Opening June 18, ambitious retrospective celebrates five decades of drawing, textiles, plastic hangings, paintings, film, and sculpture
Venus of Scarborough, Wieland’s only earthwork, blooms again this summer in Grange Park
Wieland’s films come to the big screen next October in a retrospective co-presented by AGO, TIFF Cinematheque, and AD HOC
TORONTO — “I’m a Canadian,” Joyce Wieland told the New York Times in 1971. “I believe in Canada. We should work for a unified Canada —English and French—as Canadians, not as anti-Americans. We should be more positive about ourselves.” Just in time for Canada Day, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) welcomes home the radical beauty of famed Toronto artist and filmmaker Joyce Wieland (1930-1998). The most ambitious retrospective of her work ever mounted, Joyce Wieland: Heart On opens June 18, 2025, featuring more than 120 works of art, including newly restored films and plastic hangings, paintings, textiles, collages, sculptures, drawings, and a recreation of her 1982 earthwork, Venus of Scarborough.
During the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Wieland’s humorous and biting artistry helped give shape to this country’s changing ideas about gender, nationhood, and ecology—topics that again dominate the headlines. For co-curators Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art, AGO, and Anne Grace, Curator of Modern Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Wieland’s renewed relevance is no surprise.
“Wieland was an artist ahead of her time in so many ways —in her multifaceted approach to materials, her feminist politics, and in her generosity in collaboration,” says Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art, AGO. “Her concerns are still very much our concerns – and as US imperialism again dominates headlines, her complicated, joyful brand of nationalism is needed more than ever. A Toronto artist whose legacy continues to inspire generations, she taught us that it is possible to question and refashion our patriotic symbols in our own likeness so that we might see Canada for what she really is and love her all the more.”
“As excited as I am for visitors to discover the beauty of her sensational paintings, the layered wit of her textile pieces, and the eloquence of her experimental films, I am just as excited for them to see her authentic voice—one that consistently strove to be inclusive, that saw artmaking as an act of care —which resonates strongly today,” says Anne Grace, Curator of Modern Art at the MMFA.
On view on Level 5, with more artworks in the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art and in Grange Park, the retrospective is loosely chronological, highlighting how, through a range of materials and techniques, she explored female sexuality, civil rights, Canadian sovereignty, the threat of US imperialism, and ecological devastation.
Wieland’s love of drawing was foundational to her becoming an artist, and the exhibition opens with a selection of her earliest paintings and drawings, including the ink-on-paper drawing Portrait (1954) and oil on canvas self-portrait Myself (1958). Her works from this period, which spanned the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, were informed by her study in graphic design, film and animation, and her own sexuality. They reflect her early engagement with international abstract art movements and experiments with the materiality of paint and collage.
Painted in 1961, Laura Secord Saves Upper Canada marks the beginning of Wieland’s adoption of Canadian subject matter. In an approach that echoed her peers Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Claes Oldenburg, the figure of Laura Secord is present only in the artwork’s title. The symbol of the British flag, a spiral, and hand-drawn numbers and arrows that are visible evoke the classroom context in which the artist first learned about Secord and her heroic flight to warn the British during the War of 1812.
Throughout the 1960’s Wieland established her reputation as an experimental filmmaker in New York City’s avant-garde scene while also producing paintings, assemblages, and textiles. This exhibition places side by side for the first time ever her experimental films, Sailboat (1964), Water Sark (1965), Handtinting (1967), and Rat Life and Diet in North America (1968), with what she called her “filmic paintings,” highlighting the parallels between her visual arts and cinematic practices. Also, gathered for the first time since 1967 are 12 of her 15 plastic hangings, refreshed thanks to extensive conservation treatment.
Harnessing the skills of Canadian craftswomen, Wieland appropriated, personalized, and feminized many of Canada’s official symbols, including flags, anthems, government reports, and political slogans. The exhibition includes a wide selection of her textile works—quilted, embroidered, and knitted. Unique for the time, Wieland credited her collaborators, among them Joan Stewart, Valerie McMillan, and Joan McGregor, cementing her prescient belief in craft as high art and in collaboration. Their names are included in the exhibition labels. Making its AGO debut, on loan from the City of Toronto’s Public Art and Monuments Collection, is Barren Ground Caribou (1978), a 9-meter-long quilt commissioned for Spadina Station.
Throughout the 1970s, Wieland’s ecological activism and fascination with the Arctic deepened. “I am” she said in 1974, “very aware of the fact that there is Art and there is Politics, and I have been working on putting them together for aesthetic terms for years.” Making its public debut, the exhibition includes the 7-meter quilt Defend the Earth (1972), a bilingual artwork commissioned for and housed at the National Research Council Canada Science Library in Ottawa.
Highlighting her relationship with Kinngait artist Surusilutu Ashoona, the exhibition includes Wieland’s two portrait prints, Soroseelutu, Cape Dorset (1977) and Soroseelutu, Artist of Cape Dorset (1979). In tandem with the exhibition, beginning June 28, the AGO will feature an installation of Surusilutu Ashoona’s prints.
Celebrating the female form and the sensual language of creation, visitors are invited to get up close with the delicate, coloured pencil drawings from Wieland’s The Bloom of Matter series. The exhibition concludes with a presentation of her late paintings, including Artist on Fire (1983) and Mozart and Wieland (1986). Blending vivid colour and figuration with a dramatic gestural painting style, they recall her early stained canvases as well as her early explorations of female sexuality and affirm drawing as the foundation for Wieland’s artistic practice.
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication celebrating Wieland’s multifaceted career as a painter, filmmaker, and cultural activist. Richly illustrated and 288 pages, Joyce Wieland: Heart On is co-published by the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and Goose Lane Editions and includes texts by art historians, artists, and curators, as well as personal reflections from her friends and collaborators. French and English editions available. In addition, archival materials, a deeply researched chronology, and excerpts of Wieland’s own writings offer a deeper understanding of the artist’s extraordinary career and the social and political context in which she was creating.
Joyce Wieland: Heart On is on view through January 4, 2026. Admission to the AGO is always free for Ontarians under 25, Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members, and Annual Passholders. For more information on how to become a Member or Annual Passholder, visit ago.ca/membership/become-a-member.
Programming highlights:
Beginning in late May and continuing through fall, Wieland’s only earthwork sculpture, Venus of Scarborough (1982), is reborn in Toronto’s Grange Park. The 20-meter goddess-shaped flower bed, located at the southern edge of the park, was first commissioned in 1982 for the 50th anniversary of the Guild Inn at Toronto’s Scarborough Bluffs by artist Sorel Etrog.
On Wednesday, June 18, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., join us for the launch of Joyce Wieland: Heart On, a richly illustrated 288-page catalogue, co-published by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Goose Lane Editions. Curators and contributors will be in attendance, with remarks beginning at 6:30 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing. This is a free event happening in the AGO’s Robert Harding Hall, Concourse Level. Stay tuned to ago.ca/events for more details.
Opening June 28, 2025, at the AGO, Surusilutu Ashoona is an installation of works on paper by the celebrated Kinnegait artist, shown in conjunction with Joyce Wieland: Heart On. Featuring 17 works from the AGO’s foundational Inuit art collections—generously gifted by Samuel and Esther Sarick, the Klamer Family and Dr. Michael Braudo—this exhibition marks the late artists’ first-ever solo exhibition at the AGO. For more details, visit ago.ca/exhibitions/surusilutu-ashoona.
The Art Gallery of Ontario, TIFF Cinematheque, and AD HOC are co-presenting Jigs and Reels: The Complete Films of Joyce Wieland, a major retrospective on the internationally renowned Canadian artist. Curated by Jim Shedden, Curator, Special Projects & Director, Publishing, AGO, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art, AGO, the series will screen from October through November, 2025. Stay tuned for more details.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born and raised in Toronto, Joyce Wieland (1930–1998) was one of Canada’s most prominent and prolific twentieth-century artists. Her career in the arts started in the mid-1950s at Graphic Films in Toronto. She spent the late 1950s and early 1960s drawing and painting and was increasingly included in exhibitions across the country. By 1960, Wieland was represented by The Isaacs Gallery, with whom she continued to exhibit until the late 1980s. Beginning in 1962, she spent a decade in New York City, making assemblages, quilts, and experimental films while continuing to show her work. In her filmmaking, Wieland explored a wide array of cinematic modes of expression, from short political films to full-length features and documentaries.
Her 1971 exhibition, True Patriot Love Véritable amour patriotique, was the first by a living woman artist ever held at the National Gallery of Canada. This groundbreaking presentation explored Canadian identity and the North and included a number of textile works, thereby inserting women’s traditional culture and craft into the previously male-dominated realms of the National Gallery and the contemporary artworld. The early 1980s signaled Wieland’s return to figurative drawing and painting. In 1987, the AGO organized her major retrospective, the first such exhibition to be dedicated to a living woman artist in the institution’s history. In addition to creating art in multiple disciplines, Wieland also engaged in social activism, voicing her feminist concerns in a deeply personal and compelling manner. She used humour as a powerful tool of critique, embedding disruptive and unexpected elements and imagery into her work. Throughout her forty-year career, she fiercely defied gender discrimination with a practice that expressed feminist concerns, breaking down boundaries for subsequent artists. Through her work, she also engaged boldly with political subjects including Canadian politics, environmentalism, US imperialism, and Arctic sovereignty.
Joyce Wieland: Heart On is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Joyce Wieland: Heart On is the culmination of a close collaboration with Cinémathèque Québécoise on Wieland’s films, as well as with the National Gallery of Canada, which has generously loaned a significant number of the artist’s major works. AGO and MMFA extend their deep appreciation to the conservation specialists at the Canadian Conservation Institute for their curiosity, insights, and assistance in the care of Wieland plastic works.
Supporting Sponsor:
Power Corporation of Canada
Lead Support:
Volunteers of the AGO
Generous Support:
Jamie & Patsy Anderson
The Birks Family Foundation
Dr. Ronald M. Haynes
Rosamond Ivey
J.S. McLean Fund
Women’s Art Initiative
Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
@AGOToronto | #SeeAGO
ABOUT THE AGO
Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists to European masterpieces. The AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, including solo exhibitions and acquisitions by diverse and underrepresented artists from around the world. The AGO is embarking on the seventh expansion project undertaken since it was founded in 1900. When completed the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection and reflect the people who call Toronto home. With its groundbreaking Annual Pass program, the AGO is one of the most affordable and accessible attractions in the GTA. Visit ago.ca to learn more.
The AGO is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, and generous contributions from AGO Members, donors, and private-sector partners.
