Thick as Thieves: A First Look at The Whyte's Upcoming Summer Exhibition
- whytemuseum
- 2 days ago
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The Whyte is proud to present Thick as Thieves and When Our Eyes Touch this summer, running from May 1 to November 8, 2026. Join us for the exhibition opening on Friday, May 1st, at 7 pm. This event is free and open to the public - all are welcome.
Thick as Thieves is a touring contemporary exhibition that explores connection, influence, and unseen relationships that shape our world. Through powerful visual narratives and layered storytelling, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on themes of trust, power, and community. This exhibition is organized and circulated by the MacKenzie Art Gallery and curated by nationally recognized curator Crystal Mowry. The Thick as Thieves exhibition at The Whyte invites visitors into these questions through works forged in intense and often covert forms of connection.
Running alongside the feature exhibition, in the Rummel Room, you will find When Our Eyes Touch, a selection of portrait paintings by founders Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte, created over the course of their lives and drawn from the museum’s collection.
When asked about her motivation for bringing these exhibitions to The Whyte, Christina Cuthbertson, Chief Operating Officer and Curator at The Whyte, explains:
The Whyte was built with the generous support of Peter and Catharine Whyte, who were trailblazing artists and community leaders. Their strong ties with the Stoney community led to the formation of an impressive collection of Stoney belongings.
As we look at these relationships with the benefit of hindsight, we can see the wider cultural forces that shaped them – including both power imbalances and mutual respect. Thick as Thieves, as well as the accompanying exhibition When Our Eyes Touch, offers an opportunity to examine our own relationality and subject positions with greater nuance and humility as we move through an increasingly polarized world.
Presented together, Thick as Thieves and When Our Eyes Touch open a wider conversation about how connection can be intimate, strategic, sustaining, and complicated, sometimes all at once. Visitors can expect works that move between critique and quiet intensity, inviting reflection on what bonds us to one another and what those bonds can conceal.
About The Exhibition
Thick as Thieves
How is an exhibition like a plot? The interrelations between artworks, like the artists who make them and the public who encounter them, yield conspiracies and allyships. Each object can be an agent – a powerful symbol of the various bonds that we nurture or conceal throughout our lives. From an early age, we learn that resilience comes from connection, whether with other living beings, to a particular context, or as part of an exclusive network. Thick as Thieves brings together works forged in intense and often covert forms of connection. Drawn largely from the MacKenzie’s Permanent Collection, this selection of works invites us to consider how themes of fidelity, mutual desire, and fraternity formed by circumstance or power have held the interest of contemporary artists.
This exhibition is organized and circulated by The Mackenzie Art Gallery and is curated by Crystal Mowry.
About The Lead Image
Deeper the Wounded, Deeper the Roots (1) is part of a three-photograph series by artist Esmaa Mohamoud.
In this three-photograph series, artist Esmaa Mohamoud uses the language of metaphor to capture the experience of Black bodies in Western history and to call out the unceasing exploitation of Black body labour that has persisted until today.
Reflecting on this history of Black Canadians and the history of Anti-Blackness worldwide, Mohamoud draws comparisons between two different—but similar—fields. On both grounds, Black bodies continue to be exploited for industrial profits, crops then and sports entertainment now. The men in the photos outfitted in Mohamoud’s custom-made jerseys stand tall in the field. Having their backs to the viewers, they cast their gazes beyond the idyllic horizon as a gesture of hope and self-determination.
MacKenzie Art Gallery. (n.d.). Human Capital: Works in the exhibition.
Artists in the Exhibition
Deanna Bowen, Tammi Campbell, Lynne Cohen, David Furman, General Idea, Guerilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, Spring Hurlbut, August Klintberg, Marilyn Levine, Micah Lexier, Arnaud Maggs, Esmaa Mohamoud, Evan Penny, Wilf Perreault, Auguste Rodin, Amanda Strong, Inglis Sheldon-Williams, and Nic Wilson.
Plan Your Visit
Thick as Thieves and When Our Eyes Touch run from May 1 to November 8, 2026, at The Whyte.
Visit our website to plan your visit, explore admission details, hours, and upcoming public programs.
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