Image: Ottawa Art Gallery
The Ottawa Art Gallery is presenting ‘Faith Fyles: In Full Bloom’, an exhibition examining the intersection of art and science through the life and work of Faith Fyles (1875–1961), the first woman appointed as a botanist with Canada’s Department of Agriculture. The exhibition runs from March 7 through September 27, 2026, on Level 4 of the Ottawa Art Gallery in Ottawa.
Fyles pursued two closely connected careers at Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm: first as a botanist and later as an artist. Her scientific work included collecting botanical specimens, researching plant diseases and documenting plants and fruits in several media and styles. The exhibition shows how these activities could overlap, presenting Fyles as a figure who both produced scientific knowledge and translated the natural world into visual form.
According to the gallery, Fyles worked within a gendered bureaucracy while contributing to the documentation and circulation of knowledge about Canadian agriculture during the sector’s rapid expansion in the early 20th century. A featured work is her 1921 watercolour ‘Bingo’, held by Ingenium. The exhibition also includes a photograph of Fyles at her easel, taken around 1930 and lent by Vanessa Nugent.
Fyles’s legacy is placed in dialogue with contemporary practices addressing land, labour and scientific craft. Stephanie Tenasco’s ‘Ninìm “I dance”’ (2023) celebrates Algonquin beadwork traditions and continuing relationships with the natural world. Deborah Margo’s ongoing ‘Harvesting from Allotment #22’ (2022–) incorporates dye experiments connected to women’s knowledge-making and relationships with plant life. Marie-Jeanne Musiol’s ‘Plant Cosmos no. 1 (Foxtail)’ (2018) uses electrodynamic capture in a photographic work described by the gallery as proposing a new kind of herbarium.
Other contemporary works focus on agricultural labour and the Central Experimental Farm itself. Barbara Brown’s ‘Sowing the Future Series: Willow and Tess – Mud Harvest’ (2024) brings attention to the often-overlooked work of women farmers engaged in sustainable practices across the region. Susan Geraldine Taylor’s ‘Ode to the Grand Central Experimental Farm of Canada: The Arboretum’ (1987), a series of hand-coloured photographic screen prints, highlights the farm’s centennial and advocates for the protection of its landscapes.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Ottawa Art Gallery and Ingenium—Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation. Drawing on Ingenium’s horticultural art and artefacts collection, the partners undertook a research project that the gallery says brought new information about Fyles’s life and career to light, including previously undocumented works. Curators are Rebecca Basciano, Meghan Ho, Dr. William Knight and Dr. Cindy Stelmackowich. Institutional lenders and partners include Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Agriculture Library, the Canadian Museum of Nature, Library and Archives Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, the Royal Botanical Gardens and the University of Guelph. Admission to the Ottawa Art Gallery is free.
