Norval Morrisseau, Man Changing into Thunderbird, acrylic on canvas, 1977. Art Gallery of Ontario.

November 18 – November 19, 2023

11:00 am – 4:00 pm

Visiting with Morrisseau is a free public gathering centered around stories—visual and oral—inspired by the art and legacy of Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau (1932-2007) and Anishinaabeg medicine teachings. This special event is held in conjunction with the exhibitions and

Taking place at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University Art Gallery, on unceded, unsurrendered, Algonquin Territory, this gathering welcomes Anishinaabe artists, Elders, knowledge keepers and community members from Anishinaabe Aki.

Join us to visit, enjoy food and share stories inspired by the Mishomis or Grandfather’s artistic and cultural legacy.  You will have the opportunity to actively and deeply engage with visual narratives embedded in the work of Norval Morrisseau and Christian Chapman through immersive activities, including sharing circles, slow-looking exercises and reflective discussions.

Curators Danielle Printup and Carmen Robertson will also lead guided tours of the Morrisseau and Chapman exhibitions.

This event is generously supported by Westerkirk Works of Art, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Panel discussion at Visiting with Morrisseau, at CUAG (November 2023).

Entanglements and Teachings in the Art of Norval Morrisseau

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On September 20th 2023, Carmen Robertson delivered the Frances K. Smith lecture delivered by Carmen Robertson at the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery. 

To study the art of Norval Morrisseau is to become entangled in several complicatedly intertwisted narrative threads. Dr Robertson leads the Morrisseau Project: 1955–1985 research team working to build a database of his art and archival sources, design an online digital storylines project, and publish a book on his art and life from this period. Following the interconnected lines of inquiry his artworks posit, Robertson interrogates some of the complex teachings that Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau’s visual storytelling language quietly offers twenty-first century audiences.

, is now live on Digital Agnes, Vimeo and YouTube.

Connect to the healing force of Norval Morrisseau’s work

“There’s lots of stories that are told in Ojibwe but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to draw them—that’s from my own self—my own idea what they look like.” (Norval Morrisseau, Return to the House of Invention, 1996, p. 92).

Through his innovative visual language, Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau gifted viewers a vision of our interconnected world expressed as a sense of balanced motion at play, understood as Mino Bimaadiziwin in Anishinaabemowin.

Medicine Currents features a range of paintings, drawings and objects by Morrisseau that celebrate the artist’s storytelling vocabulary. His work is richly infused with divided circles that express balance, good and evil, day and night, and heaven and earth, black lines of movement and power, and an increasingly vibrant use of colour. It is grounded in his clear understanding of the relationships between all living entities.

Medicine Currents offers a profound sense of the artist’s transformational and nurturing vision of land, sky and water. This exhibition unveils the healing aesthetic in and power embedded within Morrisseau’s work, which draws inspiration from the past, resonates in the present and envisions a transformative future.

Thank you! We acknowledge with gratitude the lenders whose generosity has made Medicine Currents possible: the Canadian Museum of History, John Cook, Indigenous Art Collection at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Westerkirk Works of Art.

Curated by: Carmen Robertson and Danielle Printup

Artists in the exhibition: Norval Morrisseau

Credits: Medicine Currents is generously supported by Westerkirk Works of Art

Image credit: CUAG

On June 2nd we were honoured to visit with the Elder’s Circle at Kitigan Zibi to discuss the Morrisseau Project and to ask for advice about research directions and priorities.

Linda Grussani is a member of Kitigan Zibi and it was wonderful to have her along for our discussion in the circle. In addition to Linda, our group included Carmen, Ruth, Lisa, Stacy, Fran, and Kate.

It was an exciting day! There were many excellent ideas and stories from those who remembered meeting Morrisseau. The Elders suggested that in addition to involving Morrisseau’s children in the project more directly, that we might consider discussing Morrisseau’s time at the St. Joseph IRS in Spanish with someone who attended that school. We are looking into records that might be available through the TRC Archive in Winnipeg. We also took up their suggestion to post a community call out for stories about Morrisseau.

Carmen Robertson, Jamie Kastner, Ruth Phillips and Patricia McGuire at the panel discussion.

Dr Carmen Robertson (Canada Research Chair in North American Art & Material Culture) will be hosting a screening of “” — the acclaimed new Canadian film that documents the widespread forgery of works by iconic Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau.

The screening will take place on campus on Monday, March 2nd at 7:30 p.m. in the Richcraft Theatre (Richcraft Hall 2200) and will be followed by a panel discussion with the film’s director, , and Morrisseau scholars Drs Ruth PhillipsĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýCarmen Robertson.

Free admission — all welcome!