Erica Rutherford exhibition from Confederation Centre Art Gallery to tour Canada

November 21, 2024 – Confederation Centre Art Gallery’s retrospective on Island artist Erica Rutherford will tour to four provinces starting in June 2025 with a stop at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

The exhibition Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works includes over 100 pieces by the late artist and is accompanied by memorabilia and photographs that support the stories told by the work itself. Rutherford’s life was shaped by the search for identity and community, and her works explore themes of persona and gender, nomadism and home, and the relationships between artistic and biographical narrative.

“Erica’s artwork has contributed immensely to the conversation about gender, with impacts on her own life and well beyond it,” says Pan Wendt, the exhibition’s curator. “The changing public understanding of gender has raised the international profile of her work, which in retrospect, looks to be focused on a courageous and often solitary mission of working through questions that are only now being raised in mainstream public discourse.”

“We’re excited to welcome art lovers as the second stop of the Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works tour. Our thanks to the Confederation Centre Art Gallery for this partnership opportunity to bring the works of P.E.I.’s first artist to be featured at the prestigious La Biennale di Venezia to the National Capital Region in June 2025,” said Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO, National Gallery of Canada (NGC). “As a co-producer of this exhibition, this collaboration is perfectly aligned with our commitment, as one of Canada’s national museums, to make art accessible for all Canadians across the country.”

In addition to hosting the presentation in Ottawa, the NGC is contributing to research for the exhibition and providing financial support for the catalogue.

Earlier this year, Rutherford’s work was on view at the Venice Biennale. Of the over 300 artists selected for the prestigious event, Rutherford was the only Canadian featured in the main exhibition titled Foreigners Everywhere. She is also the first Prince Edward Island artist to be presented there.

Born in Edinburgh in 1928, Rutherford spent her early years living around the world exploring a variety of art forms, and eventually settled on painting as a focus. She adopted a hard-edged pop style that became her trademark in the 1970s and 1980s. Her life was transformed by her transition to living as a woman in the mid-1970s, and by her permanent move to Prince Edward Island in 1985 – which she described as a homecoming.

Rutherford described her life as a “struggle to realize and to express my nature”. In her autobiographical writing, she repeatedly noted the close relationship between her work as an artist and her self-realization – as a woman, as an explorer, and as a shaper of place and identity.

“I think she was pushed hard by her inner struggle,” says Gail Rutherford, Erica’s long-time partner. “She lived in a world where her identity was not understood and was beyond most people’s understanding. I’m sure painting it out enabled her to survive, and it’s why the works from her period of transition resonate so strongly for anyone walking the same road. It’s lovely to see Erica’s life celebrated in this show.”

The exhibition opened at Confederation Centre Art Gallery in June 2024 and will continue to be on view until January 5, 2025. Its tour to four other provinces will begin in June 2025 at the National Gallery of Canada and continue through 2027.

For more information on Confederation Centre Art Gallery, visit confederationcentre.com/artgallery.

ERICA RUTHERFORD: HER LIVES AND WORKS 2025 – 2027 TOUR DATES
Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE: Until January 5, 2025
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON: June 13, 2025 – October 13, 2025
The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St. John’s, NL: TBA
Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, NB: TBA
Art Windsor-Essex, Windsor, ON: TBA
Art Gallery of Guelph, Guelph, ON: TBA
MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, NS: TBA

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Photos:
The Startled Model, 1977, lithograph and serigraph on paper, 58 x 43 cm, Rutherford Family Collection
Erica Rutherford, self-portrait circa 1976

Media Contacts:
Emily McMahon, Communications Manager, Confederation Centre of the Arts
[email protected] | 902-628-6135

Pénélope Carreau, Officer, Public Relations, National Gallery of Canada
[email protected]