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Holiday Highlights: Exhibitions to Catch over the Break

However you’re spending the winter holidays, hitting museums and galleries can be a great way to beat cabin fever. While many of the country’s commercial galleries close for the season in late December, public institutions from coast to coast still have plenty of exciting, crowd-pleasing exhibitions on offer for casual and dedicated art viewers alike. Here, Canadian Art highlights shows to see over the break, from east coast to the west.

Jean-Pierre Gauthier Beats and Butterflies 2006 Installation view Courtesy Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.

Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has gained nationwide recognition for acting as home base to the annual Sobey Art Award. But their regular, day-to-day programming has also put them in the contemporary art spotlight. At their main Halifax location, the AGNS presents Montreal-based, 2004 Sobey winner Jean-Pierre Gauthier’s well-travelled solo show of wry kinetic installations, “Machines at Play.” Meanwhile, at the Yarmouth location, newly appointed curator David Diviney is offering his take on the relationship between art and the great outdoors in the group show “Into the Wild,” featuring Edward Burtynsky, David Askevold and Germaine Koh, among others. Both shows continue until March 2010, with the gallery open every day except for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Francine Savard Une Étendue jaune 2001 / photo François LeClair

Montreal: Whether you’re looking for art with a political edge or an aesthetically pleasing, fantastical escape from the everyday, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal has it all. You can catch either Stéphane Aquin’s “Global Warning” group show–one of our picks for the best exhibitions of 2009–or the impressively staged J.W. Waterhouse retrospective any day over the break, with the exception of December 25 and January 1. Or, if subtler solo shows are more your style, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal continues to present a trio of exhibitions: paintings by Francine Savard, a new video installation by Tacita Dean and an impressive installation by Tricia Middleton until January 3. (Just be advised the gallery is closed December 25, December 28 and January 1.)

Frances Dorsey Rice Paddies 2005 Installation view / photo David Barbour

Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada is always a good bet for eye-catching art in the nation’s capital, but the presence of David Hoffos’ acclaimed “Scenes from the House Dream” exhibition, accompanied by a recent re-hanging of the permanent contemporary art collection that features works by heavyweights such as a Douglas Gordon and General Idea, provides added incentive to visit the NGC this winter. The gallery is open all days except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and is open late on New Year’s Eve. A group show of textile-based artists, including Ed Pien, Michèle Provost and Frances Dorsey, organized under the rubric of “Fibred Optics,” also offers a variety of tactile, family-friendly art experiences at the Ottawa Art Gallery until February 14.

Michael Snow SSHTOORRTY 2005 Video still Courtesy the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, Galerie Martine Aboucaya and angels barcelona gallery

Toronto: In a season nearly synonymous with family photo portraits and Kodak moments, two Toronto museums provide their take on “decisive moments” in 20th century portraiture: the Royal Ontario Museum’s “Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008” is open every day except for December 25 and January 1, while the Art Gallery of Ontario’s “Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years 1923–1937” runs until January 3. For a more avant-garde take on cinema and photography, the Power Plant’s new must-see survey of Canadian icon Michael Snow’s experimental film and video work, “Recent Snow,” continues through the holidays.

Randal Fedje Blue Blood 125/365 from 365 Self Portrait Project 2009 Courtesy of the artist

Regina: Thematic group shows with a dark twist define the offerings in Saskatchewan’s institutions this season. “My Evil Twin,” a show replete with doubles and doppelgangers, continues at the MacKenzie Art Gallery until January 24 with the gallery open every day except for Christmas. “Mind the Gap!” is an exhibition of more than 30 emerging Saskatchewan artists at the Dunlop Art Gallery, and it aims to challenge stereotypes of the prairies as a cultural wasteland. It runs until January 3.

Ron Mueck A Girl 2006 / photo © National Gallery of Canada

Calgary: “Real Life,” an affective pairing of works by London-based hyperrealist sculptor Ron Mueck and Berlin-based video artist Guy Ben-Ner, organized and circulated by the National Gallery, continues its tour of Western Canada at the Glenbow Museum. Mueck’s eerily oversized human figures make the perfect foil for Ben-Ner’s clever family sitcoms set in Ikea stores, offering a multi-faceted take on family relations that shows every day except December 25.

Wanda Koop Victim 1985

Vancouver: Captivating, long-take videos of neglected urban landscapes by Vancouver up-and-comer Owen Kydd (who once served as Jeff Wall’s studio assistant) run at the Vancouver Art Gallery until January 3. Also showing at the VAG over the holidays are two different takes on the landscape tradition: a solo show of immaculate private gardens photographed by Scott McFarland and the impressive touring exhibition of frontier-era depictions of North America in “Expanding Horizons: Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscape 1860–1918.” The gallery is closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, but open otherwise. Or, if you’re looking for a break from the crowds and downtown traffic, the nearby Richmond Art Gallery offers a rare opportunity to consider Winnipeg painter Wanda Koop’s early, pre-abstraction works in a solo show called “Face to Face” that runs until January 10.

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