A Walk in the Wild

List of artists:
Gisele Amantea, Kenojuak Ashevak, Kaka Ashoona, Zadok Ben-David, Tom Benner, Grace Coombs, Charles Comfort, Ken Danby, Eegyvudluk, Abraham Etungat, Frances Marie Gage, Eldon Garnet, A.W. Holdstock, Dorothy Knowles, Elaine Ling, James E. H. MacDonald, Manly MacDonald, Kananginak Pootoogook, Pudlo Pudlat, Mary Hiester Reid, Catherine Reynolds, Arthur Shilling, Homer Watson, and Mary Wrinch

American author Henry David Thoreau noted that when we walk, we prefer the fields and woods (over cities and gardens) as a way to return to our senses. “What business have I in the woods,” he said during an 1851 lecture, “if I am thinking of something out of the woods?” Many Indigenous worldviews recognize the sacred web of relationships that exist between all living things, with nature at the heart of stories about the interconnectedness of community and the land. Nature is held as sacred in nearly every faith. Most governments have laws to protect the wilderness of their nations, recognizing the importance of preserving the natural world as a space for solitude and reflection.

After months of staying inside our homes to fight the spread of COVID-19, it was sweet relief when medical officials deemed it was safe for us to go outside. ‘A Walk in the Wild’ is a group exhibition featuring works from the Art Gallery of Windsor’s permanent collection – paintings, photographs, prints and mixed media pieces – by Canadian and Indigenous artists that depict nature in all its seasons.