Clarissa Schmidt Inglis has never been afraid to take a stand with her art. Exhibiting locally and internationally for more than 30 years, she has used her paintings, sculptures and installations to question and mock patriarchy.

Affective Icons, on now at the Burlington Art Centre, showcases 19 reliefs and drawings created about 10 years ago.

The exhibition's title strikes a religious note. The word "icon" originally meant "holy image." Icons were created by Christian artists inspired by religious fervour and were meant to ignite religious feelings in viewers and worshippers. But Inglis's icons seem to me to hark back to more ancient, more female-centred religions.

Life's Fabric is a set of nine six-foot-high panels whose colours, compositions and surfaces are much the same. Making and viewing look-alikes is a repetitive, almost ritualistic task; repetition and ritual also characterize much religious practice.

The panels' ornate metallic appearance evokes the memory of religious objects. They remind me of the gold and silver frames that cover the whole surface of a traditional icon, exposing only the face and hand of a holy figure. Inglis's panels also look like gilded bronze church doors or altarpieces.

But all that glistens is not gold. Inglis started with a large plywood panel and covered its surface with modelling paste. She worked the paste into a highly animated and textured surface, which she painted and gilded.

Each panel consists of two or three compartments: a frame enclosing a rectangle with a small gold plaque near the top, or just the rectangle with the plaque.

The plaque depicts a simplified motif. We are encouraged to think of the panels as three triptychs since the motifs are linked thematically in three groups of three.

In one trio, each plaque depicts a celestial object: moon, sun and stars. Another trio consists of snake, fish and bird. Each creature is associated with an element: earth, water and air. The third group highlights parts of a tree.

Christian icons depicted human figures, so Inglis's icons are not traditional. But the motifs she uses are found in Christian art and literature. The fish, for example, was an early symbol of Christ, a cut tree the source of Christ's cross.

These motifs also belonged to earlier religions. The bird, for example, symbolized the soul at least 2,000 years before Christianity picked up the same meaning. And 20,000 years ago, it was associated with the bird goddess. She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality, a role denied women in Christianity.

In Affective Icons, the art evokes religious objects and symbols but lacks the bite of some of Inglis's other works. Including more provocative pieces in this historical exhibition would have given the viewer a better understanding of her repertoire.

Elsewhere in the Burlington Art Centre, ceramist Judy Lowry is the featured artist in this year's courtyard installation. She has juxtaposed a feminine fountain arrangement with a big macho wire-constructed cube that rests in the vegetation.

Regina Haggo, art historian, public speaker, curator and former professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, teaches at the Dundas Valley School of Art. dhaggo@thespec.com

Showtime

Who: Clarissa Schmidt Inglis

What: Affective Icons

Where: Burlington Art Centre, 1333 Lakeshore Rd.

When: Until Aug. 19

Phone: 905-632-7796