Portraits by Aboriginal Artists

OTTAWA.- Profoundly symbolic works by some of Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous artists send a powerful message on the evolution of Aboriginal self-determination in Canada. They will be presented by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP) at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) in an exhibition entitled Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists which will be on view until March 22, 2009.

This deeply reflective exhibition will showcase CMCP’s significant collection of Indigenous artists as well as those drawn from the NGC’s and selected private collections. It combines portrait photographs and video installations by 12 artists ? KC Adams, Carl Beam, Dana Claxton, Thirza Cuthand, Rosalie Favell, Kent Monkman, David Neel, Shelley Niro, Arthur Renwick, Greg Staats, Jeff Thomas and Bear Witness.

“It is the first time that CMCP and the NGC have worked together on the theme of contemporary portraiture by Aboriginal artists,” said CMCP Director, Martha Hanna. “This exhibition pays tribute to prominent Aboriginal artists whose works offer a new voice.”

The exhibition explores how contemporary Aboriginal artists have used the portrait as a means of self-expression in spite of its long problematic history for their peoples. “The portrait is a European convention which exerts control over the subject,” explained the CMCP co-curator Andrea Kunard. “In the past, Aboriginal people were often objectified for commercial purposes. They were represented as a dying race doomed by the inexorable march of ‘civilization.’ Contrary to this portrayal, they have neither vanished nor died out; they survived.”

The exhibition’s other co-curator who is the NGC’s first-ever Curator in Residence, Indigenous Art, Steven Loft, added that “these artists use their cameras to create a means of cultural self-determination. By reconstructing the narrative of race, they have captured the wide plurality of Aboriginal histories, cultures and contemporary realities and have created their own visual identities.”

Exhibition Themes
The exhibition engages a number of themes which are present in the work of contemporary Aboriginal artists. These include:

Aboriginal artists as creators of visual history
These artists reclaim images of themselves, their families and their communities and use them as a means of transforming past concerns into the present. They challenge stereotypes, creating a new visual history and are harbingers of a changing reality.

Keeping ancient traditions alive
To challenge the detrimental characterizations of Aboriginal life developed through colonization and assimilation, contemporary Indigenous artists represent identity as a changing and complex state, rather than one that is essential, singular and “frozen” in the past. Within these images, which describe contemporary existence, references to traditions, family and community, appear as a source of strength and grounding.

Appropriation, mass media and “acting up”
Bear Witness, Rosalie Favell and KC Adams use appropriation strategies to explore the influence of art history and mass media on identity. In his work, Bear Witness weaves together images taken from popular movies. Rosalie Favell takes images from art history, and KC Adams merges stereotypes and fashion photography in her portraits of Aboriginal community members. Acting up for the camera is another approach for dealing with identity issues. Dana Claxton, Shelley Niro, Rosalie Favell, Thirza Cuthand and Kent Monkman use photographic space as theatre, taking on various guises to present a multifaceted view of contemporary Aboriginal existence.

Socio-political issues
Kent Monkman, Rosalie Favell and Thirza Cuthand explore contemporary, social and political issues within the Aboriginal communities, such as sexuality, hybridity and shifting socio-political dynamics.

The Full Face Portrait
Arthur Renwick and David Neel focus on the face and how it is framed. Neel uses more conventional studio techniques to present his portraits. While Renwick presents larger than life, full face portraits, positioning his subjects as living embodiments of Aboriginal spiritual and cosmological traditions. Both artists offer a glimpse of Aboriginality we do not often see reflected in our media saturated society.

Steven Loft, was appointed as the NGC’s first ever Curator in Residence, Indigenous Art in January 2008. His professional experience within the Indigenous arts is extensive and encompasses being Director of the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg, Aboriginal Curator at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and Artistic Director of the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association. Over the past 15 years, he has presented numerous significant Aboriginal exhibitions and is a widely published author on this topic.