Selections from the Collection
February 25 – April 12, 2025
Core Samples: Selections from the Collection
With works by Vikky Alexander, Geneviève Cadieux, Miryam Charles, Sorel Cohen, Brendan Fernandes, Yves Gaucher, Betty Goodwin, Angela Grauerholz, Nancy Herbert, Holly King, Roy Kiyooka, Suzy Lake, Rita Letendre, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Kenneth Lochhead, Naomi London, Guido Molinari, Katie Ohe, Francine Simonin, Barbara Steinman, Takao Tanabe, Nell Tenhaaf and Claude Tousignant
This exhibition brings together a selection of works drawn from the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s collection. Nearly 60 years after the collection was first presented in the newly-opened Hall Building, we reflect on the Gallery’s evolving acquisition practices, as we look ahead to the next six decades.
The Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) first began developing an art acquisition program in 1962, focusing on works made by Canadian artists, which could be displayed on campus to serve as a resource for Fine Arts students and benefit the university community as a whole. In 1966, the Sir George Williams Art Galleries were established to display and manage the growing collection, and by 1983, the collection had grown to include nearly 1,500 works of art. Finally, in 1990, Leonard and Bina Ellen and a group of donors worked to set up an endowment to support the ongoing collection of artworks, and the newly named gallery was moved into its current location in the McConnell building in 1992. Today, the collection contains around 1,800 works that are available for study and exhibition as part of the Gallery’s programming. They are loaned to other art institutions on a regular basis, reproduced in publications, and used as a resource for researchers, students, writers, and professors.
While not strictly thematic, the selections presented here offer “samples” that are broadly representative of each decade of collecting. The Gallery rooms move from explorations of colour, abstraction, and form in the ’50s, 60s, and 70s; to feminist, conceptual, and body-centred work in the ’70s and ’80s; to photographic perspectives on landscape and technology in the ’90s. Recent acquisitions have aimed to address gaps in the collection, centring the voices of Black, Indigenous, people of colour, and other marginalized communities, and offering critical reflections on the transmission of cultural knowledge and the nature of collecting itself.
Past collections-based projects, such as This is Montréal! (2008), As Much As Possible Given the Time and Space Alloted (2009) and Collecting. The Inflections of a Practice (2010), have explored the idiosyncrasies of the Gallery’s collection, and offered alternative approaches for engaging with museological practices. They also point to work that still needs to be done. In the coming years, the Gallery will begin the process of establishing a policy for deaccessioning and repatriation, with the aim of returning cultural belongings originally acquired by the University and donated to the Gallery.
Examining a collection in these ways asks us to consider the perspectives and decisions of past directors and curators, and echoes urgent developments in the recent history of museum collections in so-called Canada that foreground decolonization and Indigenous self-determination. Taking this long view, critical questions emerge around how the collection will continue to evolve, while underlining the significance of artworks that can speak to the political and social concerns of their time, as well as those of the unknown future. These considerations point to the ongoing care, self-reflection, and cyclical re-evaluations inherent in any collecting practice. From here, we can acknowledge the work that has been done, and the work that remains for us to do.
Nicole Burisch
This exhibition brings together a selection of works drawn from the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s collection. Nearly 60 years after the collection was first presented in the newly-opened Hall Building, we reflect on the Gallery’s evolving acquisition practices, as we look ahead to the next six decades.
The Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) first began developing an art acquisition program in 1962, focusing on works made by Canadian artists, which could be displayed on campus to serve as a resource for Fine Arts students and benefit the university community as a whole. In 1966, the Sir George Williams Art Galleries were established to display and manage the growing collection, and by 1983, the collection had grown to include nearly 1,500 works of art. Finally, in 1990, Leonard and Bina Ellen and a group of donors worked to set up an endowment to support the ongoing collection of artworks, and the newly named gallery was moved into its current location in the McConnell building in 1992. Today, the collection contains around 1,800 works that are available for study and exhibition as part of the Gallery’s programming. They are loaned to other art institutions on a regular basis, reproduced in publications, and used as a resource for researchers, students, writers, and professors.
While not strictly thematic, the selections presented here offer “samples” that are broadly representative of each decade of collecting. The Gallery rooms move from explorations of colour, abstraction, and form in the ’50s, 60s, and 70s; to feminist, conceptual, and body-centred work in the ’70s and ’80s; to photographic perspectives on landscape and technology in the ’90s. Recent acquisitions have aimed to address gaps in the collection, centring the voices of Black, Indigenous, people of colour, and other marginalized communities, and offering critical reflections on the transmission of cultural knowledge and the nature of collecting itself.
Past collections-based projects, such as This is Montréal! (2008), As Much As Possible Given the Time and Space Alloted (2009) and Collecting. The Inflections of a Practice (2010), have explored the idiosyncrasies of the Gallery’s collection, and offered alternative approaches for engaging with museological practices. They also point to work that still needs to be done. In the coming years, the Gallery will begin the process of establishing a policy for deaccessioning and repatriation, with the aim of returning cultural belongings originally acquired by the University and donated to the Gallery.
Examining a collection in these ways asks us to consider the perspectives and decisions of past directors and curators, and echoes urgent developments in the recent history of museum collections in so-called Canada that foreground decolonization and Indigenous self-determination. Taking this long view, critical questions emerge around how the collection will continue to evolve, while underlining the significance of artworks that can speak to the political and social concerns of their time, as well as those of the unknown future. These considerations point to the ongoing care, self-reflection, and cyclical re-evaluations inherent in any collecting practice. From here, we can acknowledge the work that has been done, and the work that remains for us to do.
Nicole Burisch