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Al McWilliams has exhibited extensively in both solo and major group exhibitions throughout Canada the United States and Europe. His work has represented Canada in exhibitions in Germany, France, Japan, Korea and the United States. His work is held in most major public collections in Canada including The National Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art gallery of Ontario and the Musee D'art Contemporain. Along with his private studio practice Al has been involved in a number of public art competitions completing works in Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle and Japan. His last public project was the Monument for the Royal Canadian Navy in Ottawa.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Floor Thoughts, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
2014 Stone Drawings, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
2007 Al McWilliams, TrépanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta
1999 Al McWilliams: New Works, TrépanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta
1998 Heads, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1998 Queries, Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, Penticton, British Columbia
1997 History in the Making —Al McWilliams, Freedman Gallery, Centre for the
1997 Arts, Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania (catalogue)
1995 Al McWilliams, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1995 Confounding Figures, University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario
1995 Art Gallery of North York, Toronto, Ontario (catalogue)
1994 Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1993 Encounters, Center for Creative Photography, the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (Catalogue)
1993 Al McWilliams, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1993 Al McWilliams, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, California
1992 Al McWilliams, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, Oakville
1992 Galleries, Oakville, Ontario; Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario; Edmonton Art Gallery,
1992 Edmonton, Alberta; Sir Wilfred Grenfell College of Art Gallery, Memorial University of
1992 Newfoundland, Cornerbrook, Newfoundland (catalogue)
1992 New Work, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1991 Cold City Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1991 Galerie Samuel Lallouz, Montréal, Québec
1991 49th Parallel, Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, New York
1990 Cold City Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1990 Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1989 New Work, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta (catalogue)
1987 Cold City Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1981 Al McWilliams, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC (catalogue)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Facing Time, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, B.C.
2021 Gesture, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
2020 Lineages and Land Bases, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
2020 Winter Works on Paper, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
2016 Eye to Eye, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, B.C.
2016 Sculpture, TrepanierBaer Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
2014 Works on Paper, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver,B.C
2015 Urgent Imaginations, with Other Sights for Western Front, Vancouver, B.C.
2014 Through the Looking Glass, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, B.C.
2012 Echoes of the Artist, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, B.C.
2012 Cut and Paste, Equinox Project Space, Vancouver, B.C.
2008 The BIG Gift, The Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.
2007 Nexus Histories and Communities, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, B.C.
2006 Altered Image, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
2005 Real pictures: Photographs from the Collection of Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC (catalogue)
2005 Soft Passages, Oakville Galleries, Oakville Ontario
2005 The Cold City Years, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
2003 Here and There, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2002 Show & Tell, Trépanier Baer, Calgary, Alberta
2002 Facing History; Portraits from Vancouver; Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver;
2002 Canadian Cultural Centre Paris; Centre d’Art Contemporain Basse Normandie (catalogue)
2001 Vancouver Collects, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001 TrépanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta
2001 Sculpture, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1999 Face to Face, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1998 TrépanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta
1997 Extreme Close-up: The Body in Context, Kenderdine Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
1997 New Modern, TrépanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta
1997 The Ghost in the Machine: Unrealized Public Art Projects in Vancouver, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1996 Reflections of the Soul - Contemporary Canadian Art, Art Gallery of North York, North York, Ontario
1996 The Permanent Collection: Our Second Year, Art Gallery of North York, North York, Ontario
1994 Quotation: Re-Presenting History, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (catalogue)
1994 64 - ‘94 Contemporary Decades, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC (Catalogue)
1993 Reflecting Paradise, Canadian Participation Expo '93, Taejon, Korea (catalogue)
1993 Embodied Spaces, Vox Populi, Montréal, Québec (catalogue)
1993 Arcadia/Paradise/Utopia, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC
1993 Word and Image, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
1992 Legal Perspective: Selected Works from the Collection of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt, McMichael, Canadian Collection, Kleinberg, Ontario
1991 West Coast Stories, Latitude 53 Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta; Stride Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
1991 Site Memory - Contemporary Art from Canada, MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario
1991 Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio (catalogue)
1990 North of the Border, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Washington
1989 Installation Art from the Art Bank Collection, McMaster Art Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario
1989 Works on Paper, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1989 Cold City Artists, Or Gallery/Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1989 Cold City Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1989 Body is a Loaded Word, Evelyn Aimis Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1988 The Utsukushi-ga hara, Open Air Museum (invitational), Hakone, Japan
1987 B.C. Placed, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta (catalogue)
1987 Cold City Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1987 Traces: Contemporary Canadian Drawings, Fonds Monétaire
1987 International, Washington, DC, USA (traveling group show) (catalogue)
1986 Vancouver Now/Vancouver 86: Insertion, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (catalogue)
1986 Alberta; London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (catalogue)
1986 Ten Years Later, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, (catalogue)
1985 Aurora Borealis: Installations d’Artistes, Center International d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Place du Parc, Montréal, Québec (catalogue)
1985 La Boite Dans l’Art, Centre d’Exposition, Aylmer, Québec
1984 Matter for Consideration, The Art Gallery at Harbourfront, Toronto, Ontario (catalogue)
1983 Kunstler aus Kanada, Raume und Installationen, Kunstverein, Stutggart, West Germany (Catalogue)
1983 Chicago: Sculpture International, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois (catalogue)
1983 October Show, Vancouver, BC (catalogue)
1982 Mise en Scène, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (catalogue)
1982 B.C. Heritage, Robson Square Media Center, Vancouver, British Columbia (catalogue)
1980 Sitings, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (touring group exhibition)
1980 Four from Vancouver, Articule, Montréal, Québec
1978 Obsessions, Rituals and Controls, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan (Catalogue)
1977 Transitions, University of British Columbia Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1977 For the Birds, University of British Columbia Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1977 From This Point of View, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (catalogue)
1977 Vancouver Civic Art Collection, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1976 Spectrum Canada, Complex Desjardins, Montréal, Québec (catalogue)
1976 Faculty Exhibition, Walter Philips Gallery, the Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta
1976 West Coast Waves, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (catalogue)
1976 What’s New, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta (catalogue)
1975 Current Energies, Saidye Bronfman Center, Montréal, Québec (catalogue)
1975 BC Sculpture, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1975 Six Sculptors, New Works, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, British Columbia
1974 Scan, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1971 Image Bank Postcard Show, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (traveling group show)
1971 Egg Show, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC
1971 March Wind, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC
1969 Douglas Gallery/Ace Canada, Vancouver, BC
1969 Douglas Gallery/Ace Canada, Vancouver, BC
1968 Eleventh Winnipeg Show, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (catalogue)
1968 Canadian Artists ‘68, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario (catalogue)
1968 Younger Vancouver Sculptors, University of British Columbia, Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver, (BC catalogue)
1968 Spectrum ‘68, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
COMMISSIONS
2015 Chair Column, Burnaby, B.C.
2012 Monument for the Canadian Navy, Ottawa, Ontario in collaboration with the architect, Joost Bakker
2008 Sculpture Commission for Cielo, Vancouver, BC
2000 Sculpture Commission for Concord Pacific, Vancouver, BC
1996 The Bayshore Esplanade Project, Vancouver.BC. (Awarded not built)
1991 Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle, Washington
1988 The Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum, Hakone, Japan
1985 Sculpture Commission for the King Street Plaza, Toronto Dominion Centre, Toronto, Ontario
COLLECTIONS
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC
Art Gallery of North York, North York, Ontario
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Belkin Art Gallery, University of BC, Vancouver BC
British Columbia Government Art Collection
Camosun College, Victoria, BC
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Ontario
Center for Creative Photography, the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
City of Vancouver, BC
Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario
Edmonton Art Galeery, Edmonton, Alberta
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta
John Labatt Limited, London, Ontario
Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC
Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC
The Kenderdine Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
King County Justice Center Art Collection, Kent, Washington
McCarthy Tétrault, Toronto, Ontario
Musée d’Art contemporain, Montréal, Québec
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario
Osler Hoskin Harcourt, Toronto Ontario
Russell & DuMoulin, Vancouver, British Columbia
Seattle City Lights Collection, Seattle, Washington
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia
Sun Life Assurance Company, Toronto, Ontario
Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, British Columbia
The Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum, Hakone, Japan
University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge Alberta
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
SELECTED PRESS
Worms Inspire Mount Pleasant Art Exhibition, Vancouver Courier
Al McWilliams: I/ME, Surrey Art Gallery Catalouge Essay, Karen Love
Stone Drawings, Dion Kliner
25in25 - A Public Art Retrospective, Our City Our Art Our Vancouver, Eli Bornowsky
Al McWilliams, Oakville Galleries
Public Art: Ruminations on a Set of Circumstances, C Magazine
Al McWilliams, Galerie Samuel Lallouz
Public Art: An Essential Component in Creating Communities, Beedie Living