Arctic/Amazon Exhibition.

Arctic / Amazon Exhibition Curated by Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent Launches at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Knowledge is excited to announce the official opening of the Arctic / Amazon Exhibition Co-Curated by Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent, and supported by the Institutional Curator Noor Ale, at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.

Visit the exhibitionOctober 1 to December 31 at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

Exhibition at a Glance

Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity explores the ways in which Indigenous contemporary artists take on issues of climate change, globalized Indigeneity, and contact zones in and about the Arctic and the Amazon during a time of crisis. The featured artists have their origins in these places, and their works embody a politics of resistance, resurgence, and ways of knowing and being in relation to the lands that are the source of their knowledge and creativity. A constellation of new and past works by artists Sonya Kelliher-Combs (United States), Tanya Lukin Linklater (United States/Canada), Couzyn van Heuvelen (Canada), Máret Ánne Sara (Norway), Uýra (Indigenous in diaspora), Olinda Reshijabe Silvano (Peru), Morzaniel Iramari (Brazil), Leandro Lima & Gisela Motta (Brazil), Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (Venezuela), and Outi Pieski (Finland) will be featured in Arctic/Amazon. Encompassing a range of media, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, installation, video, and performance, this exhibition seeks to shed light on current geopolitical and environmental sustainability issues that inform artistic practices in these two vastly different, yet interconnected, regions. The main themes in this group exhibition are drawn from the Arctic/Amazon symposium that was co-hosted by the Ontario College of Art & Design University and The Power Plant in September 2019. The purpose of the symposium was to gather established and emerging Indigenous scholars, curators, and artists primarily from North American regions of the Arctic and Amazonian zones to meet, exchange ideas, share works, and develop collaborative strategies that would bring together traditional knowledges of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

Uýra, Série A Última Floresta 2, 2019, Photo: Matheus Belém.

Uýra, A Mata Te Se Come, 2019. Photo: Lisa Hermes.

Couzyn van Heuvelen: Bait, 2021. Installation view: Owens Art Gallery,

Couzyn van Heuvelen: Bait, 2021. Installation view: Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, 2021. Photo: Roger Smith.

Birit and Katja Haarla, Outi Pieski, Guhte gullá – Here to Hear, 2021. Multi-channel video installation. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Mauri Lähdesmäki.

Outi Pieski, Guržot ja guovssat – Spell on you!, 2020. Thread, steel, wood, installation is made out of duodji Sámi craft tradition. 330cm x 600cm x 220cm. Installation view, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus, 2022, Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.

Leandro Lima and Gisela Motta, Xapiri (still), 2012. Video, 56:00 minutes. Courtesy the artists.

Lead Curator | Gerald McMaster

Gerald McMaster, O.C., is one of Canada’s most revered and esteemed academics. He is a curator, artist and author, and is currently professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University, where he leads a team of researchers at the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge. McMaster served as the curator for the 1995 Venice Biennale, artistic director of the 2012 Biennale of Sydney and curator for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He is the recipient of the OCAD University Award for Distinguished Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity (2021) appointed Senior Fellow to Massey College, University of Toronto (2021), and awarded Governor General’s Awards Award for Outstanding Contribution (2022). He is nehiyaw (Plains Cree) and a citizen of the Siksika First Nation.

Co-Curator | Nina Vincent

Nina Vincent is a Brazilian anthropologist, researcher, professor, independent curator and currently works at the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), where she works close to communities to preserve intangible heritage and Brazilian popular/traditional culture. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and a Master’s in Anthropology and a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from UFRJ. Her research focuses on Indigenous visual material culture, museology and curatorial practice. In 2015, Garamond Publishing published her book Paris, Maori: the museum and its others—native curatorship at the Quai Branly. Vincent is co-researching the Arctic / Amazon Project with Dr. Gerald McMaster, exploring intersections of historical and contemporary art production and cultural perceptions of climate change in the two regions.

Institutional Curator | Noor Alé

Noor Alé is a curator, writer, and art historian. In her most recent capacity, she was the Assistant Curator at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. Her curatorial practice examines the intersections of contemporary art with geopolitics, decolonization, and social justice in the Global South. She has contributed to curatorial research, exhibition management, and public programmes at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; and Art Dubai. Alé holds an MA in Art History from The Courtauld Institute of Art, and a BA in Art History from the University of Guelph.

Wapatah | Team

 

Dr. Gerald McMaster

Director, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair

Dr. McMaster has over 30 years international work and expertise...

Dr. Michael Rattray

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Rattray is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Wapatah under the...

Natalja Chestopalova

Research Project Manager

Natalja Chestopalova is part of the Ph.D. in Communication and...

Brittany Bergin

Research Assistant

Brittany Pitseolak Bergin is a research assistant at Wapatah Centre,...

Jananda Lima

Research Assistant

Jananda Lima has recently completed a Master of Design in...

Na’ama Freeman

Research Assistant

Na’ama Freeman is a master’s student in the Criticism and Curatorial...

Nina Vincent

Author

Nina Vincent is a Brazilian anthropologist, researcher, professor, independent curator...

Pedro Portella

ELAP Visiting Researcher

Pedro Portella has a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts (2001)...

Sponsor

The Appleton Foundation Logo
Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation

Michael Audain

Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau

Kiki and Ian Delaney

Michelle Koerner

DH Gales Family Charitable Foundation

       
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