What's on: October's Canadian contemporary art in the UK

During most Octobers, the art world finds itself overflowing with so many events that even the most avid art seekers can barely keep up. This year, as if to make up for the lack of physical events in 2020, the UK spoils us with what seems like more art events than any year previous to this. If you’re London-based like me, you’ll find endless art fairs to attend this season, including Frieze, London Craft Week and the Affordable Art Fair, in addition to an array of must-see exhibitions that showcase Canadian talent. If you’re further North in the UK, or if you’re after a culture-fuelled trip to another city, my top art exhibition recommendation opens in Manchester this weekend. And if the colder weather is putting you off from attending exhibitions in person, we also found some wonderful contemporary art that you can enjoy online. Ranging from exhibitions that tackle the deeply political to artworks that consider form above all else, my picks for this month are a perfect way to prime yourself for an art-fuelled season to come.

Cassils, Encapsulated Breaths No. 1, (Solutions, Stantion Museum, Houston, Texas), 2018. Photo: Cassils with Alejandro Santiago. Courtesy of the artist.

Cassils: Human Measure at Home in Manchester

2 October 2021 – 12 December 2021

Canadian transgender artist Cassils is known for their striking performances that are often emotionally intense, viscerally challenging, and deeply profound. Using their own body as a conduit for exploring gender constructs and social relations, Cassils’ art is a cutting critique of how gendered, and especially transgendered bodies are governed and violated by ruling powers. Against the backdrop of new UK laws passed that have been heavily critiqued for negative impact on the trans community, and with an increase in hate crimes against trans people in recent years, Human Measure is an urgent and timely solo presentation that brings necessary conversations about the politics of representation to the fore.

Jason Baerg, Kisci-Okima-Achak, 2014.

Jason Baerg - Tawâskweyâw ᑕᐋᐧᐢᑫᐧᔮᐤ A Path or Gap Among the Trees – Canada Gallery, Canada House, London

7 October 2021 – 31 December 2021

Cree Métis visual artist Jason Baerg’s first solo exhibition in the UK continues his exploration of new media, offering viewers a mix of interactive and immersive media projects alongside laser-cut painting installations. His artworks explore an expansive foray of themes, from those of wider scope such as community and ritual to the dazzlingly specific, including Cree cosmology and Indigenous Futurisms.

Tamara Henderson, Waves, Sleep, mixed textiles, 320 x 297 cm, 2016. Photograph: Plastiques Courtesy the artist and Rodeo, London / Piraeus

Tamara Henderson at Tate Modern in London

Until 17 July 2022

Performer and Participant is an ongoing multi-room presentation in Tate Modern’s Blavatnik Building that centres on action within art. As a part of this display, Canadian artist Tamara Henderson presents her installation Of Seasons End, consisting of ten individual artworks across several mediums. Sculpture, painting, textiles and a film come together to explore states of consciousness, ritual and change through the context of the environment and mythology.

Joan Jonas painting Ocean Drawing 5, 2019.

Joan Jonas: Fawn Grove, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London

9 September 2021 - 12 November 2021

A frequent resident of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, celebrated artist Joan Jonas uses innovative new media to create playful characters and imaginative fairy tales, layering meaning and technique to produce work that is unmistakably hers. Beyond her pioneering video and installation works, Joan frequently produces writing as well as imagery in 2D. In Fawn Grove, the two are brought together, starting with a text of the same name that she wrote about a walk she took in the countryside with her dog Sappho, originally published in an issue of the magazine Art-Rite in 1974. The works included in this exhibition consider form and surface in a way that is distinctly hers, full of motion and care.

Maud Lewis: A Folk Art Icon, Lecture and Live Q&A, Art Canada Institute. Online.

5 October 2021, 5:00 pm EST

I'm a huge fan of folk art in general, especially its ability to skirt institutional homogenisation whilst enduring through cycle after cycle of trends. There's also much to be said about the gendered and domestic aspects of this type of art, making so much of it inherently political by its mere acceptance within recognised arts organisations. One name that continues to rank in significance in both Canadian art history and folk art in general is Maud Lewis. If you enjoy folk art like me, this online talk about Maud Lewis the Canadian folk art icon is one not be be missed.

Portrait of writer Fariha Róisín, whose transmission was published 3 September 2021. Photo by Clémence Polès.

Artists-in-Presidents: Transmissions to Power at Blackwood Gallery. Online.

Released every Friday, 6 August - 17 December 2021

This online project presents 21 artists, thinkers, performers, and writers who have created audio addresses where power is performed, and participants offer answers to the question, “What messages do we need to broadcast to our nation(s) and relations now?” Although no replacement for political action, art has the ability to expand our collective understandings and stretch our imaginations about what is possible to enact, and this collective artwork does exactly that.