Fred Hagan’s practice engaged in the themes of Canadian history, geography and culture, and derived inspiration from the rocky hills and lakes that shape Northern Ontario. Skeleton Shore Timbers memorializes Hagan’s family’s roots in Muskoka by depicting generations of men—among them his father and grandfather—working on a dock along the shores of Skeleton Lake. Immersed in the landscape, the men’s elongated bodies overlap; this layering suggests the shared histories, memories and experiences of the Hagan family in the region.

Frederick Hagan studied art at the Ontario College of Art & Design. He exhibited his work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; and the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, Brampton. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; and the Varley Art Gallery of Markham. The artist was born in 1918 in Toronto and passed away in 2003 in Newmarket.

Centre of the Universe is a vibrant self-portrait of Plains Cree artist George Littlechild rendered in aquarelle crayons on paper. Emerging from the centre of the earth, the artist is shown against a backdrop of illuminating celestial bodies—among them stars, moons and suns. In this work, he employs powerful imagery; the rising hands from the earth’s core and surface are gestures of reclamation and resiliency, symbolizing Indigenous sovereignty. By uniting his body with the earth, Littlechild references the Cree worldview, particularly the belief in humanity and nature’s harmonious interconnection.

George Littlechild earned a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He has exhibited his work at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg; the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff; and the National Museum of the North American Indian, Washington. Littlechild is a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, a coercive governmental adoption program that separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and communities. In his practice, he strives to reclaim his family history, cultural identity and ancestral lineage.

Sadko Hadžihasanović is known for his representational paintings and drawings that combine rich narrative elements with social commentary and moments of wry humour. In recent years he has been painting the Balkan Roma, a marginalized ethnic group in Southeastern Europe. Orange Jeans and Two Brothers depict young Roma men posing on the streets of the Radojevo, a village in northern Serbia. Prejudice has and continues to be a reality for Roma people, sometimes referred to as “gypsies,” a pejorative term associated with illegality and irregularity. In these sincere works, Hadžihasanović depicts his subjects with a disarming sense of care and a desire to quell stereotypes that persist around the Roma people.

Hadžihasanović was born in Bihac, Bosnia in 1959 and immigrated to Toronto in 1993. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and earned his MFA at the University of Belgrade in 1984. He has participated in over thirty exhibitions in public galleries and artist-run centres across Canada and internationally. Hadžihasanović is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto. He has taught at Georgian College since 2010, and he lives and works in Toronto.

Valerie Palmer is a Michipicoten Bay-based painter whose realist works situate her human subjects in the psychologically charged landscapes and domestic environments of Northern Lake Superior. Palmer’s Clouds (1990) features two figures, one female and one male, their bodies turned towards each other but their gazes shuttered and introspective. Both are in transition between childhood and adulthood: the boy’s features are hardening into the chiseled contours of adolescence, while the girl’s figure is softening into feminine curves. A sense of unease is accentuated by the painting’s strange perspective and the layering of a flattened interior scene over a richly detailed landscape outside.

Valerie Palmer received her BFA from the University of Manitoba in 1973, and has exhibited throughout Canada. She is represented by the Loch Gallery, Toronto and her work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick; the Art Gallery of Algoma, Saulte Ste. Marie; and the Art Gallery of Sudbury.

Joyce Wieland’s Blood in the Storm and Birth of Newfoundland form part of a series of sensually charged drawings from her mature period, when she explored self-invented mythologies, personal histories and female sexuality. Drawn in opalescent colours, these works render goddesses, blooming flowers and sea creatures in aqueous realms. Their presentation in a circular format alludes to organic, sensual shapes found in nature.

A rose-tinted tidal wave is a life-giving force in Blood in the Storm; buds of flowers emerge from the foam. By treating water—and blood—as points of origin, Weiland imbues this drawing with autobiographical inflections. As a child, Wieland would tend to her mother, stricken by uterine cancer, by cleaning bedpans and replacing sheets. In this deeply intimate work, blood and water symbolize the climactic forces of life and death. Birth of Newfoundland is a delicate drawing of a goddess who sits on a wave next to a whale, surrounded by a school of fish and celestial bodies. It was created in response to Weiland’s divorce from artist Michael Snow, a period of rebirth which inspired works that explored themes relating to female primacy and agency.

Joyce Wieland was the first living woman artist to receive a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and a retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Her works are held in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston. Wieland was born in 1930 and passed away in Toronto in 1998.

Phil Richards is a Canadian portrait artist whose commissions can be found throughout Canada and internationally. Featured here is Janusz Dukszta, a Polish-Canadian patron of the arts, psychiatrist and former politician. Since 1953, Dukszta has commissioned portraits in mythological, religious and contemporary modes, acquiring a collection of over 100 works by leading Canadian artists. Dukszta’s portrait collection is a visual biography, a shifting and animated record of his life. Janusz in Office offers a glimpse of Dukszta’s role as a doctor. Richards has captured Dukszta’s contemplative expression, fashionable clothing and elegant posture, revealing the interior values of this committed activist and medical practitioner.

Phil Richards studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Commissions include the Jubilee Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and former Ontario Premier Bob Rae. His work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. Richards’ whimsical Grand Illusion (1985-1987), a major public work initially installed at Toronto’s Eaton’s Centre and now in the Permanent Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre, is on long-term display at the Barrie Public Library. The artist lives and works in Toronto.