National photo collection coming to downtown Sarnia

Photos of Canada’s past and near-present will be on display this summer at the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery in downtown Sarnia, providing a window into a then-burgeoning art form.Photography In Canada 1960-2000, a near-100 photograph exhibit from the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada, opens Friday afternoon. With more than 70 artists featured — all Canadian — the show serves as both a look into Canada’s recent past and a celebration of exceptional works of art composed during the latter half of the 20th century.

It’s no small exhibit. The gallery was closed to the public for nearly a month as museum staff prepared every floor in time for the May launch.

“We haven’t done a photography exhibition of this scope and breadth before,” gallery curator Lisa Daniels said. “It’s focused on an important part of Canadian photography; it’s like a historical exhibition almost, right? From 1960 to 2000.”

The photographs vary from grandiose works of art to stunning landscape photographs to quaint snapshots of Canadian culture.  Featured are works such as Jin-me Yoon’s Souvenirs of the Self (Lake Louise), showcasing the iconic lake and snow-covered mountains around a lone, stoic individual.

The photographs are meant to educate viewers, Daniels said, and to challenge them to view Canada differently. Some works, such as Edward Burtynsky’s Nickel Tailings #30, are presented as bleak reminders of how Canadians have left their mark on nature.

Burtynsky’s photo is even more stark when mounted near Yoon’s idyllic photo of Lake Louise.

“There’s some pretty impressive pieces in this,” Daniels said.

The exhibit is the second from the National Gallery of Canada. In 2015, the then-new Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery showcased the national M.C. Escher exhibit.

The Photography in Canada 1960-2000 exhibit will remain open to the public until Sept. 8, 2019.

Sarnia Observer
By Louis Pin
May 2, 2019

Original Article