Who Are the Indigenous Artists to Watch at Art Toronto?

Nadia Myre, Boundaries (2021). Courtesy the artist and Art Mûr.

By Sam Gaskin – 21 October 2021, Toronto

Indigenous artists from across North America will play a major role in Art Toronto when it returns from 29 to 31 October.

Twenty-two of the 60 galleries exhibiting at the Metro Convention Centre are bringing works by indigenous artists, with five showing works exclusively by such artists.

They are: K Art (Buffalo), Ceremonial/Art (Vancouver), Fazakas Gallery (Vancouver), Feheley Fine Art (Toronto), and Marion Scott Gallery (Vancouver).

Jason Baerg, Oyasiwewina, The Law (2021). Cut canvas and ladder. Courtesy the artist and Fazakas Gallery.

Fazakas will present Oyasiwewina, The Law (2021), a cut canvas work suspended on a step ladder to suggest a teepee, by two-spirit Cree Métis artist Jason Baerg. Baerg will also take part in a panel ‘Decolonizing Museums and Collections’ alongside Dr. Patricia Marroquin Norby, Curator of Native American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of the fair’s talks programme.

Ceremonial/Art will show Chief Beau Dick’s sculpture Pookmis (2002), a mask carving made with red cedar, acrylic, horsehair, feathers, and cotton. The artist and activist passed away in 2017.

Chief Beau Dick, Pookmis (2002), red cedar, acrylic, horsehair, feathers, and cotton. Courtesy the artist and Ceremonial/Art.

Art Mûr (Montreal) will present the bead painting Boundaries (pictured top) by Nadia Myre, a Québécois and Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation.

Sonny Assu‘s Breakfast Series (2006-ongoing) will show with Equinox Gallery. The boxes of satirical cereal have names such as ‘Salmon Loops’ and ‘Lucky Beads’.

Sonny Assu, Breakfast Series (2006-ongoing). Courtesy the artist and Equinox Gallery.

At a glance, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Falling Tide (2020) resembles a traditional wood carving. Showing with Gallery Jones (Vancouver), the work is in fact paint on a copper leaf-coated car hood.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Falling Tide (2020), paint on a copper leaf-coated car hood. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Jones, Vancouver.

In addition to the galleries showing in person at Art Toronto, another 20 are joining online.

‘While we wish all our exhibitors could participate in the in-person fair, we are delighted that our new digital platform will provide all visitors with an opportunity to experience the fair regardless of location,’ said Mia Nielsen, Director of Art Toronto.

The online programme will include a panel discussion anticipating the opening of the New Museum‘s fifth triennial, ‘Soft Water Hard Stone’, in New York City on 28 October. New Museum curator Margot Norton will discuss the show with participating Canadian artists Nadia Belerique, Laurie Kang, and Jeneen Frei Njootli.

Also occurring online is the exhibition ‘As We Rise’, which will bring together 100 photographs by Black artists from around the world. The works come from The Wedge Collection, which was established by dentist Dr. Kenneth Montague in 1997. —[O]

Main image: Nadia Myre, Boundaries (2021). Courtesy the artist and Art Mûr.

Sam Gaskin Sam Gaskin has covered contemporary art for over a decade, mostly from Shanghai, China.