David Blackwood Art Featured at AGO Myth & Legend Exhibit
The Art Gallery of Ontario has over 80 of Blackwood’s art pieces, spanning his entire life, on display
David Blackwood is a world-renowned Canadian artist. He was born in Newfoundland in 1941, and, by the age of 15, had already opened his first art studio. At age 18, he received a scholarship to attend the Ontario College of Art and Design, and he later became an Art Master at Trinity College school. Then, at 23 years old, Blackwood had his artwork exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada.
Blackwood is famous for using an art style called “intaglio.” This art form requires making small etchings on a malleable surface, coating the surface in ink, and finally wiping away the ink so the only ink remaining gives colour to the etchings.
Between 1967 and 1971, Blackwood worked as an artist-in-residence at UTM (then called Erindale College). While working on campus, he had a hand in establishing our Blackwood Gallery. The gallery is located adjacent to KN137, in the Kaneff Building on the south side of campus. It was originally named the Erindale College Art Gallery when it opened in 1969, though it was renamed to the Blackwood Gallery in 1992 to pay tribute to the artist.
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), located in downtown Toronto, is home to the largest collection of Blackwood’s art, which consists of over 80 of his drawings and intaglio prints. Inspired by his Newfoundland ancestry, Blackwood’s art consists mainly of depicting seafaring life, hunting, boating, and animals like seals or whales. It showcases a mixture of childhood memories, folklore, and historical events. One of Blackwood’s more famous collections is a series of 50 prints, titled The Lost Party, which showcases a sealing disaster that occurred in 1914. The collection took him over a decade to complete.
As with many of the AGO’s exhibits, Myth & Legend is interactive. “Scent stations” are present, which are meant to create an atmosphere around Blackwood’s art by resembling core themes of his work. One of the scents resembles what Blackwood’s studio may have smelled like by replicating the scents of the ink he used for his artwork, the scent of the metal tools he would’ve used to create the etchings in his pieces, and the warm, wood-like smell of an indoor studio. The second theme being replicated through scent is the aura of the Newfoundland coast. This will be done by combining the scent of the salty ocean water, seaweed, and synthetic ambergris, a distinct musk created by Sperm whales.
For those who are interested in viewing the Myth & Legend collection, the exhibit opened at the AGO this October, and will run until March 6th 2026. Ontario citizens can sign up online to be an AGO annual passholder, which gives free admission to the museum for anyone under 25 years old.
