Top 10 Most Important Canadian Contemporary Artists

It is safe to say that Canadian artists have consistently made notable contributions on the global stage. As a result, this article presents a curated list of the top 10 contemporary artists in Canada. By analyzing objective data and key career achievements, we are pleased to present a reasoned anthology of the leading figures in the Canadian art scene today. This overview aims to highlight the creativity and impact of these artists in shaping contemporary art in Canada—and beyond.

For our top lists, we rely on Artfacts,¹ which uses objective data and career facts to rank artists and map the art world. This approach allows us to create reasoned selections based on measurable criteria rather than personal preferences and subjective opinions.1 Please note that all artists were required to be active to this day and have Canadian nationality. That being said, let’s dive into the top ten with the first artist on our list.

10. Sara Cwynar

Sara Cwynar, born in 1985 in Vancouver, Canada, residing and working in Brooklyn, the United States of America, is a contemporary artist whose work explores the accumulation, endurance, and changing value of images over time. Her conceptual photographs and films involve the continual archiving and re-presentation of collected visual materials, blending diverse imagery with art theory references. Cwynar’s pieces intricately recall advertisements, retail catalogs, and old art history textbooks, meditating on how everyday images shape collective worldviews and how these ideals can evolve through time and context.

Cwynar has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Sobey Art Award, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and the Shpilman Photography Prize. Cwynar’s work has been exhibited in numerous international museums, including the ICA Los Angeles, LACMA, Remai Modern, The Guggenheim Museum, MoMA PS1, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, Oakville Galleries, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and Fondazione Prada in Milan.²

9. Angela Bulloch

Angela Bulloch, born in 1966 in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada, resides and works in Berlin, Germany, is a multidisciplinary artist reflecting her interest in systems, patterns, and rules, as well as the history of shapes and human interaction. Bulloch is perhaps best known for her Pixel Boxes, which initially featured beech wood construction with glass front screens, displaying softly changing and pulsing colors that abstract complex visual patterns into simple shifting monochromes. Recently, Bulloch’s sculptures have explored the logic of geometry and seriality, with their appearance changing based on the viewer’s perspective, creating impressions of irregularity or totemic regularity.

Bulloch’s career has been marked by several significant accolades. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997 and the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst in 2005. In 2011, she received both the Vattenfall Contemporary Art Prize in Berlin and the Art Prize of the city of Wolfsburg. She has held numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Musée d’Arts de Nantes, France; Museum Art.Plus in Donaueschingen, Germany; Serralves Museum in Porto, Portugal; MAAT in Lisbon, Portugal; Witte De With in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Städtische Galerie in Wolfsburg, Germany; Berlinische Galerie in Berlin, Germany; among others. Bulloch’s works are part of numerous public collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Collection du FNAC, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Centre Pompidou, Estuaire, Bundeskunsthalle, The Schaufler Foundation, Lenbachhaus, Kunstmuseum Bonn, and more.³

8. Moyra Davey

Moyra Davey, born in 1958 in Toronto, Canada, residing and working in New York, is a contemporary artist and filmmaker. Davey’s early work included documentary-style photographs of her family and friends, but her focus soon shifted to capturing the overlooked details of everyday life, such as coins, kitchen shelves, and clumps of dust. In the mid-2000s, Davey’s work began to incorporate moving images, reflecting her deep interest in reading and writing. Her video essays blend personal narratives with explorations of the texts and lives of authors and thinkers like Walter Benjamin, Jean Genet, and Mary Wollstonecraft, with her writing playing a central role in these works.

Davey has held solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions, including the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the United States of America; Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland; Tate Liverpool, the United Kingdom; Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States of America; and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria. Her work has also been included in prominent group exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut, the United States of America; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the United States of America; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain; the Whitney Biennial in New York, the United States of America; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the United States of America.⁴

7. Marcel Dzama

Marcel Dzama, born in 1974 in Winnipeg, Canada, residing and working in Brooklyn, the United States of America, is a contemporary painter predominantly working with acrylics and watercolor on paper, who has developed a distinct visual language since gaining recognition in the late 1990s. His work examines human actions and motivations, as well as the blurred boundaries between reality and the subconscious. Drawing from both folk traditions and art-historical influences, Dzama’s creations depict a universe filled with childhood fantasies and surreal fairy tales, featuring dancers, masked figures, anthropomorphized animals, human-plant hybrids, and grinning moons. His imagery incorporates art-historical references such as Oskar Schlemmer’s ballet costumes, Francis Picabia’s 1940s portraits, and direct nods to Francisco de Goya, Marcel Duchamp, and Joseph Beuys.

Dzama’s work has been widely exhibited with notable solo presentations at Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ), Mexico; Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Georgia; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; among others. As a result, Dzama’s work is included in museum collections worldwide, such as the Dallas Museum of Art, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate in the United Kingdom, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Marcel Dzama lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.⁵

6. Jeremy Shaw

Jeremy Shaw, born in 1977 in North Vancouver, Canada, working and residing in Berlin, Germany, is a multimedia artist focusing on speculative worlds that reflect transcendental experiences, highlighting the human desire to engage with the world beyond cognitive and quantifiable means. He investigates ecstatic bodily practices and combines scientific knowledge with cultural references, describing his works as parafictional or post-documentary, which blur the lines between reality and social imaginaries. His artistic strategies draw from conceptual art, documentary film, music video, and scientific research, addressing themes such as psychedelic drug use, time travel, and scientific imaging procedures.

Shaw has had solo exhibitions at prominent venues, including the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada; Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf, Germany; Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin, Germany; and MoMA PS1 in New York, the United States of America. His work has also been featured in international exhibitions such as the 57th Venice Biennale and Manifesta 11 in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2016, he was awarded the Sobey Art Award and served as artist-in-residence at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2018. Shaw’s works are held in public collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, and Sammlung zeitgenössische Kunst der Bundesrepublik.⁶

5. Jon Rafman

Jon Rafman, born in 1981 in Montreal, Canada, where the artist continues to reside and work, is renowned for his diverse body of work that includes video, animation, photography, sculpture, and installation. His works, which often incorporate internet-sourced images and narrative material, explore digital technologies and the communities they foster, focusing on the emotions and fantasies that define our technology-driven lives. By doing so, Rafman critically examines the internet age, addressing themes of alienation, nostalgia, loneliness, and grief. His art addresses the paradox of our time, where the convenience of technology often leads to isolation and where the impermanence of digital experiences contrasts with the persistence of digital memory.

Rafman’s work has been showcased in numerous prestigious international exhibitions, including the 58th Venice Biennale. His art is part of the permanent collections of several major institutions, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Recent solo exhibitions of Rafman’s work include shows at Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin, Germany; Ordet in Milan, Italy; La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Spain; Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands; Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, Italy; and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, among others. His work is included in many prominent public and private collections worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Burger Collection in Hong Kong, Zabludowicz Collection in London, National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Museo d’arte Contemporanea Roma in Rome, Dallas Museum of Art, Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and more.⁷

4. Stan Douglas

Stan Douglas, born in 1960 in Vancouver, Canada, where the artist continues to work and reside, is a renowned artist whose multidisciplinary work spans films, photographs, and installations. Since the 1980s, Douglas has explored the boundaries of various mediums, focusing on the role of technology in image-making and its impact on collective memory. His works are known for their historical and cultural specificity while remaining broadly accessible. Stan Douglas’s work frequently incorporates recognizable literary, cinematic, and musical references, as well as familiar stories, places, and characters. However, these complex works often subvert expectations, offering complexity, perplexity, and doubt instead of straightforward narrative fulfillment.

In 2022, Douglas represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. His work has been exhibited at prominent institutions worldwide, including DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, Germany; Phi Foundation in Montreal, Canada; Bourse de Commerce in Paris, France; Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, the United States of America; Julia Stoschek Collection in Berlin, Germany; MUDAM in Luxembourg; Pérez Art Museum Miami, the United States of America; Salzburger Kunstverein in Austria; Hasselblad Center in Sweden; WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain in Brussels, Belgium; and Museu Coleção Berardo in Lisbon, Portugal. A major survey, Stan Douglas: Photographs 2008–2013, was presented at Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain in Nîmes and traveled to Haus der Kunst in Munich, Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.⁸

3. Edward Burtynsky

Born in 1955 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, residing and working in Toronto, Edward Burtynsky is widely recognized as one of the leading contemporary photographers globally. His work predominantly explores the transformation of nature through industrial activity, capturing some of the most striking examples of this phenomenon worldwide. Often employing an aerial perspective, Burtynsky’s large-scale photographs are noted for their detail and expansive scope, sometimes resembling painterly abstractions.

His photographs are held in the collections of over sixty major museums, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the United States of America; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain; the Tate Modern in London, the United Kingdom; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the United States of America. Burtynsky has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the TED Prize, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Roloff Beny Book Award, and the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. In February 2024, a major retrospective of his career, Burtynsky: Extraction/Abstraction, opened at the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK.⁹

2. Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall, born in 1946 in Vancouver, Canada, where the artist continues to work and reside, is a renowned artist whose work integrates photography with elements of painting, cinema, and literature, a method he refers to as “cinematography.” His photographic works range from classical reportage to elaborate constructions and montages, typically produced on a scale traditionally associated with painting. His early works, created as backlit color transparencies—a medium then linked with advertising rather than fine art—had a significant impact when displayed in galleries and museums, contributing to the recognition of color as a crucial aspect of photographic aesthetics. Another significant aspect of Wall’s oeuvre is his “near documentary” approach. These images, while resembling traditional documentary photographs, are carefully staged in collaboration with the subjects. By reconstructing scenes he has observed but not photographed in real-time, Wall explores the formal and dramatic possibilities of documentary photography.

Wall exhibited at renowned institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland; Tate Modern in London, the United Kingdom; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany; The Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the United States of America; and more. His work features in prestigious collections such as The Broad, Los Angeles; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; De Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art, Tilburg, North Brabant, Netherlands Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France; FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France; to name just a few.¹⁰

1. Kapwani Kiwanga

Kapwani Kiwanga, born in 1978 in Hamilton, Canada, residing and working in Paris, France, is a contemporary artist investigating the pervasive impact of power asymmetries by juxtaposing historical narratives with contemporary realities and future possibilities. Her research-driven practice delves into marginalized or forgotten histories, utilizing a diverse range of materials and mediums, including sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance. By recontextualizing canonical systems of power, Kiwanga creates art that encourages viewers to reconsider existing structures and envision alternative futures. She has developed an aesthetic approach she describes as “exit strategies,” which offer multiple perspectives and new ways of navigating and understanding the world.

Kiwanga has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Prix Marcel Duchamp, the Frieze Artist Award, and the Sobey Art Award. Her solo exhibitions have been held at notable institutions such as Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany; Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Kunsthaus Pasquart in Bern, Switzerland, MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, the United Kingdom; Albertinum Museum in Dresden, Germany; Artpace in San Antonio, the United States of America; Esker Foundation in Calgary, Canada; Tramway in Glasgow, Scotland; Power Plant in Toronto, Canada; Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, the United States of America; South London Gallery, the United Kingdom; and Jeu de Paume in Paris, among others.¹¹

Notes:

1. Artfacts, Home at https://artfacts.net consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
2. Cooper Cole, Sara Cwynar at https://coopercolegallery.com/artist/sara-cwynar/ consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
3. Esther Schipper, Angela Bulloch at https://www.estherschipper.com/artists/33-angela-bulloch/biography/ consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
4. The Guggenheim, Moyra Davey at https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/moyra-davey consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
5. David Zwirner, Marcel Dzama at https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/marcel-dzama consulted August 8, 2024. Tim Van Laere Gallery, Marcel Dzama: Wild Kindness at https://www.timvanlaeregallery.com/md-exh2024 consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
6. Max Goelitz, Jeremy Shaw at https://www.maxgoelitz.com/en/artists/67-jeremy-shaw/ consulted August 8, 2024. KÖNIG, Jeremy Shaw at https://www.koeniggalerie.com/collections/jeremy-shaw consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
7. Sprüth Magers, Jon Rafman at https://spruethmagers.com/artists/jon-rafman/ consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
8. David Zwirner, Stan Douglas at https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/stan-douglas consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
9. Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Edward Burtynsky at https://metiviergallery.com/artists/28-edward-burtynsky/overview/ consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
10. Gagosian, Jeff Wall at https://gagosian.com/artists/jeff-wall/ consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎
11. Goodman Gallery, Kapwani Kiwanga at https://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/kapwani-kiwanga#about consulted August 8, 2024. ↩︎

Last Updated on October 26, 2024