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| - I came here to see 'The Art of Canada: Director's Cut' exhibition. Just when I thought I've seen almost everything from the Group of Seven, the McMichael has put more on display from the vaults. There is a lot more, too, from other Canadian artists that I've never encountered. My favorite painting from this exhibition is a quite simple one: Tim Zuck's 'Yukon', a 1994 painting of a seaplane. It's such a simple image yet I stood in front of it for quite a while.
The surprise for me is the aptly-named 'Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice'. I initially began to walk by these simplistic images, most on display drawn with colored pencil and ink. Then, some of the titles grabbed my attention: 'Watching Jerry Springer,' 'Ritz Crackers,' 'Gossip,' and 'Man Abusing His Partner'. The titles described each image entirely; no subtext, nothing for the viewer to interpret. This uncomfortable directness came from an artist who put her raw vulnerability -- from the mundane boredom of everyday life to sex and domestic violence -- into her work. Sadly, she died in 2016; her body found on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. These disturbingly unfiltered drawings have stayed in my mind.
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