EXHIBITIONS
The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies acquires, preserves, interprets and makes accessible the history and culture of the Rocky Mountains of Canada by inspiring and cultivating the exchange of knowledge and ideas through our collections and exhibitions.
On Now
REDESIGNING PARADISE
JANUARY 20 - MARCH 26, 2023
Alternative photographic processes have been the creative catalyst for four Canadian artists – Mary Anne Barkhouse, Dianne Bos, Sarah Fuller, and Penelope Stewart – during their annual get-togethers and self-directed residencies for several years. The work in this exhibition addresses aspects of the natural environment in different ways by using photography as an investigative tool.
The artists in this exhibition offer a variety of cultural perspectives that look at the flora, fauna, and weather patterns of the foothills, mountains, and other ecosystems. Informed by the Whyte Museum Archives, this work allows the viewer to arrive at a place of empathy for the other – both human and non-human – while thinking through the many ways landscape has been altered by human disturbances.
Works in image by Mary Anne Barkhouse, Dianne Bos, Sarah Fuller, and Penelope Stewart.
ALL OUR RELATIONS
Portraits from the Elders’ Gatherings by Craig Richards
JANUARY 20 - MARCH 26, 2023
Every year, for the past 19 years, Indigenous Elders have gathered in the shadow of Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain, near the banks of the Bow River, in Banff National Park. Elders from First Nations and Métis communities on both sides of the Rocky Mountains come from seven major language groups. They come from families with stories told through generations of using and sharing this valley, the rivers, mountains, Buffalo, and Salmon.
The Elders meet, family stories are shared, and traditional medicines are exchanged. They discuss a range of issues including problems facing youth, the effects of residential
schools, and how to bring back the Buffalo and Salmon to the prairies and rivers. The gatherings provide hope and direction for restoring culture, language, and community health, now and into the future. Over the years, youth have been invited to participate and have brought additional
perspectives to the conversations. This has also been an opportunity for the Elders to pass on their knowledge.
An annual three-day event, these gatherings are led by the Elders and hosted by the Juniper Hotel in Banff which is located on a historically significant site for First Nations peoples. These gatherings have become a spiritual experience that bonds participants and unifies their voices as brothers and sisters.
Portrait of Betty Letendre, Cree Elder
2020
Photograph by Craig Richards
Collection of Peter Poole
FAN FAVOURITES - PETER WHYTE AND CATHARINE ROBB WHYTE
ONGOING
The exhibition delves into the artistic practice of Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte whose love of the outdoors provided endless possibilities to paint a variety of subjects all within close proximity to their Bow River log home.
The Whytes’ personal artistic styles were influenced in part by Peter’s earlier awareness of artists Belmore Browne and Aldro T. Hibbard, Catharine’s family philanthropic artistic connections, and the education they both received at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Together and often painting in close proximity to each other, Peter and Catharine produced hundreds of 8 x 10” oil sketches with many functioning as colour notes for larger canvases. Depending on the weather patterns of the day, these small works were completed within a time frame of 20 minutes to two hours.
GATEWAY TO THE ROCKIES
ONGOING
Gateway to the Rockies shares Canadian Rockies history through art, artifacts and archives and library materials.
This gallery also has information on Indigenous Peoples, surveying, guiding and outfitting, travel, tourism and more!
TREASURES WITHIN:
50 Years of Collecting
ONGOING
As well as being talented artists, Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte combined their resources to create this gem of a museum. The land came from the Whyte family and the money from the Robb family. Peter and Catharine painted, purchased, or donated the paintings contained within this exhibition, and some of the artists exhibited here became mentors, friends or confidants.
The Founders' Gallery features rotating exhibitions that celebrate the vision and creativity of the Whyte Museum's founders, Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte.
Image: Peter Whyte, Bear Street Alley, Banff, 1933, oil on canvas, 27.5 x 35 cm, WyP.01.052
Upcoming Exhibitions
EXPLORE BY CHRIS CRAN
March 31– June 11, 2023
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society was founded in 1929 with a mission to make Canada better known to Canadians and the world. Its fellows past and present include Capt. Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, who established Canadian sovereignty across the Arctic Archipelago; Frederick G. Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin; Alice E. Wilson, the country’s first woman geologist; Louie Kamookak, a leading Inuit historian and expert on the lost Franklin Expedition; and Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman to go to space.
In this series of 23 optical-illusion portraits, artist Chris Cran celebrates the accomplishments and discoveries of some of Canada’s greatest explorers — and invites viewers to become explorers of their own perceptions. Presented in partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
LOUIE KAMOOKAK (1959–2018)
Chris Cran
Acrylic on wood panel
40” x 30” (101.6cm x 76.2cm)
ALL ROSES SLEEP
March 31– June 11, 2023
all roses sleep (inviolate light) includes an olfactory video by Alana Bartol and Bryce Krynski that blends how bees and humans experience and use the land around us. Shot using ultraviolet video, visitors are invited to see the prairie landscape from a bee's point of view and a scratch and sniff card expands on the pleasant and pungent experience of pumpjacks, grazing cattle, prairie grasses, and wildflowers. As the solitary bee searches and dreams of a rose, the work is meant to conjure questions about our shared future. With this new perspective, the landscape becomes alien and while some familiar details are lost, new patterns come into focus and familiar flowers become strange and delicious.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta and curated by Lindsey Sharman. The RBC New Works Gallery features new artworks by Alberta artists and continues the Art Gallery of Alberta's tradition of supporting and promoting Alberta artists.
Video still, all roses sleep (inviolate light), 2022.
Alana Bartol and Bryce Krynski.
HD, ultraviolet video, 14:02.
Courtesy of the artists
Past Exhibitions
CANOE
JUNE - OCTOBER, 2022
Canoe is a stunning private collection that celebrates the canoe in art spanning 200 years. The canoe is our enduring connection to Canada’s remarkable geography. It has captured our imagination and allowed us to explore remote areas of the country with intimacy and wonder. The McCreath collection has been carefully built over two decades and is comprised of paintings and three-dimensional pieces, including a 14-foot canoe made of one continuous piece of birch bark in 2017 by Canmore resident Don Gardner. The earliest work in the collection is a very 1820 watercolour by John Halkett (1768 – 1852) and it concludes with a meditative 2018 acrylic on canvas painting by David Thauberger (1948, RCA).
The collection includes artist-explorers of the 19th century through works by a number of the founding members of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts (RCA) of 1880 who were also contracted by Sir William Van Horne to depict the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and expansion of western Canada. The 20th-century works are by creative, well-established artists from across Canada who are also celebrated as art educators, designers, and printmakers. The collection encompasses works from all provinces and territories except the Yukon and spans all three Canadian coasts.
David Thauberger R. C. A.
Summer Drift, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
36x46”
Private collection
On loan to the Whyte Museum
ABOUT FACE
JUNE - OCTOBER 2022
Calgary artist Bev Tosh has created some remarkable new multi-media works exploring the waste left from the pandemic. She has fashioned a stunning prom dress using the distinctive blue and white disposable face masks, and the masks also appear on the face of the Mona Lisa in a piece entitled Panda Mona.
Bev Tosh is a contemporary artist and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She received her Masters of Fine Art in Painting from the University of Calgary, graduated with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design, and was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Fine Art (U of S).
Bev has lectured and taught art at several Canadian colleges and universities. As a practicing artist, Tosh has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.
Bev Tosh, R. C. A. (Canadian)
PandeMona
2021
Oil and eggshell on panel
79 x 58cm. framed
Collection of the artist
BREATHE
JUNE - OCTOBER 2022
Breathe. is a collection of traditionally crafted masks demonstrating resiliency through the 21st century pandemic. Co-created by Métis artists Nathalie Bertin and Lisa Shepherd, this grassroots initiative explores the experiences of different artists as they navigated changing COVID-19 conditions.
This second touring exhibition emerging from the Breathe. project speaks to both cultural resilience and strength of community in the face of a pandemic. The initiative encompasses traditional beadwork techniques as well as an array of other materials and methods, creating space for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists.Each traditionally crafted mask tells a unique story of the artists’ experience and share a common message on the importance of breath. Constructed of diverse materials, these 90 contemporary artifacts record a significant historical moment in human history.
The Whyte Museum hosted the first exhibition of these remarkable masks and are delighted to present the “second wave” including additional masks that have been created since.
Terre Chartrand
“An Appeal to Mishibijiw”
COLD REGIONS WARMING
OCTOBER 2022 - JANUARY 2023
Cold Regions Warming is an interdisciplinary collaboration between artist Gennadiy Ivanov and Global Water Futures scientist Professors John Pomeroy and Trevor Davies.
Paintings, drawings, and videos depict locations in Canada where global warming has impacted glaciers, oceans, lakes and rivers. Global Waters Futures is headquartered at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and aims to demonstrate global leadership in water science in colder regions. From a scientific base, the group also addresses the needs of the national economy in adapting to change and managing the risks of uncertain water futures and extreme events.
With the combination of scientific fact, and exquisite art, the exhibition is designed to inform on various levels of appreciation.
Gennadiy V. Ivanov
Code Red for Peyto Glacier
2021
Oil on canvas
91 x 116 cm
Collection of the artist
OCTOBER 2022 - JANUARY 2023
CONTEMPORARY CONSCIOUSNESS
Contemporary Consciousness features the work of two artists who explore our oceans in contrasting ways. Canadian artist Joshua Jensen-Nagle’s beautiful photographic images impart scenes of beauty, calm, and restfulness. One may contemplate human’s predisposition to the enjoyment of our oceans based on reflections of personal experience. Contrarily, one may question the popularity and consequential remains from a day of overpopulation and waste in our ocean and on its shores.
Strewn to shore from the Pacific Ocean, bits of Styrofoam, plastic, rubber, and metal were washed onto the beaches at Tofino, B. C. Participating as a volunteer for the community cleanup project, trans-global artist Alexandra Ewen was struck by the magnitude of damage and consequential debris. It was clear the shore wash was microscopic in comparison to the quantity remaining afloat or beneath the ocean surface. With resourcefulness and compassion, Alexandra connected the oceanic resources with the culinary creativity of Japanese culture by reconstructing the garbage into exquisitely formed sushi meals, edible in scale and served to order.
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Alex Ewen
Shot gun Shell Ramen
2019-2022
Sun damaged microplastics, Styrofoam, multi-coloured fish line, fish nets, washed-up black rubber, balloons, shotgun shells, various ropes, cigarillo tip, pop lids, wrappers, and other assorted weather materials
Collection of the artist
Joshua Jensen-Nagle
The Blue And You
2016
Archival inkjet print face-mounted to plexiglass.
41" x 43"