Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists from the 1920s-1940s at Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is hosting 'Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment' until January 8, 2023. Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and curated by Sarah Milroy, the exhibition features over 200 works—paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, and beadwork—by Canadian women artists active from the 1920s to the 1940s. This period saw dramatic changes in Canada, including Indigenous displacement, urbanization, and tourism growth. Unlike male contemporaries known for landscape painting, these women explored themes such as human psychology, urbanization, industrialized resource extraction, Indigenous culture and displacement, environmental desecration, and migratory experiences. The exhibition is divided into nine salons and includes works by Indigenous and immigrant women, offering a diverse view of female creativity. Artists include Anne Savage (Beaver Hall Group, Montreal), Emily Carr (Victoria, British Columbia), Russian immigrant Paraskeva Clark (who addressed socio-political issues), Toronto artist Marion Long (whose small oil sketches recall Italian Macchiaioli), and Winifred Petchey Marsh (who lived in the Arctic for 40 years and depicted Inuit life and beadwork). Marsh's garments purchased from Inuit women are now in the Manitoba Museum collection. The exhibition aims to integrate these long-excluded artists into the heart of Canadian art history.