Art: What's in store for Ottawa galleries this spring

This spring: Rembrandt, Earthly art and Egyptian Queens

Rembrandt’s Heroine from the Old Testament (1632/33, oil on canvas) is coming to the big summer show at the National Gallery of Canada.

Peter Simpson

Editor’s note: given the continuing uncertainty of public-health lockdowns, before visiting be sure to check with museums and galleries as dates listed here could change. The name “Rembrandt” is so universally familiar that it’s difficult to believe Canada hasn’t seen a major exhibition of the Dutch master’s work since 1969, and that the National Gallery of Canada has never hosted a major exhibition of his work .

Given those surprises, it’s fitting that this summer’s big show at the National Gallery is unique . Rembrandt in Amsterdam, opening May 14, will be the first exhibition “to chart the transformative central decades of Rembrandt’s career in the context of the Amsterdam art market,” the gallery says, “from his arrival in the mid-1630s to the emergence of his late style in the mid-1650s .”

The second half of the exhibition title — Creativity and Competition — points to the forces that forged “a young artist from Leiden” into a household name almost 400 years later . There’s little doubt of the ever-lasting reverence for the man in his homeland, as the Embassy of the Netherlands is an exhibition partner, and King Willem-Alexander is a patron .

The exhibition will present Rembrandt drawings, prints and paintings along with works by his “friends, followers and rivals,” to re-create the feel of the thriving art market into which the young man was immersed . Works by Rembrandt will

The Large Horse, by Albrecht Dürer (1505, engraving) from The Collectors Cosmos: The Meakins-McClaran Collection at the National Gallery.

Christos Pantieras has three works in Filtered, at the Ottawa Art Gallery. The exhibition also features work by Craig Commanda, AM Dumouchel, Greta Grip, Lee Jones, Farouk Kaspaules, Peter Owusu-Ansah and Art Price.

Resembling, by Sarah Anderson at Sivalrasa Gallery.

include the portrait Heroine from the Old Testament, from 1632-1633, with its subject deftly illuminated, as if by God’s own hand, against a murky background . Also seen will be the large painting The Blinding of Samson, from 1636 . The painting is from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, the co-organizer and next stop for the exhibition .

Most uniquely, the exhibition will also include newly commissioned and acquired works from Indigenous and Black artists in Canada, including Ruth Cuthand, Kent Monkman and others, “to understand the impact of colonialism during Rembrandt’s era and beyond . ”

More at gallery .ca .

Earthly art

Over at the Canadian Museum of Nature, a new installation features not art of this earth — but Earth itself .

Gaia is a sculpture by the British artist Luke Jerram, making its Canadian debut and the closest that most people will ever come to experiencing what it must be like for astronauts to gaze upon our blue planet from space . Gaia is seven metres in diameter and hangs in the museum’s deep atrium, where it rotates slowly . It can be seen from every level of the museum, offering a variety of perspectives .

The detail is impressive . Jerram used high-resolution photographs captured by NASA, and each centimetre of the sculpture’s surface equals approximately 18 kilometres .

“I hope visitors to Gaia get to see the Earth as if from space, an incredibly beautiful and precious place, an ecosystem we urgently need to look after — our only home,” Jerram says .

Nearby is Jerram’s companion piece, Museum of the Moon — a seven-metre model of Earth’s lone moon — which hangs in the glass tower above the museum’s main entrance . More at nature .ca .

Egyptian queens finally visit

Across the river at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, it’s a case of better late than never . The exhibition Queens of Egypt, which was postponed last summer due to the pandemic, will finally open May 19, and what glorious treasures it’ll bring .

It’s the story of seven women who ruled the storied ancient empire that continues to entrance us thousands of years later . The exhibition looks back to 3,500 years ago, into the stories of Nefertari, Nerfertiti, Hatshepsut and others . More than 300 objects will be included

Gaia, by Luke Jerram now hangs in the atrium of the Museum of Nature.

A funerary stelae, left, discovered in the tomb of the Deir el-Medina, and a figurine of AhmoseNefertari, from Queens of Egypt at the Canadian Museum of History.

Detail from Un peu plus haut, mon torse veillait sur vous (video still, 2020) by Pascale Théorêt-Groulx at the Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery.

Raphaëlle, Nicolas Nabonne (oil on canvas) at Galerie Montcalm in Gatineau.

Summer’s end, by Richard Ahnert (oil on canvas) at Wall Space Gallery.

The first career survey of Jin-me Yoon is showing at the Carleton University Art Gallery.

in the show, “including monumental statues, sarcophagi, funerary objects and jewelry, associated to legendary queens,” the museum promises . “This immersive multi-sensory experience offers visitors an unforgettable glimpse into one of history’s most important ancient civilizations . ”

Public interest in this exhibition is expected to be strong, and admission will be by timed ticket . See historymuseum .ca to book tickets and for more information .

Also showing in other galleries . . .

Ottawa Art Gallery: Filtered shows from March 5 to Dec . 19 at 50 Mackenzie King Bridge . Decades after Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan told us “the medium is the message,” this group exhibition considers how each new form of media is, by nature, “omitting, distorting, censoring, selecting, organizing and generalizing content .” The artists include Craig Commanda, AM Dumouchel, Greta Grip, Lee Jones, Farouk Kaspaules, Peter OwusuAnsah, Christos Pantieras and Art Price . As media options expand, “we must thus remain critical,” the exhibition notes state, “recognizing the various filters at play as we rapidly pivot in our forms of connection .” oaggao .ca

Carleton University Art Gallery: Here Elsewhere Other Hauntings takes place June 6 to Aug . 22, in the St . Patrick’s Building, 1125 Colonel By Dr . This selection of works from a career survey of Vancouver lens-based artist Jin-me Yoon investigates her concerns “related to Korean history, experiences of gender and diaspora, as well as the layered histories that make up Canada in the present .” The Korean-born artist’s works “explore commemoration, belonging and immigration, and deconstruct and challenge how identities are formed .” cuag .ca

The School of Photographic Arts (SPAO)

Gallery: Mega Seoul 4Decades shows from May 21 to July 18 at 77 Pamilla St . The Museum of Photography in Seoul curated this exhibition and the Korean Cultural Centre of Canada presents it . spao .ca

Central Art Garage: A Frank Shebageget solo exhibition shows April 2 to June 25 at 66B Lebreton St . N . Shebageget, the Anishnabe (Ojibwa) artist who lives in Ottawa, has produced new works inspired by blueprints of a “standardized Canadian Indian home” and the “rudimentary plywood chairs and tables to furnish them .” The artist “explores the uniformity and numbness of these cookie-cutter homes” that fit a federal government perspective that “overlooked the diversity of cultures, languages and traditions that existed across many nations .” centralartgarage .com

Jean-Claude Bergeron Gallery: Mario Avati, runs May 27 to June 27 at 150 St . Patrick St ., Ottawa: A selection of prints to mark the 100th birthday of Mario Avati, who was born in Monaco on May 27, 1921 . For most of his career, Avati worked exclusively in mezzotint, for a dozen years only in black-and-white and then also in colour . galeriejeanclaudebergeron .ca . Studio Sixty Six: Imaginary Monsters by Julia Campisi shows from April 16 to May 16 at 858 Bank St . Julia Campisi’s work appropriates and re-imagines feminine imagery . She transforms “complicated sexualized images” into ordinary objects that society sees as female, such as “an oyster, a flirtatious gesture, a knitted blanket .” studiosixtysix .ca

Wall Space Gallery: Richard Ahnert's work is showing from June 24 to July 17 at 358 Richmond Rd . Ahnert’s paintings of animals behaving in very human ways have a distinctive, dry humour, perhaps even satire . It’s an animated animism that is full of emotion and reflection on the costs of interaction between wildlife and human activity . wallspacegallery .ca

Galerie Montcalm: A Last Kiss for the Road by Nicolas Nabonne runs from April 29 to June 6 at 25 rue Laurier, Gatineau . Nabonne gives animals that were killed by cars a sort of new life as elements of sculpture, restoring “their dignity .” Search for more at gatineau .ca .

L.A. Pai Gallery: Camp runs from June 5 to 25 at 13 Murray St . This juried exhibition of rings was organized by CoAdorn, an art-jewelry collective, and every piece is unique . lapaigallery .com .

Orange Gallery: Breath of Life by Violeta Borisonik is on exhibit from May 26 to June 13 at 290 City Centre Ave . These are new works by the artist at the gallery, housed in a unique heritage building that was formerly a bank . orangeartgallery .ca .

Galerie St-Laurent + Hill: Philip Bottenber runs from April 15 to May 4 at 293 Dalhousie St . This is a selection of new works by the artist . galeriestlaurentplushill .com

Sivarulrasa Gallery: Rooted in Time by Gayle Kells shows from April 28 to June 4 at 34 Mill St . in Almonte . The Ottawabased artist explores her own Lebanese-Canadian heritage going back three generations . sivarulrasa .com .

Electric Street Gallery: Tulip Art Festival runs from May 14 to 24 at 299 Crichton St . Timed with the city’s annual Tulip Festival, 20 or more artists will exhibit works inspired by the beloved flower . electricstreet-gallery .myshopify .com .

Contact Peter Simpson at pete@petersimpson .ca with details of your upcoming art exhibitions .