Cree artist Kent Monkman, one of Canada’s best known artists, is recognized internationally as a credible commentator on Canada’s colonialist past, and as an authoritative voice on Indigenous issues generally. One of his seminal works “Shame and Prejudice” was featured on The Art Junkie in the past.

Have you met Miss Chief Eagle Testickle?

But there is so much more since then to explore in Monkman’s exquisite work, including the rising profile of his wondrous, gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle (above).

Then there are are the two monumental paintings — a diptych titled  mistikôsiwak: The Wooden Boat People — that Monkman was commissioned to create for the Great Hall of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (Top of post: one of the paintings: Welcoming the Newcomers / below: Resurgence of the People)

Both are covered in these fascinating and revealing videos from The Met. Watch either one, or both, to get more of a feel for Monkman’s incredible talent.

VIDEO 1: Inspiration from The Met’s Collections

VIDEO 2: CBC feature on Monkman and the paintings

More on Kent Monkman at his website here.

Image at the top of this post: Kent Monkman (Cree, b. 1965). Welcoming the Newcomers, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 132 x 264 in. (335.28 x 670.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Donald R. Sobey Foundation CAF Canada Project Gift, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist

Kent Monkman’s (b: 1965) powerful, large-scale travelling project for Canada’s Sesquicentennial takes the viewer on a journey through 300 years of history, narrating a story of Canada through the lens of First Nations.  Monkman is of Cree ancestry, is one of Canada’s best-known artists, and has an increasingly credible voice to tackle the themes of colonialism represented in his paintings.

The exhibition, Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, was commissioned by the Art Museum of the University of Toronto where it debuted, and then travelled the country.  

“I can’t think about the Indigenous experience without being critical of colonial policies that were genocidal,” Monkman told Canadian Art in a feature on the artist and the show.  “There is no lighter version of that—it’s pretty clear that I have to speak directly to these issues.” Hear more from Monkman on this series of work in the video below.

As both the artist and curator of the project, “he uses his signature penchant for the absurd to delve into the brutality of 300 years of Canadian history, tying it to the current-day realities for those who live on reservations or the north end of Winnipeg,” the U of T art museum says in a feature on the exhibition.

A feature on the exhibition, here.

Kent Monkman’s website, here.

His biography, here.

At the National Gallery of Canada, here.

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TRAVELLING EXHIBITION DATES

Glenbow Museum June 17 – Sept 10, 2017

Agnes Etherington Art Centre Jan 6 – Apr 8, 2018

Confederation Centre Art Gallery June 24 – Sept 15, 2018

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Oct 13 – Dec 16, 2018

McCord Museum Feb 8 – May 5, 2019

Tom Thomson Art Gallery Summer 2019

Winnipeg Art Gallery Oct 2019 – Jan, 2020

Museum of Anthropology May – Oct, 2020

This is No. 26 in the series 150 Artists.