Photography at the National Gallery

The  Cana­dian Pho­tog­ra­phy In­sti­tute at the National Gallery of Canada has several photo exhibitions this year. From the CPI website:

Joseph Sudek

Continuing until February 26

Known as the “poet of Prague,” Josef Sudek created some of the 20th century’s most evocative images of nature, monuments, objects and streets.

A true “flâneur,” he enjoyed meandering through the streets of the Czech capital, recording intimate and beautiful details of the city he loved. Over many decades, he took thousands of photographs of its architecture and inhabitants.

Organized by the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada, The Intimate World of Josef Sudek features a thoughtful selection of 163 works by the photographer and his artistic circle.

Spanning his career, the exhibition explores how Sudek’s photography reflected his deeply personal relationship with the city of Prague during its artistic heyday and reveals his sensitive understanding of light — and its absence.

On display are works of Sudek’s photographic experiments carried out within the privacy of his studio, images of the garden seen from his window and pictures taken during his walks through the city.

PhotoLab 1

Continuing until 02 APRIL

Windows have fascinated artists for centuries. In photography, the transparency and reflectivity of glass as both a subject and symbol have made windows a particularly popular theme. Since the invention of the medium, photographers have been attracted to the subject, whether as an exploration of still life, portraiture, popular culture or even abstraction. With their ability to both reveal and obscure, to challenge ideas about the viewer and the viewed, or to dissolve the boundaries of inside and outside space, windows have been used as a metaphor for the act of looking itself.

 

Photography in Canada: 1960–2000

  07 April – 17 September

Experience the diversity of Canadian photographic practice and production from 1960 to 2000. Bringing together more than 100 works by 71 artists — including Raymonde April, Edward Burtynsky, Lynne Cohen, Angela Grauerholz, Michael Snow, Jeff Wall and Jin-me Yoon — it explores how the medium articulated the role of art and the artist in an ever-changing world, along with differing ideas of identity, sexuality and community. Formulated around themes such as conceptual, documentary, urban landscape and portrait, this exhibition celebrates the enormous growth of the practice, collection and display of photography over more than four decades.

Pho­toLab 2: Women Speak­ing Art

07 April – ?

Cel­e­brates con­tem­po­rary art pho­tog­ra­phy by women that features text, in­clud­ing posters, prints and videos.