ABOVE: detail from A.Y. Jackson’s The Red Maple (left) and a beaded shoulder bag by an anonymous Anishnabe artist, opening this week at the National Gallery of Canada.

The National Gallery of Canada announced yesterday that it would be opening the second part of its Art of This Land series, which displays aboriginal art from its own collection alongside non-Aboriginal art from around the world (some of the Aboriginal pieces come from the British Museum in London, which has a fairly large collection pillaged from the New World before such things were considered uncouth).

While the multi-culti-group-hug/hands-across-Canada theme is saccharine enough to give you a cavity, some of the juxtapositions—helpfully displayed for non-Canadians to see (and listen to) via this online exhibit—are worth a look, examining the way Aboriginal and European artists influenced each other. Some of the pairings are goofy and arbitrary, however, with the paired artworks matched based on idiotic themes like “family” and “belonging.” Hit and miss, but then, what isn’t?

National Gallery of Canada: Art of This Land from a faraway land
National Gallery of Canada Cybermuse™: Art of This Land online exhibit