A weekly photo tour of the best art the city's galleries have to offer.

A whimsical ironist with a gift for surreal humour, Joseph Tisiga (a member of the Kaska Dene Nation) enjoys building dreamlike genealogies of native American imagery that evoke both the absurdities and troubled complexities of indigenous history.  

His watercolors, collage and sculpture are on view in the show A Sacred Game: Escape Is Perpetual at Diaz.

Watercolour was a medium used by early ethnographers, priests and settlers to record their first impressions of natives. Tisiga’s deft figures bring the tone of these historical sketches to life, but set them within the much wider field of his imagination. 

In Confirmation Of Final Dust, he  paints a thatched hut, a dock with canoes, two priests, a female figure in a top hat and Duchamp’s bottle rack. Art history, cultural history and native history all meld in the dreamscape, creating little jolts of amusement that are all equally unsettling.

 Imbued With The Spirit features a melancholy young man flanked by two tiny masked medicine men waving rattles, while a buffalo pierced with arrows stands mounted on a wooden box. The shamans could be children and the buffalo a toy. Tisiga plays with the duality of grand spiritual symbols and traditions that have shifted in meaning or lost their original power. 

He best evokes native American symbols as both potent spiritual signifiers and reservation gift shop clichés in his large cigarette sculptures. Tobacco is both a sacred native plant and a symbol of the indigenous contraband economy. 

The spirit of a culture, Tisiga seems to be saying, lies in its many contradictions, even in its failures and tragedies. Fittingly, his bleak humour brings Samuel Beckett to mind, an artist from another extraordinarily rich culture with a troubled and exploited past.

art@nowtoronto.com

Bau-Xi Painting: Jamie Evrard, Nov 1-13, reception 2-4 pm Nov 1. 340 Dundas W. 416-977-0600.

Beit Zatoun Resistance Is Alive, Nov 1-16, reception 7 pm Nov 1. Beyond Calligraphy: Jewish And Muslim Artists, to Oct 31. 612 Markham. 647-726-9500.

Christopher Cutts Painting: Ron Martin, Nov 1-26, reception 2-6 pm Nov 1. 21 Morrow. 416-532-5566.

Craft Ontario Chimera, to Nov 22. 990 Queen W. 416-925-4222.

De Luca Fine Art Sculpture: Camilla Singh, to Nov 8. 217 Avenue Rd. 416-537-4699.

Division Gallery Painting: Martin Boudreau, to Nov 22. NEXT group show, to Feb 15. 45 Ernest. 647-346-9082.

Gallery 44 Bev Koski and Christian Chapman, to Nov 22 (imaginenative.org). 401 Richmond W #120. 416-979-3941.

General Hardware Contemporary Propellers To Palms, to Nov 15. 1520 Queen W. 416-821-3060.

Harbourfront Centre Surburbia; Outskirts; Suburbed; Making Arrangements; Strip Mall Architecture; photos: Robert Burley, to Dec 28. Photos: No Flat City, to Jun 1, 2015. 235 Queens Quay W. 416-973-4000.

Jessica Bradley Gallery Installation: Tricia Middleton, to Nov 8. 74 Miller. 416-537-3125.

Katzman Contemporary The Scondi Collection, to Nov 15. 86 Miller. 416-504-9515.

MKG127 Laura Kikauka, to Nov 15. 1445 Dundas W. 647-435-7682.

Narwhal Contemporary Moon Room group show, to Nov 15. 2104 Dundas W. 647-346-5317.

Nicholas Metivier Painting: John Hartman, to Nov 8. 451 King W. 416-205-9000.

Onsite [at] OCAD U Flash Forward 10: Uncanny Worlds, to Dec 20, Meryl McMaster talk 12:30 pm Oct 31. 230 Richmond W. 416-977-6000.

 Paul Petro Stephen Andrews, to Nov 8. 980 Queen W. 416-979-7874.

Pix Film Gallery Installation: Tanya Read, Nov 1-22, reception 7-10 pm Nov 1. 1411 Dufferin, unit C. 647-520-1642.

Red Head Painting: Ian Mackay, Nov 5-29. Teri Donovan, to Nov 1. 401 Richmond W. 416-504-5654.

Robert Kananaj Gallery Jordan Seal and Christopher Lori, to Nov 15. 172 St Helens. 416-289-8855.

TAC Art Space Troy Brooks and R Kelly Clipperton, Nov 2-22. 568 Richmond W. 647-648-7935.

TIFF Bell Lightbox Stanley Kubrick, Oct 31-Jan 25, 2015 ($10-$12.50). 350 King W. 416-599-8433.

Susan Hobbs Scott Lyall, to Nov 22. 137 Tecumseth. 416-504-3699.

Aga Khan Museum In Search Of The Artist, to Nov 16. Contemporary Art From Pakistan, to Jan 18. $20, stu/srs $15. 77 Wynford.

AGO Alex Colville, to Jan 4 ($25, srs $21.50, stu $16.50). Anishinaabe Artists, to Nov 25. Aimia Photography Prize, to Jan 4. Michelangelo, to Jan 11 ($25, srs $21.50, stu $16.50). Mohamed Bourouissa, to Feb 8. Suzy Lake, Nov 5-Mar 22. $11-$19.50, free Wed 6-8:30 pm (special exhibits excluded). 317 Dundas W. 416-979-6648.

Art Gallery of York U Is Toronto Burning? 1977/78/79, to Dec 7. 4700 Keele. 416-736-5169.

Design Exchange Politics Of Fashion/Fashion Of Politics, to Jan 25 ($14-$18.50). 234 Bay. 416-363-6121.

Doris McCarthy Gallery Lois Andison, to Nov 8. 1265 Military Trail. 416-287-7007.

Gardiner Museum Toronto Potters, to Nov 7. Claire Twomey, to Jan 4. $8-$12, Fri discounts. 111 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8080.

Gibson House Memories Of The Future, to Nov 9. 5172 Yonge. 416-395-7432.

Justina M. Barnicke Wendy Coburn, Oct 30-Dec 19, reception 6-8 pm Oct 30. This Area Is Under 23 Hour Surveillance, to Jun 30. 7 Hart House. 416-978-8398.

McMichael Henri Matisse, James W Morrice and John Lyman, to Jan 4. $12-$15. 10365 Islington (Kleinburg). 905-893-1121.

Oakville Galleries Shary Boyle and Emily Vey Duke, to Jan 4 (Centennial, 120 Navy); Aleesa Cohene, to Jan 5 (Gairloch, 1306 Lakeshore E, Oakville). 905-844-4402.

Power Plant Julia Dault, Pedro Cabrita Reis and Shelagh Keeley, to Jan 4. 231 Queens Quay W. 416-973-4949.

ROM Sarah Thonton, talk 7 pm Oct 30 ($18-$20). Paul Kane, to Jan 24. Fashion Follows Form; Cairo Under Wraps, to Jan 25. Bernice Eisenstein, to Feb 8. $14.50-$16 Fri discounts. 100 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8000.

Ryerson Image Centre Dispatch: War Photographs In Print, 1854-2008; Harun Farocki, to Dec 7. Public Studio, to Dec 19. 33 Gould. 416-979-5164.

Textile Museum of Canada Urban Fabric: Portraits Of A City, to Jan 11. Oriental Rugs, to Apr 15. $15, srs $10, stu $6; pwyc Wed 5-8 pm. 55 Centre. 416-599-5321.

 U of T Art Centre Allen Ginsberg and Robert Giard, to Dec 6. AA Bronson, to Nov 15. 15 King’s College Circle. 416-978-1838.