Exhibition featuring 32 portraits by one of Canada’s most highly acclaimed photographers
Opening Saturday, September 19, 2009, the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents Canadian Content: Portraits by Nigel Dickson, an exhibition of arresting, insightful and witty photographs of famous Canadians taken by one of our country’s most acclaimed photographers. The exhibition showcases 32 photos, many of which have graced magazines ranging from Saturday Night to Esquire, Fortune, Newsweek and Rolling Stone, and features such Canadian luminaries as Margaret Atwood, Jean Chrétien, Doug Gilmour, Oscar Peterson and many more.
Canadian Content: Portraits by Nigel Dickson is on display in the Hilary and Galen Weston Wing, Level 2, until Sunday, March 21, 2010 and complements the concurrent ICC exhibition, Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913 - 2008, presented by the Bay, which runs in the Roloff Beny Gallery from September 26, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Together, both exhibitions illustrate the development of portrait photography, emphasizing the representation of personalities prominent in popular culture in the US and Canada.
“His photographs are beautifully composed, the work of a photographer who might have been a painter,” said John Macfarlane, Editor in Chief of The Walrus and former Editor of Saturday Night magazine. “His camera sees inside his subjects; his photographs reveal their truths.”
About the Exhibition
Showcasing 32 photographs taken by Dickson between 1980 and 2008, the images underscore the photographer’s unique connection with his subjects and his mastery of diverse photographic styles. Each photograph tells its own story while revealing something new about its subject, and in many cases showcases the photographer’s keen sense of humour. The images portray an assortment of well-known Canadian personalities ranging from politicians, athletes and business moguls to artists and entertainers. Photos of several former Prime Ministers are exhibited including a somber portrayal of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, a larger-than-life Brian Mulroney and a regal profile of Pierre Trudeau. Current Governor General Michaëlle Jean is portrayed, as well as former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, goofily adorned in a pair of oversized glasses. Featured actors and musicians include Paul Gross, Michael Bublé, and female impersonator Craig Russell, bare-chested in full makeup. Other Canadian celebrities portrayed include Margaret Atwood, Doug Gilmour and David Cronenberg. Some of the many covers that Dickson shot for Saturday Night magazine, a historic publication that existed in various forms in Canada between 1887 and 2005, are also displayed.
About the Photographer
Born and raised in England, Dickson moved to Canada in 1974 and began a prolific career in which he has produced some of the most provocative and arresting portraits of many famous Canadians. Dickson’s work has been published by Toronto Life, Details, Esquire, Saturday Night, Forbes, Business Week, the Globe and Mail, Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Weekend, Chatelaine, and Fast Company. He has won sixteen National Magazine Awards, (the most awarded to any artist in the Visual Design category’s history), 25 Advertising & Design Club of Canada Awards, two international ANDY Awards, the Les Usherwood Award for Lifetime Achieved from the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, and several others in both Canada and the United States. He lives in Toronto, with this wife and two children. For more information, visit www.nigeldickson.com.
Other Information
On Monday, November 9 at 7 pm, Dickson will participate along with other art and photography experts in a free panel discussion entitled Facing the Lens, Seeing the Light: Observations on Portrait Photography. This illustrated talk will explore different facets of the photographic portrait, its significance through the history of photography and its enduring fascination, adding context to the concurrent exhibitions Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 (at the ROM), and Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years 1923-1937 (at the Art Gallery of Ontario). This program forms part of The Question of Celebrity, the ICC’s fall public programs series that will explore the meaning of celebrity in modern culture (more details will be announced in the coming weeks).
Panelists include Lilly Koltun, Director General of the Portrait Gallery of Canada, noted photographer Nigel Dickson, and gallery owner Jane Corkin. Moderated by Francisco Alvarez, Managing Director of the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the ROM, and Sophie Hackett, AGO Assistant Curator of Photography. Admission is free, and is on a first come, first serve basis. This is a co-presentation by the Institute for Contemporary Culture and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Facing the Lens, Seeing the Light takes place in the ROM’s Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre. For more information call 416.586.5524.
A volume of Dickson’s photographs, Stand Still: Portraits by Nigel Dickson, is available for purchase in the ROM Museum Store. This $45 hardcover book features 160 photographs specially chosen by the photographer himself as representative of his 30-year career.
Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913 - 2008
The ICC presents Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 from September 26, 2009 to January 3, 2010. The exhibition, which garnered record-breaking attendance in its recent European engagements, showcases more than 140 portraits, including classic images from Vanity Fair’s early period and photographs featured in the magazine since its 1983 relaunch. A collaboration between Vanity Fair and the National Portrait Gallery, London, the exhibition is curated by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, and David Friend, Vanity Fair’s Editor of Creative Development. Vanity Fair Portraits is presented by the Bay and will be displayed in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. The ROM will be the only Canadian venue to display Vanity Fair Portraits, and this will be its first showing in eastern North America.
Institute for Contemporary Culture
The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) plays a vital role at the ROM, a museum whose collections embrace many civilizations through the ages. As the ROM documents history, the ICC is the ROM’s window on contemporary society, exploring current cultural issues through exhibitions of art, lectures, film series, and informal gatherings. The ROM’s collections provide context and depth to the contemporary issues addressed by participants in ICC events from around the world. In this, and many other ways, the ICC serves as a catalyst for stimulating public conversations. For more information on the ICC, visit www.rom.on.ca/about/icc.