The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has launched Joyce Wieland: Heart On, an expansive exhibition celebrating the late artist’s fearless work across film, textile, painting and installation.
The exhibition has several meaningful connections to York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD). It is co-curated by Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the AGO and an alumna of AMPD’s Art History and Visual Culture (AHVC) MA program.
AMPD faculty and alumni also contributed to the exhibition catalogue, including Professor Anna Hudson, Professor Sarah Parsons and Professor Emeritus Joyce Zemans.
A trailblazer in Canadian arts and culture, Zemans helped establish the graduate program in Art History at York, served as the first woman Dean of Fine Arts and later led the Canada Council for the Arts. She was also instrumental in bringing Wieland’s archive to York, and regularly invited Wieland to speak to her students.
The exhibition plays a key role in AMPD’s graduate curriculum this summer. This year’s Goldfarb Summer Institute in the Visual Arts, “It’s Time to Laugh Again: Feminist Approaches to Humour in Art,” held mid-June, was inspired by the exhibition and co-taught by Professors Jessica Campbell and Parsons. This seminar included a guided curatorial tour and discussion of the exhibition prior to its public opening.
Another link to AMPD is the Joyce Wieland archive, housed in York’s Clara Thomas Special Collections at Scott Library. The archive remains a vital resource for AMPD faculty and students researching feminist practice, artist-led activism and the intersections of art and politics in Canada.
Professor Anna Hudson notes that Wieland’s political commitments and creative courage continue to resonate across generations. “She took her civic duties seriously, and she was an artist citizen who fought for what she believed was the common good using her creative tools.”
Hudson adds, “Her work is passionately Canadian, with a clear understanding of all the complications that entails. She embraced the potential of an Arctic-facing nation-state to be inclusive and ecologically responsible, especially in opposition to American capitalism.”
The exhibition is on now until January 5, 2026.
Visit the AGO’s website to learn more.
Department of Visual Art & Art History