National Gallery of Canada: 2011-2020
Artists’ Gender and Racialization - Solo Contemporary Exhibitions
Racialization
More than 95% of artists with solo contemporary exhibitions at the NGC from 2011-2020 were white.
In the summer of 2021, the NGC launched an ambitious new strategic plan, called Transform Together. It’s advertised in a web campaign, that proclaims “we’ve changed” and that explicitly embraces a more inclusive framework. Let’s hope so.
For detailed analysis of why this change is so needed, see:
Gender
Fewer than 40% of the solo contemporary exhibitions at the NGC from 2011-2020 went to female artists.
Seen historically, however, this is the most gender equitable representation by decade that the gallery has had. It represents a significant improvement over the previous decade: 2000-2009 only had around 20% female solo exhibitions (Dymond, 2019, pp. 31-2). In historic terms, prior to the 1970s, there were no shows given to female artists; in the 1980s, the percentage of solo shows to living female artists rose to around 18%; in the 1990s, it rose to 30%, before falling in the 2000s. It is a good sign that the trend is reversing the dip in the 2000s and rising again in the 2010s.
NGC Staffing
For details about the changing staff at the Gallery and how this impacts programming see:
Using the metric of solo shows of living artists, NGC’s record of exhibiting the work of artists of color is nothing short of disastrous … 20 white/unmarked artists to 1 artist of colour… and it surely points to the need for change. And while it might not be a fair account of the progress they’ve made with respect to Indigenous art, the need for more change is strikingly clear.