The next Artist You Need To Know is Edward Poitras.
Poitras is a Métis / Saulteaux artist based in Saskatchewan : he is a painter, sculptor, photographer, set designer, and performance artist, who has been included in numerous major exhibitions of contemporary Indigenous art since 1980. Poitras was the first Indigenous artist to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale (1995) and his artworks are among the most significant and groundbreaking works by Indigenous artists in North America.
From the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery :
“For over four decades in Canada, many Indigenous artists have challenged prevailing notions of a master narrative in the historical development of this country. Edward Poitras has been, and continues to be, in the forefront of this movement…..Poitras’ work blends the strategies, iconographies and formal vocabularies of European art with those of Indigenous art, spirituality and culture. He is known for mixing the usage of natural materials, such as feathers, hide, horsehair, and bones, with industrial or electronic materials and discarded technology, such as circuit boards. Uniting these materials for Poitras is a means of expressing his own identity…..His work explores themes including history, treaties, the effects of colonialism, and life in urban spaces and on the reserve.”
The images below are from the exhibition Edward Poitras: Revolution in the Rock Garden (2022, at the Art Gallery of Swift Current, SK). A short video of this exhibition (when it was in Moose Jaw) can be seen here.
Poitras was born in Oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina and is a member of the Gordon First Nation. He studied in the Indian Art Program at the Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre (Saskatoon). A significant influence on Poitras at this time was the artist Sarain Stump. He would also attend the art program at Manitou College (La Macaza, Québec), which was facilitated by Domingo Cisneros.
He has also taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (now First Nations University of Canada) and at the University of Manitoba.
In 1995, he was the first Indigenous artist ever chosen to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale. A fine article about his life and work – written by arts journalist and curator Nancy Tousely for Canadian Art Magazine – published at that time can be read here.
Poitras has exhibited widely, and significant solo exhibitions of his work have taken place at the MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, SK), Mendel Art Gallery (now Remai Modern, Saskatoon, SK), The Power Plant (Toronto, ON), Galerie Articule (Montreal, QC), Canadian Museum of Civilization (Ottawa – Hull), and Western Front Society (Vancouver).
A more detailed listing of his exhibitions can be seen here.
His work can be found in the collections of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Canadian Museum of History, the National Gallery of Canada, Remai Modern, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. In 2002 he was a recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
The gallery below features a number of installation shots of Poitras’ work Vita Brevis, 1922, installed at the Mendel Art Gallery.
In 2002, when Poitras received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts curator Lee-Ann Martin made a key observation in an essay about his work: “Imagine that your personal and cultural history has been misinterpreted for hundreds of years. Then imagine that this history exists fully in your contemporary identity and actively interacts with the present. Finally, imagine that your insights into these everyday histories contradict well-known accounts of an official history. Such complex realities shape the multi-dimensional artistic practice of Edward Poitras.”