Elly MacKay: Only Human  

June 28 - October 4, 2025

Image courtesy of the artist, Elly MacKay.

Only Human is a solo exhibition by Owen Sound-based paper artist Elly MacKay that examines the ethical challenges artists are facing amid the rise of artificial intelligence. As generative technologies advance, creative work is being absorbed into vast training datasets without the artist’s consent, attribution, or compensation, resulting in their personal style being imitated by machines. These shifts raise urgent questions about ownership, authenticity, and what remains uniquely human in the act of creation. They also prompt a deeper uncertainty about how to move forward when we can no longer tell what is real.

Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are asked to lock away their cellphones in secure lockers before engaging with an intricate diorama inspired by MacKay’s personal dreams. This act serves as both a symbolic and practical gesture, momentarily shielding the artist’s work from digital intrusion while prompting visitors to consider how their devices mediate, distort, or even replace direct experience of the world around them.

Protective, although perhaps ultimately futile, Only Human invites a deeper reflection on the delicate balance between human creativity and the ever-expanding digital landscape.

About the artists:

Elly MacKay is an acclaimed paper artist and award-winning children’s bookmaker. She is the author and illustrator of a number of picture books, including Frostfire and Red Sky at Night, and has illustrated, among others The Enchanted Symphony by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton and I Am a Meadow Mermaid and The Secret Fawn by Kallie George. Before pursuing a career in picture books, she taught in schools and was an educator in galleries. Elly attended The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where she met her husband, Simon MacKay. They live with their children in Owen Sound, Ontario.

Opening Reception: Saturday June 28, 2025 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm