niigaanikwewag
Guest curated by Rhéanne Chartrand, Curator of Indigenous Art, McMaster Museum of Art
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 22, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition on view: FEBRUARY 22 - APRIL 15, 2018
Art Gallery of Mississauga
Featuring works by: Kenojuak Ashevak, Christi Belcourt, Rebecca Belmore, Joane Cardinal-Schubert, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Rosalie Favell, Rita Letendre, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Meryl McMaster, Caroline Monnet, Marianne Nicolson, Shelley Niro, Daphne Odjig, Annie Pootoogook, Rolande Souliere, and Olivia Whetung.
Indigenous female artists, much like their non-Indigenous sisters in the larger art world, have historically stood in the shadow of their male counterparts in terms of recognition and accolade for their work, despite having produced equally substantial, critical, and provocative bodies of work.
niigaanikwewag brings together notable works by senior, mid-career, and emerging female Indigenous artists to celebrate past, present, and future generations of kwes as integral to sustaining the creative spirit of Indigenous communities. Foregrounding kinship, the artworks in niigaanikwewag embody and express the blood ties Indigenous women have to each other and to [our] Mother Earth.
niigaanikwewag, which means “leader women” or “they who lead” (feminine, plural) in Anishinaabemowin, positions the female artists included in this curatorial project as leaders within Indigenous art.
niigaanikwewag is a one-year curatorial project bookended by two exhibitions that acknowledges and pays respect to the non-binary feminine creative spirit that continues to birth Indigenous futurities in provocative and meaningful ways.