Image: Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound
The Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Ontario, will present ‘A History of Reverence’ from September 19, 2026, through January 2, 2027. Drawn from the gallery’s collection, the exhibition brings together works made over the past 60 years that respond to earlier artists through homage, reinterpretation and critical dialogue.
According to the gallery’s announcement, the exhibition considers artistic lineage not as a fixed inheritance but as an active exchange. The works are framed as evidence of the ways memory and innovation continually reshape one another, with later artists engaging the practices, images or ideas of those who came before them.
The exhibition’s emphasis on reverence is qualified by its inclusion of reinterpretation and critical dialogue. Rather than presenting influence as a straightforward transfer from one generation to the next, ‘A History of Reverence’ is described as a space where artists revisit earlier work while changing its meaning through new contexts and approaches.
The announcement identifies Frances-Anne Johnston’s ‘A Deux, Chez Moi’ as the image-credit work for the exhibition. Dated circa 1976 and executed in oil on canvas, the painting is shown in detail in the gallery’s promotional material. The available announcement does not provide a full checklist or identify the other artists represented in the presentation.
‘A History of Reverence’ joins a programme at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery that draws on both its collection and its namesake’s place in Canadian art. Other exhibitions listed by the gallery for the 2026 season include ‘Forecast – June to January’, a two-part presentation featuring works by Tom Thomson alongside collection selections, as well as exhibitions devoted to Robert Markle and Michelle Peraza. Those projects are separate from the new collection exhibition.
The Tom Thomson Art Gallery is located at 840 1st Avenue West in Owen Sound. Its listed public hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the gallery is closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is by donation, with a suggested contribution of $10. ‘A History of Reverence’ will remain on view through January 2, 2027.
