Indigenous arts

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Women's History Month
 

October is Women's History Month: a time to celebrate the achievements of the women and girls from our past and present. We encourage Albertans to celebrate women in the arts by engaging with local organizations and artists.

To celebrate this month, we are pleased to highlight three current Alberta-based exhibitions curated by women, and featuring a few artworks from the AFA's very own collection. 

Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery - Shirley Rimer: A Chronicle in Clay 
Curated by Mary-Beth Laviolette
On now until December 2, 2023

^{Installation view of Shirley Rimer: A Chronicle in Clay.
Images provided by Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery.}

About the exhibition

A longtime Red Deer resident, Rimer is one reason why the city shines as a centre for ceramic art. A Red Deer College (Polytechnic) graduate, as an instructor, curator and cultural community builder, Rimer’s own artistic accomplishments are the highlight of this special exhibition of ceramic sculpture.

Featuring over 30 artworks made in the past 40 years, a chronicle about their making and Rimer’s personal discovery of clay traditions in other countries: Greece, Turkey, Mexico, India, France, Italy, China and America. They are about handbuilding in clay, reinterpreting the vessel, communicating with colour and reflecting on subjects like family, culture and heritage here in Alberta and abroad.

This exhibition features four Shirley Rimer artworks from the AFA Art Collection:

• Body Language
• Village Life
• Red Fish
• Purple Flowers

Calgary - Nickle Galleries - The Art of Faye HeavyShield
Curated by Felicia Gay
On now until December 9, 2023

^{Photo credit: Andy Nichols, LCR PhotoServices., courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.}

^{Red Dress, 2008, nylon, cotton, metal and paper tags, glass beads.
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
The Art of Faye HeavyShield, organized and circulated by the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Financed by the Government of Canada. Curated by Felicia Gay.}

About the exhibition

The Art of Faye HeavyShield will present work that spans forty years of her practice. The exhibition situates HeavyShield as a major contributor to contemporary Indigenous art through her creation of a new aesthetic vocabulary. While bearing a resemblance to conceptual installation, her work is rooted in the deep art history of the Canadian prairies and in personal/communal experience.

This exhibition features Faye HeavyShield's artwork Red Dress, which is from the AFA Art Collection. 

Edmonton - Art Gallery of Alberta - Second Skin 
Curated by Lindsey Sharman and Danielle Siemens
On now until December 31, 2023 

^{Photography by Charles Cousins, courtesy of the Art Gallery of Alberta}

^{Left: Caitlin Thompson, Rhizome (Hot Gossip), 2017, Fabric, thread, fake nails, decoy eyes, rhinestones, tassels, cording, buttons, plastic, paint, Velcro. Collection of Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Installation view of Second Skin, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2023.
Right: Pamela Norrish, Outfit for the Afterlife, 2015. Glass beads, nylon thread. Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Installation view of Second Skin, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2023}

About the exhibition

The works in this exhibition trace the boundaries of the body and reference garments and adornment in many forms. These literal and symbolic objects of attire allow their ‘wearer’ to explore a myriad of issues including identity and representation, objectification and empowerment, mythology and history, imagined futures and the afterlife. 

This exhibition features two artworks from the AFA Art Collection: 

• Outfit for the Afterlife - Pamela Noorish
• Rhizome (Hot Gossip) - Caitlin Thompson

Click on the arrows above to scroll through images. 
 

Featured artwork:
GRANDE ENTRY
By Jessica Desmoulin – 2019 – felted wool, beads and leather
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
 

A message from Paul R. Baay on behalf of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA)

On this third National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (also known as “Orange Shirt” Day), on September 30, 2023, I will take some time to reflect on how the AFA can support and advance the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Calls to Action, published in 2015. 

At the AFA, our mandate is to support, encourage and promote artistic activity for all residents of Alberta, which includes lands that are parts of Treaty 4, Treaty 6, Treaty 7, Treaty 8 and Treaty 10, as well as eight Métis Settlements. We primarily work in the area of contemporary artistic activity which, as the legacy of colonization and Canada's residential system continues to be brought to the fore, will be more and more reflected, examined, and resonated by artists of all backgrounds and disciplines in contemporary practice.

Our job is to continue to encourage and help increase participation and arts education by Indigenous artists. Our job is to continue to celebrate the unique artistic and cultural expressions of the mosaic of Indigenous peoples that reside in Alberta. And, our job is to continue to promote the exchange of ideas and artistic collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and arts workers to help build mutual respect and understanding in our arts community. 

That's why our board decided to nurture and promote Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility through arts-related programming by Indigenous, visible minorities, or deaf and disability artists to engage audiences in and through the arts through the 2023 cycle of our Organization Activation Projects grant program. While the AFA will provide up to $20,000 for projects by a single organization, we will increase that maximum amount to up to $50,000 for partnership projects. 

We at the AFA encourage all Albertans to be more informed about the history and legacy of residential schools, and to explore the rich culture and artistic expression of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.

About the featured artwork:
Grande Entry by Jessica Desmoulin

This artwork was acquired through the AFA's Art Acquisition by Application program in 2020. This program is designed to acquire contemporary works of art by any eligible Alberta artist through a competitive application program. 

• This artwork, as well as Autumn Sky, were both part of 38 artworks purchased through this program in 2020. 

At the AFA, we actively support Indigenous Arts as a unique, distinct arts discipline. We also collect artworks by Indigenous artists through the AFA Art Collection to preserve, exhibit and promote. I continue encourage everyone reading this message to visit the AFA Virtual Museum and view the Indigenous collection as part of your learning and reflection on Truth and Reconciliation Day.

About the Artist

Jessica Desmoulin is Ojibway of the Pic River First Nation. As a child, she lived in Rochester, AB and later in Sparwood, BC. She currently lives with her family in Edmonton, AB.

After the birth of her second child, Desmoulin developed an illness that left her unable to work outside the home. She took this opportunity to approach her art seriously and began to paint canvasses and occasionally buffalo skulls in the new Woodland style. Her works, which connect her to her ancestral memories, explore the essential role colour plays in creating a design and reflect nature and the patterns in its creations, such as the rings of a tree, the waves in the ocean, the cracks in the earth and the petals on a flower.

Animals often appear in her paintings, both as symbols and reflections of her family and loved ones and as the totems she approaches for spiritual guidance. Her use of copper, silver, gold, and bronze reminds viewers of the precious materials in our environment and that we need to cherish our world.

Desmoulin has participated in several regional exhibitions, including "Patterns in Nature", "Animal Speak", and "Nurturing the Spirit" at Edmonton’s Bearclaw Gallery (2013, 2014, 2016). Her artwork has been featured on the covers of Alberta Native News (November 2014, September 2016), used as the logo for the Spirit Runner app, which promotes positive lifestyles for aboriginal youth and is held in the collection of the AFA.

See all of Jessica Desmoulin's artworks currently included in the AFA Art Collection.

This week's Work of the Week is Crowsnest Mountain and the Seven Sisters by Joane Cardinal-Schubert.
 

Crowsnest Mountain and the Seven Sisters are iconic peaks in the southern Rocky Mountains. Crowsnest Mountain can be seen from Highway 3 west of the town of Coleman, with the Seven Sisters to its north. Together they form an isolated klippe, a geological feature that is formed through erosion. Other examples of klippes are Chief Mountain in Montana (which can be easily seen from southern Alberta); Mount Yamnuska in Kananaskis Country; and the Rock of Gibraltor, located off the coast of Spain.  

About the Artist: Joane Cardinal-Schubert (1942-2009)

Through her art and life, Joane Cardinal-Schubert honoured her identity as Kainai (Blackfoot), demonstrating her values of representing the Indigenous experience and history. She was a multi-media, visual, and installation artist, a writer, lecturer, free-lance curator and director of film and theatre. Her writing has been published nationally and internationally in art magazines, catalogues and books and she has also served as an editor of Fuse magazine.

Cardinal-Schubert completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a double major in painting and printmaking in 1977 at the University of Calgary. She also earned a certificate from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, and in 1983, received her certificate in Management Development for Arts Administration from the Banff Centre. Cardinal-Schubert served as Assistant Curator at the Nickle Arts Museum at the University of Calgary for six years.

Joane Cardinal-Schubert received many awards, scholarships, and Canada Council grants for her work. In 1985, she became the fourth Albertan woman to be inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy. She was also awarded the Commemorative Medal of Canada in 1993 for her contribution to the Arts, and in 2007 was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. She was an advocate for Native artists and inspired and enabled Native artists to challenge and reclaim their creative identities. Her work explores themes of identity and spirituality, and critically examines Euro-American religious and governmental systems.

In 2018, the AFA established the Dr. Joane Cardinal-Schubert Fellowship for Indigenous Curators. This one-time fellowship was designed to support the growth and development of curatorial talent and enhance representation of Indigenous artists in the AFA collection by providing up to $30,000 to contract an individual or an ensemble of individuals to develop a curatorial research project. Becca Taylor was the recipient of the fellowship.  She provided recommendations for acquisitions, which supported the acquisition of 23 artworks in 2019-20 by four Indigenous emerging artists: Kablusiak, Jessie Ray Short, Jewel Shaw and Lauren Crazybull. 

See all Indigenous artworks in the AFA Collection. 

This week’s Work of the Week is Sunset on Boot Hill by Delia Cross Child.

Cross Child’s acrylics, such as Sunset on Boot Hill, are stunning evocations of colour that might be mistaken as psychedelic by anyone who had never witnessed the rolling prairies of southern Alberta. Her landscape scintillates with reds, ambers, and blues that rise like smoke into a sky aflame.
 

About the Artist: Delia Cross Child

Delia Cross Child is a Blood and Peigan artist and teacher who fuses historical and contemporary art traditions of Turtle Island and Europe to inspire her communities and educate the public about First Nations issues.

Born in Pincher Creek and raised in an one-child family on the Peigan Reserve at Brocket, Cross Child was fascinated by the landscape and its changing seasons, whose mountain-view hills and Old Man River valley she explored with her parents and siblings. The experiences became foundational to her later paintings; she describes “a performance… of ever-changing colour, sight, and sound” that was “only a part of the territory that… the Blackfoot Confederacy… had occupied for a long time. [It was] a place of solace during the times when my world appeared to be chaotic and confusing,” a world whose legacy included the mass-trauma of forced assimilation, residential schools, and “hunger, sadness, and abuse.”

Cross Child later attended the University of Lethbridge where she earned her B.A. in Art and Native American Studies (1996) and her B.Ed. in Art (2002). To motivate her students at Kainai High School on the Blood Reserve near Standoff, Alberta, she integrated traditional visual literacy into her teaching

Cross Child’s work has been exhibited at the Glenbow Museum, Walter Phillips Gallery, and Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and lives in the public collections of the University of Lethbridge, the Blood Tribe Administration, and the Glenbow Museum. Cross Child has received several academic and art awards, including membership in the University of Lethbridge’s Alumni Honour Society (2009), the Blackfoot Fine Arts Award (2008), and the Gerald Tailfeathers Art Scholarship (1996).

This week’s Work of the Week is Mind Over Matter by renowned Indigenous artist Alex Janvier.

This past Wednesday, September 30, was Orange Shirt Day – a day to honour residential school survivors and victims. In Alberta, there are about 12,000 residential school survivors and their families, including Alex Janvier.

About the Artist: Alex Janvier

Alex Janvier was born on the Le Goff Reserve, Cold Lake First Nations, Alberta, in 1935. He was raised in the Chipewyan tradition until he attended the Blue Quill Residential Indian School at the age of eight.

Janvier graduated with Honours from the Alberta College of Art in 1960 and since then has built an international reputation as a painter, muralist and printmaker. He has influenced a younger generation of native artists through his paintings and advocacy work with arts organizations and land claim committees.
 

His imagery is a combination of traditional native decorative motifs such as medicine wheels, floral designs and symbolic colour combinations. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, his work became more representational and concerned with specific social and political issues.

Janvier has been the recipient of many accolades throughout his career. Since 2007, he has received honourary doctorates from both the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta, was appointed to the Order of Canada, received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts and was the first ever recipient of the Marion Nicoll Visual Arts Award from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Alex Janvier continues to live and work in Cold Lake.

In honour of Métis Week (November 15-21), this week’s Work of the Week is Making Faces by Métis artist Heather Shillinglaw.
 

About the Artist: Heather Shillinglaw

Heather Shillinglaw graduated in 1996 from the Alberta College of Art and Design (now the Alberta University of the Arts).

Her mixed-media work explores the bridging of cultures as she has experienced it as a Métis woman and as a traveler to other territories and countries. She is intrigued by the "similarities and differences" between cultures, something that her own heritage allows her to access more readily. In 1993, Heather partnered with National Film Board and Women of the Métis Nation using a film Daughter of the Country Series to create new works.

She is represented in numerous public, private and corporate collections and is an active member of several Métis organizations including Women of the Métis Nation. She has exhibited extensively around Alberta over the past ten years.

This week’s Work of the Week is Ancestor by Indigenous artist Florence Shone.

About the Artist: Florence Shone

Florence Shone is a mother of two and self-taught artist who uses acrylic and canvas as her medium.
 

She is originally from the Piikani Nation in southern Alberta, but has resided in Edmonton most of her life. She has a degree in Native Studies from University of Alberta in Edmonton. 

Shone says that she has always been an artist. She began drawing at an early age, but it was only when she was almost finished university that she took an art class and learned that painting allows her to visually express and release her emotions onto canvas. Subjects include Blackfoot people from archival photographs, portraiture, landscape work and other intuitively created pieces.

She regularly participates in local exhibitions in Alberta and has had work on display at the Royal Alberta Museum.

This year, National Indigenous Peoples Day also coincides with Summer Solstice on June 21. It is a great way to celebrate the unique culture and achievements of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples of our country.
 

During National Indigenous Peoples Day and June's National Indigenous History Month, explore:

• amazing artwork by Indigenous artists in the AFA's collection
• upcoming events throughout the province
• resources and events across Canada

About the artwork:

Poitras enjoys working in a variety of media including painting and mixed media collages that incorporate historical and contemporary symbols, newspaper clippings, and painted elements. In her work, 'Legacy of a Liberated Culture', she uses mixed media to create a colorful collage to highlight her diverse culture.

View the artwork in Augmented Reality. And click on the pink 'AFA virtual museum' below to discover other artworks by Poitras from 1984 to 2019.

About the Artist:

Jane Ash Poitras was born in the northern Alberta Cree community of Fort Chipewyan. Even though it was recommended for her to pick another career, as it was perceived it would be impossible to make a living as an artist, her resiliency helped her achieve a successful career. 

She has garnered her many accolades and achievements through her career, including being a recipient of:

• the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005)
• Order of Canada (2007)
• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award (2011).

Image description

Multi-color images of an Indigenous person wearing a black and red feathered head dress, brown dog-like animal, yellow and red bird-like animal, black and red and turquoise abstract faces, and various black and white historic symbols. Four tipis with various colors including brown, yellow, whilte, red, green, blue and pink are at the bottom of the painting.