Imagine standing in front of a massive canvas where the forest feels so dense, it’s as if the trees are about to come alive. That’s the kind of art created by the gifted Canadian painter Emily Carr, who captured the spirit of British Columbia’s rainforests with the intensity of a 7D film.
From January 25, 2025, to January 4, 2026, the Vancouver Art Gallery is hosting Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape, featuring more than 20 of her forest landscapes. It’s both a retrospective and an immersive experience that pulls visitors into her world. More on vancouveriski com.
A Glimpse into Her Life
Emily Carr was born on December 13, 1871, in Victoria, British Columbia. She became one of the first women artists in Western Canada to gain national recognition. Carr studied art in Canada, San Francisco, and London, where she absorbed European modernism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Her work was deeply influenced by the cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, particularly their villages and towering totem poles. She also painted monumental trees and sweeping landscapes of British Columbia, always searching for the spiritual essence of nature.
Although her early works received little attention, in 1927 she was invited by Eric Brown, Director of the National Gallery of Canada, to join the Group of Seven. Emily Carr passed away on March 2, 1945, in Victoria. Today, her paintings are held in the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and other major collections, cementing her legacy as one of the most important Canadian artists of the 20th century.
When Forests Come Alive
Looking at Carr’s paintings, you quickly realize she saw the forest in a way no one else did. Her canvases aren’t just depictions of trees — they’re entire worlds. Every shaft of light, every gap between trunks carries meaning. At Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape, her mastery of space is striking. She paints forests that feel walkable, disorienting, overwhelming, and magnificent all at once.
She also shifts perspectives with ease. Some works place you directly under towering trees, making you want to take a deep breath. Others lift you high above the forest, showing its vastness and almost intimidating scale. Her dense canopies, twisted trunks, and light-filled clearings all work together to create depth, rhythm, and motion. That’s the magic of Carr: every visitor feels like the central figure in her art.
Indigenous Culture and Connection
Emily Carr was one of the first Canadian artists to seriously engage with Indigenous art and culture. This exhibition explores how she depicted villages and totem poles within the forest, sparking reflection on the relationship between people, land, and culture in the early 20th century.
She travelled to remote coastal communities in British Columbia, documenting totem poles, canoes, house fronts, and sometimes people themselves. These works now serve as important cultural records, preserved in galleries and museums. For example, her painting Totem Poles, Kitseukla captures a Gitxsan village with its poles standing alongside houses, a powerful reminder of the close connection between community and environment.
At the same time, it’s important to note that Carr often viewed Indigenous cultures through a European lens. While inspired, her interpretations didn’t always reflect the full depth of those traditions — a common perspective of her era. Today, her art raises questions about cultural preservation and the respectful recognition of Indigenous heritage, particularly around the relocation and conservation of totem poles.
More at the Gallery
Alongside Emily Carr’s exhibition, the Vancouver Art Gallery is also presenting: Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head, Written in Clay: From the John David Lawrence Collection, Postcards from the Heart: Selections from the Brigitte and Henning Freybe Collection, and Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar. All exhibitions run until January 4, 2026.
The gallery is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. It is closed on Tuesdays. Tickets for Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape are available directly through the gallery’s website.
Sources:
- https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/exhibitions/emily-carr-navigating-an-impenetrable-landscape
- https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/vag-press-release-emily-carr-navigating-an-impenetrable-landscape-2025.pdf
- https://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/emily-carr-168
- https://www.art-bc.com/events/vancouver/upcoming-exhibitions/emily-carr-navigating-an-impenetrable-landscape
- https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/vancouver-art-gallery-emily-carr-exhibit-january-2025-2026-10125835