Celebrated today as a pioneer of modern art in Canada, Kathleen Munn (1887-1974) sought inspiration beyond the conservative art scene of Toronto in the early 1900s. She absorbed the lessons of the international modern art movement in New York and Europe to produce signature paintings and her own unique drawing technique to create a new visual vocabulary in the 1920s and 1930s.

Join curator Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art, and Conservation Fellow Stephanie Barnes for an exclusive viewing of select Munn works from the AGO Collection, and learn how analysis, technical imaging, conservation, and archival research, is shedding new light on Munn’s unique artistic process, advancing the study of Munn and expanding ideas of modern art in Canada in early decades of the 20th C.

Stephanie Barnes is Koerner Fellow in Conservation at the AGO, and a conservator of paintings. A graduate of Queen’s University’s Art Conservation program (MAC’14), Stephanie has completed previous internships, fellowships, and contracts at the Canadian Conservation Institute, National Gallery of Canada, Library and Archives Canada, and Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute. She has a background in chemistry and an interest in Canadian artist’s materials and techniques.

The Koerner Conservation Fellowship is generously supported by the Michael and Sonja Koerner Conservation Initiatives Fund.

Georgiana Uhlyarik is Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, and co-lead of the Indigenous + Canadian Art Department at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. She is the author of Kathleen Munn: Life and Work (Art Canada Institute). Recent projects include co-curating: Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak, the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous + Canadian Art, Introducing Suzy Lake, as well as international collaborations with Tate Modern, the Jewish Museum, NY, Terra Foundation for American Art and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. She is adjunct faculty at York University and University of Toronto, as well as research associate, Modern Literature & Culture, Ryerson University. Originally from Romania, she lives in Toronto with her twin sons.

AGO Futures is an expansive range of artist, author and curator talks that examine the current issues inspiring artists working today.