Edward Burtynsky: Anthropocene Emerging

This exhibition features the photography of globally renowned artist Edward Burtynsky of Toronto, one of the most compelling artists of our time. His large-format photographs engage viewers through their impressive scale, his striking use of light and deep, rich colours. Their overwhelming subject —global resource extraction and its irreversible impact on an over-populated planet—is a haunting glimpse of devestation that has, scientists argue, triggered a human epoch on the geological time scale: the Anthropocene Era.

Featuring photography from three countries in five bodies of work produced between 1991 and 2001—Quarries (United States and Italy), Tailings (Canada), Urban Mines (Canada), Oil (Canada), and Shipbreaking (Bangladesh). This prescient body of early work led Burtynsky to a collaboration with film makers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier; together they have produced several award winning films including Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018). Both films will be screened during the exhibition.

Edward Burtynsky has received international attention and his works are held in the collections of more than sixty art museums worldwide. He has produced solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 2003), Cleveland Museum of Art (2019), and Fondazione MAST (Bologna, 2020).
Burtynsky has earned many prestigious awards including Officer of the Order of Canada (2006), the International Centre for Photography Infinity Award for Art (2008), the Governor General’s Award in the Visual Arts (2016), Photo London's Master of Photography and the Mosaic Institute's Peace Patron (2018) and the Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography (2019). He has also received eight Honorary Doctorates from universities in Canada and the United States.

Exhibition dates: TBA