Fiona Smyth, I AM HERE (detail), 2021. Ink on paper and digital drawing. Commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario © Fiona Smyth
Located on the 5th floor.
Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass Holders & Visitors 25 and under. Learn more
From the earliest cave paintings to TikTok, humans have found creative ways to document their day-to-day lives. I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces, a major new AGO exhibition opening in April of 2022, is a revealing look at our universal need to capture, share and cherish the everyday. Featuring lost-and-found home movies from the Prelinger Archives, alongside celebrated artworks by the likes of David Hockney, Patti Smith, Claes Oldenburg, Annie Pootoogook, Arthur Jafa and Mary Pratt, as well as snapshots, photo albums, letters, television, grocery lists, and social media, I AM HERE brings together a broad range of personal records from different time periods and locales to explore the shared human impulse to document life as it happens.
Co-curated by Jim Shedden, the AGO’s Manager of Publishing, and Alexa Greist, AGO Associate Curator and R. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints & Drawings, in collaboration with archivist, scholar and writer Rick Prelinger, the exhibition is a celebration of daily life and human creativity, replete with music and creative prompts. Among the artworks on display will be a digital collage of the more than 3000 submissions received from around the world as part of the AGO’s 2021 Portraits of Resilience exhibition. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the AGO and DelMonico Books/D.A.P
Note: some video contains violent content that may be disturbing for some viewers.Supporting Sponsor
Generous Support
Contemporary programming at the AGO generously supported by
Supported by the Government of Canada/Avec l’appui du gouvernement du Canada
Audio description of artworks help remove barriers to our collections and exhibitions. Artworks will be highlighted through creative audio description, a type of spoken language describing visual images or objects, which enables audiences to engage and pursue their own journey in relation to visual art.
This large-print label resource is a key part of the AGO's ongoing commitment to inclusion and accessibility and will continue to grow and evolve to better supplement engagement to both the web and in-gallery experiences.
BlindSquare is a free GPS app developed for the blind, deafblind, and partially sighted. The GPS technology will alert your device to each described audio stop, provide text-to-speech for in-gallery room panels and wayfinding directives in this exhibition. You can download the app from the Apple App Store or by using a QR code onsite. iOS compatible only.
This visually supercharged book embraces a more-is-more visual approach with over 500 images, plus an eye-popping cover by Toronto based artist Fiona Smyth. Chaptered into themes with titles inspired by song lyrics, and interspersed with short texts, essays, and manifestos, I AM HERE is a book that fully embraces everyday modes of expression.
256 pgs +500 colour images
Paperback, 9.4 x 9.4 in.
Edited by with text by Jim Shedden, Alexa Greist, and Rick Prelinger.
Text by Stephen Broomer, Lynn Crosbie, and Robyn Lew.
Designed by The Office of Gilbert Li with Alison Hahn.
Cover by Fiona Smyth.
