Markle: Content is Just a Glimpse

July 4, 2026 - September 12, 2026

Robert Markle, State 1 (detail), 1987. Lithograph on paper, edition 1/1. Courtesy of Marlene Markle.

Content is Just a Glimpse is presented simultaneously at the Durham Art Gallery and Tom Thomson Art Gallery as a two-part exhibition exploring the life, work, and creative orbit of Robert Markle (1936–1990). Known for his expressive and often provocative depictions of the female nude, Markle developed a multidisciplinary career that moved fluidly between painting, sculpture, music, writing, and teaching, establishing a reputation as a raffish figure who was at the heart of Toronto’s experimental art scene in the 1960s. 

Following a motorcycle accident in 1970, Robert and his wife and lifelong muse, Marlene Markle, left Toronto and settled in Grey County, where a rural rhythm became intertwined with their shared creative life. This exhibition traces the people who informed Markle’s work—his muses, artistic peers, and creative community—while reflecting on his enduring legacy. Presented across two venues, Content is Just a Glimpse suggests that no single artwork, memory, or narrative can fully contain a life, offering instead a portrait assembled through fragments, relationships, and moments of encounter.

About the Artist: Robert Markle (1936–1990) was an Indigenous Canadian painter, sculptor, writer, musician, and educator whose work became a defining presence in postwar Canadian art. Emerging from Toronto’s experimental art scene of the 1960s and associated with the influential Isaacs Group, Markle developed a highly personal visual language centered on the figure and informed by gesture, colour, and improvisation. His work gained national attention following controversy surrounding Eros ’65—a 1965 Toronto exhibition of erotic art that was raided by police and sparked a broader public debate about censorship, sexuality, and artistic freedom in Canada. 

Best known for his expressive depictions of the female nude, Markle frequently drew from his immediate surroundings and relationships, returning repeatedly to recurring subjects and motifs across painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and later kinetic works inspired by folk art traditions. In his later years, his practice increasingly engaged aspects of his Mohawk identity while continuing to push the boundaries of representation and expression. 

DAG Opening Reception: Saturday July 4, 2026 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm

TOM Opening Reception: Saturday July 11, 2026 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm

This exhibition is co-presented with the Durham Art Gallery.