Canadian Art & the Environment

From Canada’s vast boreal forests and fragile Arctic icefields, the country’s landscapes—its mountains, prairies, and waterways—have long shaped artistic imagination. Canadian Art & the Environment traces this evolving relationship between art and the land, revealing how artists across generations have imagined the natural world as a space of belonging, knowledge, and responsibility. The book spotlights works by one hundred of these artists—including Rebecca Belmore, Edward Burtynsky, Emily Carr, Aganetha Dyck, Norval Morrisseau, Joyce Wieland, and Jin-me Yoon—and features essays by scholar Norman Vorano. It demonstrates that ecological awareness in Canada has always been both visionary and contested.

The book moves from early methods of envisioning the land to modern and contemporary works confronting industrialization, extraction, and the climate crisis. The final section turns toward renewal, spotlighting artists whose practices present alternate visions for restoring relationships to land through repair, remembrance, and collective responsibility. Together, these sections chart a shift from seeing nature as a resource to understanding it as a relation.

“The environment has never been a neutral backdrop; it has always been an active force shaping artistic vision, cultural identity, and ethical responsibility. Across generations, artists have returned to the land as a site of knowledge, contestation, and care. Their works reveal how ecological awareness has evolved alongside Canada’s social, political, and cultural histories.”

– Norman Vorano

The art created from conflict is exceptional in its diversity, and Brandon has assembled an arsenal of conflict-related cultural media, including posters, sketches, photographs, films, and sculptures. This comprehensive study showcases a stunning range of creators, such as A.Y. Jackson, Alex Colville, and Rebecca Belmore, and ventures far beyond the familiar narratives of Western battle painting by including Indigenous war art practices, passed down through generations in what we now call Canada. Ultimately, it provides new insights into our country’s deep and often disturbing relationship with combat.

Banner Image: (top left) Edward Burtynsky, Nickel Tailings #34, Sudbury, Ontario, 1996. Courtesy of the artist. © Edward Burtynsky. (top right) Sara Angelucci, August 23, Bottle Gentian, Queen Anne’s Lace, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. © Sara Angelucci. (bottom left) Jin-me Yoon, Living Time 1 (diptych), 2019. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of the artist. © Jin-me Yoon. (bottom right) Lawren S. Harris, Mount Lefroy, 1930. McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg. © Family of Lawren S. Harris.

About the Author:

Norman Vorano

Norman Vorano is an art historian and curator whose work bridges the classroom, the museum, historic sites, archives, and communities. He specializes in the historic and contemporary arts of Indigenous North America—especially the Arctic—and in the broader questions that arise when Indigenous visual cultures meet colonial institutions and global audiences. His research and teaching examine museum and curatorial studies, along with digital/cultural heritage studies, including site scanning for historical analysis and preservation. A Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Art and Material Culture, Norman Vorano received his PhD (Visual and Cultural Studies) from the University of Rochester and his MA (Art History) and BFA (Visual Art) from York University, Toronto. He has served on the editorial board of the Inuit Art Quarterly and is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He is also a 2017 Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Learn More