Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works
“The struggle to realize and to express my nature is my life’s meaning.”
— Erica Rutherford
This nationally touring exhibition explores the rich and multifaceted career of PEI’s Erica Rutherford (1923–2008), a painter, writer, and performer whose work reflects a lifelong engagement with identity, gender, and belonging. Presenting over 100 artworks alongside personal photographs and memorabilia, the exhibition offers an intimate look at an artist whose life and practice were marked by transformation, resilience, and creativity.
Rutherford’s experience of transitioning and living across the gender binary deeply informed her art. Drawing on the bold colours and graphic style of Pop Art, she examined how identity is shaped, performed, and perceived. Her background in theatre is evident in stylized figures, dark humour, and a sense of visual drama that runs through her work. Together, these elements reveal an artist attuned to the complexities of selfhood and society—one whose legacy continues to resonate.
Curated by Pan Wendt. Organized by Confederation Centre Art Gallery in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada.
About the Artist
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Erica Rutherford (b. Edinburgh, UK, 1923 – d. Charlottetown, PEI, 2008), was a British-Canadian artist who made her home in rural Prince Edward Island. After a career in theatre and set design in England, and in film in South Africa – where she produced the country’s first movie for a Black cast and audience – Rutherford turned to painting, and a nomadic lifestyle in Ibiza, the United States, and eventually Canada. After moving to Canada in the early 1970s, she began her transition and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1976—a journey she detailed in her 1993 autobiography Nine Lives.
Her work has been featured recently in major international exhibitions, including the 2024 Venice Biennale and Tate Britain’s Women in Revolt! Rutherford was the first artist from Prince Edward Island to be featured at the prestigious La Biennale di Venezia.