Tag Archives: alumni

What We Bring With Us

January 22, 2020News and EventsalumniAboriginal Gathering Place

Opening Celebration: January 28, 6-8 pm
On view: January 29–April 12, 2020
Artist Panel: February 1, 2 pm

Performance Workshop with Cheyenne Rain LeGrande ᑭᒥᐊᐧᐣ
on March 14, 2-4 pm

The works of seven emerging Indigenous artists will be exploring the questions:

What does it mean to be a guest in this territory in relation to Indigeneity?

How do we as Indigenous artists relate to the land we occupy while also acknowledging our presence as visitors?

Cheyenne Rain LeGrande ᑭᒥᐊᐧᐣ (Nehiyaw)
Jake Kimble (Deninu K’ue)
Lacie Burning (Kanien’kehá:ka, Mohawk)
Maria-Margaretta (Métis)
M.V. Williams (Skwxú7mesh, Wet’suwet’en)
Taran Kootenhayoo (Denesułįné, Nakoda Sioux)
Whess Harman (Carrier Wit’at)

These seven Indigenous artists will be creating works on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people that are originally from outside this territory. In What We Bring With Us, the artists’ work speaks to their relationship to this land and kinship founded through displacement in works ranging from photography to performance.

Guest curated by Maria-Margaretta

Artwork by Lacie Burning, My Dad’s Boots

Pushing Boundaries 2019

October 10, 2019News and Eventsalumni, exhibitionsAboriginal Gathering Place

CityScape Community ArtSpace | October 11 – November 16, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 10 from 7 – 9pm

Pushing Boundaries is a biennial group exhibition showcasing and celebrating contemporary Indigenous artists.

Indigenous cultures across North America use blankets in symbolic ways throughout their communities. These artists reference the narratives rooted in their own nations and relate them back to pattern, textile, shape, form or material. The blanket metaphor represents a way that we can use the deep connections of spirit while pushing a contemporary perspective on Indigenous ways of knowing.

James (Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun) Harry

Participating artists include: Cheximiya Allison Burns Joseph, Krystle Coughlin, Ocean Hyland, Atheana Picha, Michelle Sound, Manuel Axel Strain, Xwalacktun, Richard Heikkilä-Sawan, and Tiyaltelwet Melanie Rivers.

Curated by James (Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun) Harry.

Poster Image: HBC Trapline by Michelle Sound

Jeneen Frei Njootli

September 4, 2018News and Eventsalumni, Speaker seriesAboriginal Gathering Place

Aboriginal Gathering Place Speaker Series

We are very pleased to present artist Jeneen Frei Njootli!
Monday, October 22 11:30am

Jeneen Frei Njootli is an interdisciplinary artist, co-creator of the ReMatriate Collective and a member of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation who has been living and working as an uninvited guest on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, Sto:lo and TsleilWaututh territories for a decade. She uses mixed media, sound-based performances, textiles and installation work to explore history embedded in cultural materials, geopolitics and the politics of Indigenous art. For her recent Media Arts Residency at the Western Front in Vancouver, she hosted a free workshop on how to create and update Wikipedia pages for Indigenous women artists. The 2017 recipient of the Contemporary Art Society Vancouver Artist Prize, she has exhibited at the Fierman Gallery in New York, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and the Vancouver Art Gallery among others. After graduating from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2012, Frei Njootli completed her MFA at the University of British Columbia in 2017.

Oneself, and one another

July 19, 2018News and Eventsalumni, exhibitionsAboriginal Gathering Place

Oneself, and one another

Lita Fontaine, Whess Harman, Meagan Musseau, Rhayne Vermette
Curated by Jennifer Smith
6pm Friday 20 July 2018
The aceartinc. & National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition’s Indigenous Curator In Residence, invite you to the opening of Oneself, and one another.
Funded by The Winnipeg Foundation.The blanket use of the word ‘Indigenous’ can eclipse the incredible diversity within Indigenous cultures across Turtle Island. Oneself, and one another is an exploration of this and the inter-identities of Indigenous artists in Canada. Each of the four artists creates work about their own distinct culture, interests and lives. What we discover is how non-homogenity is itself a defining feature of Indigenous culture, a means of working together, and a source of great power.The great power brings together four artists, who independent of each other explore ideas of gender, multiple cultural identities, tradition, age, territory, the Dakota Nation, the Metis Nation, the Mi’kmaq Nation, Lake Babine Nation, environmental issues, history, punk culture, decolonization, the lives of artists and Indigeneity. Together the artists form an exhibition that places their Indigeneity at the centre, but makes room to celebrate each difference and explore how combined each difference strengthens each other.

Whess Harman is a queer, mixed-race, trans/non-binary artist, born in prince rupert, BC in 1990 and is a member of the Lake Babine Nation. Their work uses multi-media strategies in print, text and illustration to address issues of representation and memory. Whess completed a BFA at emily carr university in 2014. They have attended residencies at the banff art centre in 2014 and 2016 and at plug-in ICA in winnipeg in 2017. On-going work in includes beadwork and DIY strategies around punk aesthetics creating “Indigenous Punk” jacket series, as well as text based wheat-pasting projects.

Sobey Longlist

April 24, 2018News and EventsalumniAboriginal Gathering Place

Two members of our Aboriginal ECU community have been longlisted for the 2018 Sobey Art Award, the preeminent prize for Canadian artists 40 and under. Celebrating some of this country’s most exciting young artists, the award provides significant financial and professional recognition.

And this year, the Award has doubled — with a top prize of $100,000 issued to the winner and $25,000 to each of the four finalists. The remaining longlisted artists will each receive $2,000.

Join us in congratulating:

Jeneen Frei Njootli (2012)

Krista Belle Stewart (2006)

The finalists – one from each region in Canada – will be announced on May 29.Past award recipients include ECU alumni Jeremy Shaw, Brian Jungen, and Nadia Myre.

Jeneen Frei Njootli is an artist (Vuntut Gwitchin) and co-creator of the ReMatriate Collective, who has been living and working as an uninvited guest on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, Sto:lo and TsleilWaututh territories for a decade. In her interdisciplinary practice, she uses media such as performance, sound, textiles, collaboration and workshops.

For her recent Media Arts Residency at the Western Front in Vancouver, she hosted a free workshop on how to create and update Wikipedia pages for Indigenous women artists. In 2017, Frei Njootli was the recipient of the Contemporary Art Society Vancouver Artist Prize, and in 2016, she won the William and Meredith Saunderson Prize for Emerging Artists. After graduating from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2012, Frei Njootli completed her MFA at University of British Columbia in 2017.
Photo: Emmanuel Etti

Krista Belle Stewart’s work engages with the complexities of archival material through processes that allow for both intimacy and coincidence, as well as for the atemporal meeting of actors across time. Working with video, photography, design, ephemera and textiles, Stewart straddles the gaps between personal and institutional histories through transparent mediation.

Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal; Plug In ICA, Winnipeg; House of World Cultures, Berlin; International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York; Mercer Union, Toronto; Vancouver Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Gallery, Artspeak, and Western Front, Vancouver; and Esker Foundation, Calgary. Born in Kamloops, Stewart is a member of the Upper Nicola Band of the Okanagan Nation and lives and works in Vancouver. She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and an MFA from Bard College.
Photo: Maegan Hill-Carroll

Scháyilhen Visual Arts Exhibition

February 5, 2018News and Eventsalumni, exhibitions, studentsAboriginal Gathering Place

Salmon Going Up River (Scháyilhen) immediately invokes a sense of urgency, of struggle, of passion. Questions arise: is it about the journey, the destination, the mission, or is the motive of greatest significance? Is failure an option?

Twelve Indigenous artists have been gathered to address the notion of Salmon Going Up River. From Danielle Bobier’s inorganic grid-lines and circular pools evocative of the built environment in Catchment Area (2017) routed from salvaged mahogany plywood; to Shain Jackson’s twenty-foot natural and painted red cedar with abalone inlay Legacy salmon sculpture; and collections of found objects as in Jay Haven’s Bargain Hunter made from bags gathered from retail stores on reserves throughout British Columbia—themes and stories begin to unravel.
Within a climate of reconciliation, the metaphor of Salmon Going Up River speaks about remembering, of going home—it’s about the future and of survival. It is directional, of going forward by way of the past. Yet, the past at best serves as a guidepost. The journey is arduous and painful, fraught with seemingly impossible barriers demanding multiple attempts to overcome—bruises and battle scars added at each rung. Fight we must, but with each other? Is the river and its many obstacles not battle enough?
There are resting pools along the way—so easy to linger; to set up residence. Complacency threatens. And so the conversation begins.

Richard Heikkilä-Sawan exhibition curator, Talking Stick Festival 2018

Artists:

Dates & Time:
Opening & Reception: February 14, 2018 @ 7pm
Exhibition: February 14-24, 2018, 10am – 10pm
Location:
Roundhouse Performance Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2W3)

Pushing Boundaries Exhibition

September 22, 2017News and Eventsalumni, exhibitions, studentsAboriginal Gathering Place

This biennial exhibition showcases and celebrates contemporary local, national and international First Nations artists. Through carvings, portraiture drawings, digital images, textile work, video and more, themes of family, reconciliation, indigenous life, gender, race, politics and nature are explored.

Artists:

Arlene Bowman, Allison Burns, Krystle Coughlin, Alanna Edwards, Dan Friday, Geronimo, Whess Harman, Adele Maskwa-iskwew Arseneau, Shelley McDonald, Ryan McKenna, Levi Nelson, Jacqueline Primeau, Michelle Sound

North Vancouver Community Arts Council

Located at
CityScape Community Art Space
335 Lonsdale Avenue
North Vancouver, BC

Alumnus + Assistant Professor Raymond Boisjoly Shortlisted for AMIA AGO Photography Prize

September 13, 2017News and Eventsalumni, awards, facultyAboriginal Gathering Place

Emily Carr University is pleased to share news of alumnus + Assistant Professor Raymond Boisjoly’s selection as one of four international finalists for the 2017 Aimia | AGO Photography Prize, marking the 10th anniversary of Canada’s most significant award for photography.

Co-presented by Aimia, the Canadian global leader in data-driven marketing and loyalty analytics, and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), the Prize awards $50,000 to a winner selected by public vote. The four finalists will present their work in an exhibition opening September 6, 2017 at the AGO in Toronto. Voting begins in person at the AGO after the exhibition opens and on the Prize’s website beginning on September. 13, 2017.

Raymond Boisjoly is an Indigenous artist of Haida and Québécois descent who lives and works in Vancouver. He has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. Boisjoly investigates the ways images, objects, materials and language continue to define Indigenous art and artists, with particular attention to colonial contexts. In 2016, he was a recipient of the VIVA Award, presented by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts in Vancouver, and is one of five artists shortlisted for the 2017 Sobey Art Award. Boisjoly is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studio in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery.

Aboriginal Alumni Longlisted for 2017 Sobey Art Award

April 28, 2017News and Eventsalumni, awards, facultyAboriginal Gathering Place

The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada today announced the longlist of nominees for the 2017 Sobey Art Award.
The Sobey Art Award is presented annually to a Canadian artist aged 40 and under who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated.
These 25 longlisted artists—five for each of five regions—are vying are for the top prize worth $50,000. Each of four other finalists will receive $10,000.
A related shortlist of five artists will be released on June 6, with the top winner of the prize being announced on October 25 in Toronto.

Congratulations to our Aboriginal Alumni on the longlist!

Jeneen Frei Njootli (2012)

Raymond Boisjoly (2006 | Assistant Professor, Audain Faculty Art)

Jeneen Frei Njootli is a Vuntut Gwich’in artist and a founding member of the ReMatriate Collective. In her interdisciplinary practice she uses media such as performance, sound and textiles. Much of her work deconstructs the history of the materials she uses. She investigates their relationship to trade, ceremonial regalia, and the politics of First Nations art. Her work is now in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection.

Raymond Boisjoly is an Indigenous artist of Haida and Québécois descent who lives and works in Vancouver. His work investigates technology, Aboriginal identity, the relationship between text and image as well as the limits of the visible. He is an Assistant Professor in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Emily Carr Alumni and Faculty to Receive REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards

April 27, 2017News and Eventsalumni, awards, facultyAboriginal Gathering Place

Several Emily Carr alumni and faculty will soon be receiving an award unlike any seen before in Canada. Created by the Hnatyshyn Foundation, the REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards are intended to honour emerging and established Indigenous artists and to fuel future Indigenous arts practice. Recipients will each receive a one-time award of $10,000.

Of the 150 artists selected, eight are Emily Carr alumni and faculty. The recipients were chosen by a national jury of peers and include visual artists, media artists, craftspeople, musicians, writers, storytellers, dancers and actors.

The winners will receive their awards on May 22 at a special ceremony in Winnipeg that will include National Chief Perry Bellegarde, Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman and Canada Council CEO Simon Brault.

Join us in congratulating Sonny Assu (2002), Liz Carter (current student), Thirza Cuthand (2005), Mark Igloliorte (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Visual Art + Material Practice), Mary Longman (1989), Nadia Myre (1997), Janice Toulouse (1979 and Sessional Faculty) and Niki Watts (2016).

Find out more about the REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards here.

Cover Image: Decolonial Gesture or Doing it Wrong? Refair le chemin, 2016. Nadia Myre.