Joan Jonas: We come from the sea

June 13 – October 4, 2026
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax

Step into the world of internationally acclaimed artist, Joan Jonas in We come from the sea, a powerful multisensory exhibition that pays homage to the beauty, biodiversity, and vulnerability of oceans, now on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

The exhibition features Jonas’ installation, Moving Off the Land II (2019), a recent joint acquisition by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the National Gallery of Canada which premiered in 2019 as the inaugural exhibition at Ocean Space in Venice, Italy and was the centrepiece of her 2024 retrospective Good Night Good Morning at MoMA. It reflects years of research, performance, and filmmaking in the waters of Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and in aquariums around the world, and invites visitors to experience the ocean as never before, not just as a place, but as a living, breathing part of themselves.

“Somewhere in our unconscious we remember that we come from the sea. It’s not a memory; it’s a feeling; it’s in our DNA. I think that’s where all these stories come from and our desire to go back to the sea, our desire to swim under water, which I love to do.” – Joan Jonas

Through layered projections, soundscapes, movement, drawing, and storytelling, We come from the sea presents a highly immersive and multidisciplinary experience that emphasizes environmental stewardship and examines the line between art and nature, fact and feeling. The work draws from extensive research, mythology, literature, poetry, and personal observation to highlight growing concerns about climate change, overfishing, habitat destruction, and species loss.

We come from the sea is firmly rooted in Nova Scotia. Jonas’ deep connection to Cape Breton, where she has lived seasonally since 1970, is woven throughout the exhibition, bringing local landscapes and local spirit to the fore and positioning the region within broader global conversations about art, ecology, and cultural exchange. In this work, Cape Breton is not simply a backdrop; it is Jonas’ inspiration. Elements from the island, including its sounds, sights, and people, appear throughout, emphasizing it’s influence on Jonas’ artmaking and thinking.

Building on Jonas’ projects dating to the 1970s, the exhibition incorporates her longstanding artistic strategies and demonstrates how she continually reworks and expands her ideas over time. Video installations featuring marine life, underwater ecosystems, and scenes from Cape Breton are presented inside theatrical wooden structures. Soundscapes of whale calls, music, and narration are featured alongside drawings, a large whale collage, as well as sea creatures and mirrors created by Venetian glassmakers.

Children also play an important role in the work. Jonas sees young people as inheritors of today’s environmental challenges and wants them to be familiar with the beauty of our natural world. As in her earlier works, child and adolescent collaborators are included throughout the exhibition, lending their voices to help communicate concerns about the future and address the massive and rapid changes happening to our oceans.

At once intimate and expansive, this exhibition demonstrates how art can deepen our understanding of some of the most pressing ecological issues of our time. It asks visitors to reconsider their relationship with the natural world and the oceans that sustain us.

We come from the sea is organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the National Gallery of Canada and curated by David Diviney, Chief Curator, AGNS, and Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Director of National Engagement, NGC. The exhibition was first shown in Cape Breton in 2025 and will embark on a cross-Canada tour after it’s Halifax engagement.

About the Artist

Joan Jonas (b. 1936, New York) is a world-renowned artist whose practice spans video, performance, installation, sound, text, and sculpture. Her groundbreaking work has helped shape contemporary art forms including performance, video, conceptual art, and theatre. Since 1968, her practice has explored perception, ritual, and the power of objects and gestures.

Jonas has exhibited and performed internationally, presenting major solo exhibitions at the United States Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Tate Modern, and others. In 2024, her work was the subject of a major retrospective at Museum of Modern Art. Her many honours include, most recently, the Kyoto Prize (2018), and the Nam June Paik Prize (2024). In 2025, she received the inaugural Art Basel Awards Icon Award.

About the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

As a celebrated Canadian gallery, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is deeply connected to the cultures and communities of Atlantic Canada, a region shaped by its enduring relationship with the sea. It is committed to this mission as an agency of the Province of Nova Scotia and one of the premier arts institutions in Canada.

Since its beginnings in 1908 as the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts, the gallery has been at the heart of the province’s cultural evolution. It officially became the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 1975. Over the years, the AGNS has cultivated an impressive permanent collection of nearly 20,000 works, including Canadian and Indigenous art, contemporary installations, and a renowned folk-art collection featuring Maud Lewis’s iconic painted house and the largest public collection of her work.

About the National Gallery of Canada

Founded in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada is among the world’s most respected art institutions. As a national museum, we exist to serve all Canadians, no matter where they live. We do this by sharing our collection, exhibitions, and public programming widely. We create dynamic experiences that allow for new ways of seeing ourselves and each other through the visual arts, while centering Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Our mandate is to develop, preserve and present a collection for the learning and enjoyment of all – now and for generations to come. We are home to more than 90,000 works, including one of the finest collections of Indigenous and Canadian art, major works from the 14th to the 21st century and extensive library and archival holdings. Our dazzling, light-filled building is situated on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation, in Ottawa.

Ankosé – Everything is connected – Tout est relié

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia acknowledges the support of the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada Council for the Arts, DR Sobey Foundation and The Sobey Foundation.

The National Gallery of Canada’s National Engagement initiative is generously supported by Michael Nesbitt, with additional funding from the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.