'Stan Douglas Photos of Colonization' by Chadd Scott
December 2025
A common bond connects the people and places of North America, Central America, and South America: colonialism. From pole to pole, what was all once Indigenous land increasingly came under the control of Europeans beginning with the so-called “Age of Discovery.”
Rape, pillage, and plunder. They came, they saw, they conquered. They stayed. They settled. Their descendants settled by the tens of millions and spread. Like a virus.
Stan Douglas: Tales of Empire at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario 40 kilometers north of Toronto brings together five major photographic series from Douglas (b. 1960; Vancouver, British Columbia) exploring the histories, legacies, and enduring reverberations of colonialism across continents and centuries.
On view through March 22, 2026, Tales of Empire investigates the power structures, mythologies, and lived realities shaped by imperialism through Douglas’s technically masterfuland conceptually incisive lens. Read more.
