Jon Sasaki and the Group of Seven

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Jon Sasaki, “Microbes Swabbed from a Palette Used by Lawren Harris” (photo by Kristiane Church, courtesy of the School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba)

Paintings by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven captured an idealistic Canadian landscape, portraying the nation as vast land for the taking. They were championed by the National Gallery of Canada and shown around the world, representing Canada globally. 

When Jon Sasaki began his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, landscapes were central to his perception of Canadian art, and they continue to hold space in his multidisciplinary practice. After completing his degree, he returned to Toronto, Ont.. Living downtown and feeling disconnected from nature, he began rethinking about what qualifies as a natural landscape.

The Group of Seven often painted outside, going on trips to Algonquin Park and other locations throughout the country. The paintboxes and palettes the artists brought with them are now housed in the archives at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. 

With that in mind, Sasaki worked with the McMichael to collect bacterial samples from these artifacts and grew microbial cultures in petri dishes with nutrient agar. The dishes lived in his studio for weeks as he watched the cultures transform. He then photographed the cultures and printed them on a large scale, creating a new type of landscape. 

These photographs and their corresponding artifacts are currently displayed in Homage, circulated by the McMichael and on view until April 26, 2025 at the School of Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

In anticipation of Homage, the gallery commissioned Sasaki to further examine the biological landscape of L.L. FitzGerald, a later member of the Group of Seven and former director of Winnipeg’s School of Art. I Contain Multitudes, the result of that commission, is exhibited in conjunction with Homage.

The two shows are presented in partnership with the FLASH Photographic Festival.

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Palette used by A.Y. Jackson, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, on view as part of Jon Sasaki: Homage, School of Art Gallery (photo by Kristiane Church, courtesy of the School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba)

Homage includes a video of Sasaki swabbing the palettes and paintboxes, aiming not to get the paint itself but the microbes on the outside that were picked up from the environments in which they were used. Using two to four swabs for each artifact, he traces a swab along its edges and then spreads the swab in the petri dish. 

In some photographs, viewers can trace the lines of the swab, while in others the bacteria have spread, filling the entire dish. Landscapes are evoked in the photographs, such as the appearance of an ice rink from the bacterial growth that came from Franklin Carmichael’s palette. 

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Jon Sasaki, “Microbes Swabbed from a Palette Used by F.H. Varley,” 2020, archival print, 36" x 36" (image courtesy of the artist and Clint Roenisch Gallery)

Included in the exhibition is a culture grown from bacteria collected from L.L. FitzGerald’s palette. The bacteria built up where the swab touched, creating a string of crevices, and flourished to the corners in ghostly wisps. 

FitzGerald had a fascination with trees, his paintings often feature bare trees in a seemingly desolate landscape and there are hundreds of drawings of trees by him in the gallery’s collection. With his trees, FitzGerald often alluded to a human figure.

In I Contain Multitudes, Sasaki continues the allusion to the body through endoscopic videos of trees, revealing hidden ecosystems under the bark. Sasaki visited FitzGerald’s former property in Winnipeg as well as the family’s cottage on Bowen Island in British Columbia, documenting the trees at each location.

The videos are shown on stands in the centre of the stark white room, as though the viewer is transported into a clinic where trees are examined rather than people. Photographs of the trees inspected are shown on the walls as well as drawings of trees by FitzGerald and one of his wooden sculptures that resembles the female form. 

Together, these exhibitions examine the microbial landscape, showing isolated bacterial growth and the inner life of trees. They challenge the viewer to look past the vast landscape, to closely at the organisms housed within them and housed in our own backyards. ■

Jon Sasaki, Homage and I Contain Multitudes, are both on view until April 26, 2025 at the School of Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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