OTTAWA, CANADA.- The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography presents Persona: From the Collection, at the National Gallery of Canada through April 9, 2007.

"These exhibitions deal with a very fertile theme: through imaginative staging, the artists re-create themselves in relation to contemporary society, to project a new reality," commented Martha Hanna, Director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. "Jin-me Yoon uses the contemporary media of video and photography to reflect on memory, violence and fear. Persona highlights significant works from the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography's extensive collection that explore themes of identity."

Persona: From the Collection, uses works from the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography's collection to explore contemporary ideas of self-portraiture and identity. Often incorporating ironic humour, the installation includes works by Mohawk artist Shelley Niro, Leesa Streifler, from Regina, Ojibwa artist Rebecca Belmore now living in Vancouver, Rosalie Favell, a Métis artist who now lives in Ottawa, Rafael Goldchain, born in Chile, and living in Toronto, and the invented self-portraits of the Toronto collective General Idea. Posing a multitude of questions about women's place and role, the identity of a social or cultural group, displacement and sexual orientation, the works demonstrate how differences in class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender interact to construct subjectivity.

Due to major construction work begun by the National Capital Commission, these exhibitions will be on view at the National Gallery of Canada. The price of admission to the two exhibitions is covered by general admission to the Gallery's permanent collection: $5.95 for adults, $4.95 for seniors and students, $2.95 for children and $11.90 for a family of two adults and three children. Admission is free for Friends and children under 12.