic connection to cycles of life and seasonal transformation. It highlights the artist’s respect for his heritage and the central role of nature and the environment in Haida art and culture.

Jinny Yu is a Korean-Canadian artist, educator and self-identified global nomad. Through painting, Yu examines the nature of migration and movement, reflects on relationships between social groups, and explores her own identity. She extracts patterns from her experiences of different cultures and places, creating abstract works that speak to her sense of belonging and detachment stemming from her experiences of immigration and relocation.

Mary Yuusipik Singaqti was an Inuk seamstress and artist. She belonged to the last generation of Inuit who experienced the nomadic way of life before relocating into the permanent settlement of Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), Nunavut. Winter Scene/Summer Scene is a tapestry featuring different Inuit seasonal experiences on the land in the Arctic. It celebrates the longstanding and sustainable use of natural resources while celebrating the Arctic experience as an integral part of Canadian identity.