The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition

Daphne Odjig, Harmony and the Universe, 1986

The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition features works covering a 44-year period that provide a critical and long-overdue assessment of the artist's extensive aesthetic, philosophical and cultural investigations. At the Mackenzie Art Gallery the exhibition will be comprised of over 40 works, including examples of Odjig's history and legend paintings, murals, erotica, abstractions and landscapes. They articulate the breadth of Odjig's engagement with her personal and cultural history and also trace the remarkable aesthetic development of this artist from her initial experimentation to the mastery of her media.

Born in 1919 in Wikwemikong, on Manitoulin Island, Daphne Odjig was instrumental, along with a handful of Anishnabe artists in the 1960's, in bringing to public prominence the pictorial style now known as the Woodland School. A member of the Order of Canada, Odjig has achieved national and international recognition and holds Honourary Doctorate degrees from the University of Toronto and Laurentian University in addition to an Aboriginal Achievement Award.

Image: Daphne Odjig Harmony and the Universe, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 81.4 x 165.4 cm; Framed: 95.6 x 181.0 x 5.3 cm, Phillip Gevik, Gallery Gevik, Toronto