Richard Heikkila-Sawan (’15) is the 2015 regional recipient of the BMO 1st Art! Invitational Student Art Competition. His work Freedom Flag consists of a large buffalo hide dyed in the six colours of the rainbow. The strips of hide have been placed on a wooden stretcher intended to be mounted on a gallery wall. Freedom Flag will be exhibited at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in Toronto from October 22 to December 19, 2015.
Heikkila-Sawan works with painting and sculpture. His work explores First Nations culture and identity from a personal lense. As a biracial artist not brought up within his birth culture, Heikkila-Sawan offers a unique perspective within a larger narrative. Richard Heikkila-Sawan graduated from Emily Carr University in Fine Art in 2015.