Radical. Playful. Iconic. During the 60s, 70s and 80s, Joyce Wieland’s humorous and biting artistry helped give shape to this country’s changing ideas about gender, nationhood and ecology.
Now, the Art Gallery of Ontario welcomes home the radical works of famed Toronto artist and filmmaker Joyce Wieland (1930-1998).
Wieland was an artist of great influence, whose work included textiles, collage, print, drawing and film, all now part of the focus of the AGO retrospective, titled ‘Heart On,’ running to Jan. 4, 2026. (More about the mixed media work Heart On, which gave the exhibition its name, here)
Wieland’s artistic concerns were plentiful – feminism, the environment, ecology, the North among them. This quilt left the Spadina Subway station in Toronto for the first time in 47 years for this exhibition, jointly curated by the AGO and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
She was outspoken on Canadian nationalism:
“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.” (Below, O Canada in lips, see more here)
Wieland had a long-standing affinity for Quebec. One of her Reason over Passion works hung in the residence of Prime Minister Trudeau (the phrase was coined by Trudeau). More about that in the video below.
This exhibition highlights the breadth and originality of Wieland’s practice and positions her as a key figure in 20th century art and film. It also focuses on the many ways she anticipated current debates about feminism, social equity and ecology.
Among Wieland’s many talents, one of the most important is how she distinguished herself as an exceptional colourist. The catalog (above) that accompanies the exhibition is richly illustrated proof. It is difficult for anyone to settle on a single favourite work.
But one of Wieland’s best known is also one of her most striking fabric works, 109 Views, 1970-71 (above), a parody of the Canadian fixation on landscape art. A mass of landscapes, each with its own frame, the assemblage measures over 8 metres in length and resembles the geographic outline of Canada. It was shown as part of Wieland’s exhibition True Patriot Love at the National Gallery of Canada in 1971.
Joyce Wieland died of Alzheimer’s in 1998. Watch the CBC National News item on her death:
AGO Exhibition site, here.
Previous Art Junkie articles on Joyce Wieland, here.
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Thank you for this tribute, she so richly deserves it. I remember standing awe-struck in front of O Canada (in lips), and then laughing & laughing in delight at the sheer energy and impudence and laser-focus of the piece.
I had a similar reaction the first time I saw it, long time ago now. But she was remarkable. I can’t say I love all her works, but I so appreciate what she did and who she was and how she agitated for change.
ditto — I didn’t, don’t, love all of it, but am in awe of the talent, the energy, the ferocity, the glee — oh gawd, what a time it was!