About the Exhibition
Curated By
LILLIAN O'BRIEN DAVIS & JOHN G. HAMPTON
Organized & Circulated By
The MacKenzie Art Gallery
Galleries
RHW, Hill & Rawlinson Galleries
Conceptions of White is an exhibition offering context and nuanced perspectives that help viewers grapple with contemporary configurations of white identity. The exhibition examines the origins, travel, and present reality of “whiteness” as a concept and a racial invention that classifies degrees of civility/humanity. Select historical objects and artworks will illustrate white origin myths within their historical context, revealing whiteness as a North American, settler-colonial invention of the seventeenth century, created alongside “Blackness” and “Aboriginality.” The contemporary artists in this exhibition will complicate this historical foundation by examining how these acts of racialization are felt today through concepts of white guilt, supremacy, benevolence, fragility, and power. These artists force us to confront the ideology of cultural erasure embedded in the social construction of whiteness, the ramifications of its continually expanding borders, and the resistance facing this relatively young theory of racial categorization. Together, the diverse narratives, images, and concepts presented in Conceptions of White will examine the existential, experiential, and ethical dimensions of engaging in classifications of whiteness, while also drawing on the conceptual linkages between colonial whiteness and the aesthetic, social, and philosophical meaning we ascribe to the colour white.
Works in the Exhibition

Ken Gonzalez-Day, The Wonder Gaze (St. James Park, CA. 1935), 2006–2017, Erased Lynching Series (print and installation). A photographic series of historic images, using digital technology (Photoshop) to erase the lynching victim and rope from historic depictions of lynchings, from etchings, historic photographs, and postcards. By erasing the victims’ bodies, I sought to create a visual experience that would force the viewer to focus on the crowd.

Deanna Bowen, Title TBA, 2020.

Jennifer Chan, Aryan Recognition Toolkit, 2021.

Hiram Powers, Greek Slave, 1846. 3D printed replica produced from scan generated by the Smithsonian from plaster cast of the “original” clay sculpture.

Robert Morris, Portal, 1964, latex on aluminum. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of Mrs. Robert B. Mayer, 1984.
Events
Free Admission Day
Rawlco Radio & MacKenzie Art Gallery Free Day
21 May 2022
Online Event
Studio Sunday Online: Norval Morrisseau: Androgyny
22 May 2022
Fundraising Event
Bazaart 2022
18 June 2022