The Vernon Public Art Gallery is about to open a large collection of art by Canadian aboriginal artists.
The two new exhibitions include Decolonize Me, a travelling show featuring work by six contemporary First Nations artists from across Canada put together by the Ottawa Art Gallery, and PUTI KwALA Okanagan We Are Still Here by the Kama? Creative Aboriginal Arts Collective, comprised of Okanagan Nation (Syilx) artists.
“We are happy to be able to bring such a significant show here to the VPAG for our local community to enjoy,” said gallery executive director Dauna Kennedy Grant.
Featuring the work of Sonny Assu, Jordan Bennett, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Nigit’stil Norbert, Barry Pottle and Bear Witness, Decolonize Me, according to VPAG curator Lubos Culen, is a “contemporary critical evaluation of Canadian history told through the lens of First Nations artists.”
Decolonize Me features six contemporary Aboriginal artists whose works challenge, interrogate and reveal Canada’s long history of colonization in daring and innovative ways, added Ottawa Art Gallery curator Heather Igloliorte.
Deliberately riffing on the title of Morgan Spurlock’s film, the pop-cultural phenomenon Super Size Me (2004), the exhibition’s title emphasizes the importance of recognizing the role of the individual within larger discussions of shared colonial histories and present-day cultural politics.
“In the context of the recent efforts of many Indigenous communities to assert their sovereignty and right to self-determination, the artists in this exhibition explore the issues and outcomes of both colonization and decolonization while exposing how these processes have impacted Aboriginal and settler Canadian identity, both individual and collective,” said Igloliorte.
In turn, the work of the Kama? Creative Aboriginal Arts Collective also reflects on indigenous culture and identity.
Derived from the Okanagan word S?at qw(l)p kama? (meaning pine needle), Kama? Creative is used by the collective’s members to symbolically represent the traditional landscape where the artists reside.
The collective is comprised of Okanagan Nation established and emerging artists who have come together to support aboriginal interdisciplinary and multimedia arts development, promotion, education/community involvement and production.
For this exhibition, Kama? members Barbara P. Marchand, Mariel Belanger, Sheldon Louis and Dean Louis, who are all members of the Okanagan Indian Band (Suknaqinx), will each give a contemporary perspective on how she/he looks at the Syilx life over time.
“Marchand’s work speaks of the deeper emotions and traditional lives of the first people that inspire her work, while Belanger takes the spirit of what it means to be Syilx through the view of the traditional kwilsten, or sweat lodge, and represents a pattern in the rebirth of identity,” reads a release about the collective.
Sheldon Louis’ paintings are a study of the impact of the residential school system on his youth, while Dean Louis explores the Okanagan people today through his graphic design practice.
Both Decolonize Me and We Are Still Here open at the Vernon Public Art Gallery Thursday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Participating artists from Decolonize Me, Jordan Bennett and Cheryl L’Hirondelle, will give an artist talk and a tour of the exhibition at 6:30 p.m. Admission is by donation.
Both exhibitions run at the VPAG to Oct. 8. Visit vernonpublicartgallery.com for more info.
