Image courtesy of the artist, D’Andrea Bowie.

D’Andrea Bowie: cut a path through the weeds and call it a garden

October 10, 2026 – January 2, 2027
Artist Talk: October 17, 1 – 2pm
Opening Reception: October 17, 2 – 4pm

D’Andrea Bowie’s process-based sculptural practice is driven by experimentation and attention to how materials behave and transform. Working with plaster, cement, ceramics, copper, glass, and stone, she engages with materials extracted from the earth that have long been used to build infrastructure and reshape the land. Through casting, forming, assembling, and other processes of transformation, Bowie considers how these materials carry traces of touch, labour, geological history, and human intervention, drawing attention to our relationship with the land and how we shape it.

In cut a path through the weeds and call it a garden, Bowie turns her attention to the geology of Owen Sound and the surrounding region, allowing the particular materials and formations of this landscape to inform the work. Bringing geological processes into conversation with histories of building, surveying, and altering the land, the exhibition considers the ways we impose boundaries and order upon the natural world. Through an exploratory approach to making, Bowie encourages a slower kind of looking—one attentive to material, place, and the traces of change that accumulate over time.

Frances-Anne Johnston, A Deux, Chez Moi, c. 1976. Oil on canvas, 61 x 76.5 cm. Collection of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery. Gift from Gladys Warrilow in memory of her sister Lilean Miller, 1976.

A History of Reverence

September 19, 2026 – January 2, 2027
Opening Reception: October 17, 2 – 4pm

A History of Reverence gathers works from the past sixty years that engage with earlier artists as points of inspiration, reflection, and dialogue. Drawn from the Tom Thomson Art Gallery’s collection, the exhibition traces how acts of homage can take many forms—from direct stylistic reference to conceptual reimagining, critical interrogation, or inventive transformation. Each work acknowledges the presence of the past as an active force in the present, revealing how artists position themselves both within and against inherited traditions. In this continuum, reverence becomes less an act of imitation than a gesture of recognition and a way to sustain conversation across generations of artistic practice.

Rather than suggesting nostalgia or deference, the works in A History of Reverence expose the complexity of artistic lineage. Some artists invoke their predecessors to honor or preserve their influence; others engage them to question hierarchies, recast narratives, or assert new identities. Taken together, the exhibition charts a living history of exchange, in which memory and innovation coexist, and in which every creative act carries traces of those who came before while staking claim to its own presence.

For more information about our current exhibitions, please visit our website.

About Tom Thomson Art Gallery

The Tom Thomson Art Gallery develops exhibitions and programs that enrich the region and contribute to national visual arts discourse. We promote and support emerging and professional artists, advocate for the creative sector, and actively research, preserve, develop, and exhibit the collection to promote scholarship and to generate and explore new ideas. We are committed to welcoming and inspiring people of all representations, ages, backgrounds, and abilities.

Tom Thomson Art Gallery
840 1st Avenue West
Owen Sound, ON N4K 4K4
www.tomthomson.org
ttag@tomthomson.org
519-376-1932

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Gallery Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday to Monday: Closed

Accessibility:
Tom Thomson Art Gallery is fully accessible. For more information, please visit our website.

The Tom Thomson Art Gallery operates with generous support from the City of Owen Sound, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council.