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Indigenous Art

Art

This page collates various external links on Indigenous Artistry that open in a new window

Art Gallery of Ontario

Indigenous art at the AGO currently includes works from the First Peoples of North America, namely First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. The collection also includes global Indigenous Art from Africa, Australia, and the Torres Strait Islands. Indigenous Art is the oldest in the world and our collections reflect recent and historical practices and the continuities in between. Indigenous Art encompasses practices outside the Eurocentric traditions of artistic creation and categorization, as well as engagement with all major movements in art today. Indigenous art comes out of living cultures, making it highly dynamic and changing over time.

Indigenous Art Across Canada

10 Indigenous Artists Forging Community Ties

Five indigenous artists you should know

Contemporary Indigenous Art in Canada

Contemporary Indigenous art is that which has been produced by Indigenous peoples between around 1945 to the present. Since that time, two major schools of Indigenous art have dominated the contemporary scene in Canada:  Northwest Coast Indigenous Art and the Woodlands school of Legend Painters. As well, a more widely scattered group of artists who work independently in the context of mainstream Western art and may be described as internationalist in scope and intent.

First Nations Art

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection has always recognized the important contributions made to Canada’s artistic and cultural heritage by First Nations artists. Over the years, the McMichael’s permanent collection of First Nations art has expanded significantly in both depth and scope.

First Nations art encompasses many forms – including the traditional arts, ceremonial or religious arts, utilitarian arts, art produced for the tourist market, as well as the contemporary or fine arts. The McMichael continues to explore current trends and recent developments in First Nations art, and focuses its collecting activities on the contemporary rather than traditional art.

Carl Beam

Carl Beam is an artist who works in a variety of media to explore the tensions between Western and Indigenous relations. In his autobiographical work, he references himself as an Ojibwa, and places his Native culture within broader surroundings. He brings to attention problems that affect contemporary Native cultures and shows, through his juxtaposition of images, how these concerns relate to larger world issues. Through his work Beam integrates personal memory with issues related to the environment, brutality, and a rethinking of the ways histories are told.

Edgar Heap of Birds

The artworks of hock e aye vi edgar heap of birds include multi-disciplinary forms of public art messages, large scale drawings, neuf series acrylic paintings, prints, works in glass and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture.

Heap of birds’ artistic creations and efforts as an advocate for indigenous communities worldwide are focused first upon social justice and then the personal freedom to live within the tribal circle as an expressive individual.

Jeff Thomas

Jeff Thomas is an independent curator and photographer who deals, in examination of his own history and identity, with issues of aboriginality that have arisen at the intersections of Native and non-Native cultures in what is now Ontario and northern New York state. Nationally recognized for ground-breaking scholarship and innovative curatorial practice in this area, he has been involved in major projects at such prominent cultural institutions in Canada as the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Woodlands Cultural Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and Library and Archives Canada.

Shelley Niro

Shelley Niro is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario. She is known for her photographs using herself and female family members cast in contemporary positions to challenge the stereotypes and clichés of Native American women