Canadian artists grapple with U.S. tariffs, find new buyers amid trade war

Michael Harrington never thought his art was something that would be subject to tariffs at the Canada-U.S. border.

The Ottawa-based narrative painter has been working with galleries and dealers to show and sell his work full time for roughly three decades. He said the industry has felt like a rollercoaster from the 2008 recession to the COVID-19 pandemic and now unprecedented tariffs on Canadian goods.

“Art, it’s always traveled without tariffs, without tax. It’s because art is so complicated, like what is art and what’s original art,” Harrington told Global News.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff regime has become his biggest worry. As part of a new round of tariffs imposed at the end of April, a 50 per cent tariff now applies to a range of visual arts, crafts and natural materials made in Canada, including paintings. Other items that became subject to tariffs include drawings, original prints, original sculptures, jewelry, textiles and items made from raw furskins, leather, bone, horn and antler.

Harrington has held exhibitions in the U.S. before, but when he was offered the opportunity to do a show at a Boston gallery in November, he was especially excited to expand his reach. That was until he found out that someone would be on the hook to pay tariffs on each piece of art that crossed the border, even before it was sold.

Harrington has connections with art dealers in Canada and said they sell his pieces across the country and in Europe. But losing barrier-free access to the U.S. market still hurts.

“If you just sit around and let anxiety take over, it’s debilitating and causes creative paralysis,” he said. “So you just start trying to keep motivated and keep working and believe that things are going to go back to normal.”

Trump initially imposed a 25 per cent blanket tariff on Canada in March 2025, with an exemption for products that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Following more than a year of trade negotiations that ended without a deal, and retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada, the U.S. president doubled down in August with 50 per cent tariffs.

For some artists, the Canada-U.S. trade war has created new opportunity.

Working from a home studio in Portugal Cove, N.L., Karyna Parsons creates pottery with a little bit of what she calls “snark.”

Her work often features characters or popular icons, with political themes.

Parsons told Global News 95 per cent of her followers are women, and since she has started using her art as political commentary on Trump’s presidency, 80 per cent of her orders have actually come from south of the border.

“I have found my target market,” she said, adding she refuses to let tariffs upend that.

Parsons said details around how the tariffs are actually charged are unclear. She said she adds a flat rate for shipping and a 10 per cent tariff surcharge when her products are purchased online, but she said she has been told by some of her customers that they have received a bill from U.S. customs after receiving their purchase.