🌷 NOW OPEN 🌷
Helen McNicoll’s luminous Impressionist paintings capture tranquil urban and rural scenes. She portrays women and children working, playing and immersed in quiet moments of daily life.
📖 Read about these works in Helen McNicoll: Light, Colour and Modernism, by Katerina Atanassova, in the NGC Magazine ➡️ link in bio
🎟️ Book your ticket now!
Created and organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, adapted by the National Gallery of Canada. 🏛️
🤝 The exhibition at the NGC is generously supported by the Balsillie Family Foundation and the Pierre Lassonde Family Foundation, Major Donors; the National Gallery of Canada Foundation; and Heffel Fine Art Auction House, Supporting Sponsor.
#HelenMcNicoll
🖼️ Helen McNicoll, A Welcome Breeze, c. 1909, oil on canvas, 50.8 × 61 cm. Balsillie Collection. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
Bring your binoculars!
One of the most significant but also discrete sculptures on the Lassonde Art Trail was just installed. "Roman Standard" by the internationally renowned artist @traceyeminstudio can be spotted on the south side of the new Don River mouth. The sculpture features a small bird perching on a pole in Emin's reinterpretation of the Roman standard—an emblem mounted on a staff that once identified a military legion, serving as a rallying point in battle
"Roman Standard" is exhibited on the Art Trail through a special partnership with the @natgallerycan Purchased by the Gallery in 2015, the work was previously exhibited inside the gallery in Ottawa. This is the first time the sculpture is exhibited outdoors as part of the Gallery’s National Engagement initiative, in an environment where it will be experienced by visitors to this destination park from across Canada and beyond.
Tracey Emin, "Roman Standard". Photo: @artinfact_0052 and @ryanwalkerphoto Courtesy DACS, London / CARCC Ottawa 2026, LAT, NGC and @whitecube
N'oubliez pas vos jumelles!
L’une des sculptures les plus importantes, mais aussi les plus discrètes, du Sentier d’art Lassonde vient d’être installée. « Étendard romain », de l’artiste de renommée internationale Tracey Emin, se trouve du côté sud de la nouvelle embouchure de la rivière Don. La sculpture présente un petit oiseau perché sur un poteau, dans la réinterprétation qu'Emin fait de l’étendard romain — un emblème monté sur une hampe qui identifiait autrefois une légion militaire et servait de point de ralliement au combat.
« Étendard romain » est exposée sur le Sentier d’art grâce à un partenariat spécial avec le Musée des beaux-arts du Canada. Acquise par le Musée en 2015, l’œuvre était auparavant exposée à l’intérieur du musée à Ottawa. C’est la première fois que la sculpture est exposée en plein air dans le cadre de l’initiative de Rayonnement national du Musée, dans un environnement où elle peut être admirée par les visiteurs au parc venus de partout au Canada et d’ailleurs.
@mbacanada #biidaasigepark #publicart #artnaturewatercity
Meet the Ontario artists longlisted for the 2026 Sobey Art Award 🎨
◼️ Nadia Belerique received her MFA from the University of Guelph. Her collaborative public sculpture with Tony Romano for the Lassonde Art Trail in Toronto will be unveiled in Summer 2026.
◻️ Nour Bishouty is a multidisciplinary artist working across video, sculpture, writing and artist publishing. Her work has been exhibited at Museo Universitario del Chopo, Liverpool Biennial, Art Jameel in Jeddah, La biennale de Québec, Casa Arabe in Madrid, and the Beirut Art Centre in Lebanon.
◼️Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, a Japanese-Canadian artist, brings together historical craft technologies from her heritage. Her recurring motifs of landscapes, fish, and water speak to personal and collective experiences of struggle, resilience, and survival.
◻️ Lotus L. Kang’s practice unfolds across sculpture, photography and site-responsive installation. Her materially dense, non-linear installations metabolize and translate themes drawn from industrial and architectural forms, familial and social histories, poetry and non-human figures, among others.
◼️ Oluseye Ogunlesi has exhibited internationally at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and Southern Guild in Cape Town, South Africa. In Canada, exhibition venues include the Art Gallery of Ontario, MOCA Toronto, the Gardiner Museum, as well as the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Learn more about the artists ➡️ link in bio
#SobeyArtAward2026
Recognized as the first woman to carve totem poles professionally, Ellen Neel was a Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw woodcarver. She supported her family with her art and sold many of her carvings at a stand in Stanley Park. Along with Freda Diesing and Doreen Jensen, they paved the way for generations of carvers.
🎟️ Book your ticket to see Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast, an exhibition organized by the Audain Art Museum ➡️ link in bio
🤝 With support from the Audain Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.
#WomenCarvers
🖼️ Ellen Neel, Totem Pole Model, 1955, red cedar, pigment; 86 × 45 × 22 cm. Museum of Vancouver Collection (AA 1768a-c). Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Vancouver
Meet the Quebec artists longlisted for the 2026 Sobey Art Award 🎨
◼️ Marie-Michelle Deschamps explores issues of meaning and analysis through metaphor, connection and association. She has an MFA from the Glasgow School of Arts and her work has been exhibited at the Musée d'art de Joliette, MUDAM Luxembourg, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, among others.
◻️ Chun Hua Catherine Dong (she/they) is a Chinese-born artist based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Dong received degrees from Concordia University and Emily Carr University of Art + Design and has exhibited their works at the Museo de la Cancillería MX and the Hubei Museum of Fine Art, among others.
◼️ Frantz Patrick Henry is a Montreal-based artist. He received degrees from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and the Yale School of Art. He completed a fellowship at NXTHVN in Connecticut, was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts Explore and Create Grant.
◻️ Liza Lacroix’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as Casino Luxembourg, Neue Galerie Gladbeck, and Consortium Museum. Her work is permanently held in collections such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Astrup Fearnley Museet and the Elgiz Museum.
◼️ Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist of Anishinaabe and French ancestry, based in Mooniyang (Montreal) and originally from the Outaouais region. Her work has been featured in the KØS Museum, the The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, and the National Gallery of Canada, among others.
➡️ Learn more about the artists ➡️ link in bio
#SobeyArtAward2026
The relationship between mother and child is a fundamental aspect of human experience – complex, universal, yet deeply personal – and it’s a subject that has inspired artists for centuries.
The Gallery’s collection contains many different works representing motherhood – from religious imagery revering the divine Madonna and Child, to tender portrayals of human love, to works reflecting more complicated dynamics.
As an art form, sculpture has a unique ability to render the emotional bond in a material way – the mother and child are literally made of the same stuff. Viewed from different angles, sculptures also reveal unexpected details when we take the time to look and reflect.
Marking Mother’s Day, a new article in the NGC Magazine takes a close look at four touching sculptures of mother and child, all currently on display at the Gallery.
📖 Read the article by Chelsea Osmond by visiting the link in bio.
#MothersDay #MotherAndChild #Sculpture
🖼️ Jules Dalou, A Young Mother from Boulogne Feeding her Child, 1876. Painted terracotta, 137 cm. Purchased 2014. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo: NGC
Meet the Atlantic artists longlisted for the 2026 Sobey Art Award 🎨
◼️ Carrie Allison is a multidisciplinary visual artist of nêhiýaw/Métis/European descent, based in K’jipuktuk (Halifax). Her maternal roots and relations are based in maskotewisipiy (High Prairie, Alberta) on Treaty 8 territory. Allison’s making involves technologies, customary and otherwise, that activate slowness.
◻️ Chris Donovan is a lens-based artist, documentary photographer, emerging curator and educator of Acadian and Irish descent, living in Menahqesk (Saint John, New Brunswick). He is the founder of a new lens-based art festival called Photo E(a)st, and of The Globe Photo Academy.
◼️ Chantal Khoury is an artist of Lebanese descent, born in New Brunswick and living in Montreal. She had recent solo exhibitions at Bradley Ertaskiran, and the Nicodim Gallery . Her work is in the collections of AMOCA and the Art Gallery of Guelph, among others.
◻️ Jude Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist who explores themes of culture, displacement and belonging. She has an MFA from the University of Windsor, and an Interdisciplinary Arts PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
◼️ Shane Perley-dutcher is a Wolastokew (Maliseet) visual artist and metalsmith from the Wolastokiyik Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in New Brunswick. His practice transforms traditions of Wabanaki ash basketry by weaving metal splints into imaginative, mixed-media basket sculptures.
➡️ Learn more about the artists ➡️ link in bio
#SobeyArtAward2026
One of the New Brunswick Museum’s most beloved paintings is on loan to the @natgallerycan in Ottawa. 🎨
Helen Galloway McNicoll’s The Farmyard is featured in Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey, on view at the National Gallery of Canada from 8 May to 12 October 2026.
Originally purchased in 1915 by the Saint John Art Club for its teaching collection, the work was acquired following the ten-city tour of the Canadian Artists’ Patriotic Fund Exhibition. Canadian artists donated eighty paintings to be sold in aid of the Patriotic Fund, supporting First World War relief efforts.
The Farmyard has been a visitor favourite since entering the New Brunswick Museum collection in 1995.
Helen Galloway McNicoll (Canadian, 1879–1915)
The Farmyard, c. 1908
Oil on canvas, 71 × 86 cm
Saint John Art Club Collection, 1995 (1995.26.26)
New Brunswick Museum Collection
Abbas Akhavan: Entre chien et loup was unveiled as the installation for the Canada Pavilion in the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Thank you to all our partners for their invaluable support. 👏
🪴 Partners: National Gallery of Canada Foundation; Canada Council for the Arts
🪷 Exhibition Partners: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Botanical Garden of the University of Padua
🏛 Institutional Partners: The Art Gallery of Hamilton (ON), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (NS), AGO - Art Gallery of Ontario (ON), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (NB), CAB - Centre d'art (QC), Concordia University, Faculty of Fine Arts (QC), Confederation Centre of the Arts (PE), Contemporary Calgary (AB), Fogo Island Arts (NL), Koffler Arts (ON), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (QC), Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC, QC), PHI (QC), Plug In ICA on behalf of Michael Nesbitt (MB), Remai Modern (SK), University of British Columbia Faculty of Arts and Office of the Provost & VP Academic (BC), and Winnipeg Art Gallery Qaumajuq on behalf of Michael Nesbitt (MB).
📖 Learn more about the exhibition ➡️ link in bio
#CanadaPavilion #AbbasAkhavan
#BiennaleArte2026 #LaBiennaleDiVenezia
Mark your calendars! 🔆
Join us for the opening celebration of Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey, the dazzling exhibition created and organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, adapted by the National Gallery of Canada. ️
🗓️ Thursday, May 14
🕔 Exhibition opening – 5 to 8 p.m.
🎤 Welcoming remarks – 6 p.m.
🎟 Book your free ticket with the link in bio.
🖌 Featuring more than 80 works – including paintings, sketchbooks, and rare archival materials – this exhibition illuminates McNicoll’s complex and modern perspective on art and life. 🔆
🖼️ Helen McNicoll, Buttercups, c. 1910. Oil on canvas, 40.7 × 46.1 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Bequest of Sylva Gelber, 2005. Photo: NGC
#HelenMcNicoll
