Urban Shaman: Frontrunners

Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, 203-290 McDermot Avenue, is launching

Frontrunners

Saturday, May 7, 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm

Artists: Alex Janvier, Daphne Odjig, Joseph Sanchez, Norval Morrisseau, Jackson Beardy, Carl Ray, Eddy Cobiness, Louis Ogemah, Jackie Traverse, Lita Fontaine, Darryl Nepinak.

Curated by Cathy Mattes, the exhibit will run to July 17.

Committed to expressing their cultural selves and making space for contemporary Aboriginal art, seven Aboriginal painters congregated in Winnipeg in the early 1970s at the first Aboriginal owned art gallery, run by Daphne Odjig, to form the Professional Native Indian Artists’ Inc. (P.N.I.A.), aka the Indian Group of 7. 

The seven artists who belonged to the collective were Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy, Norval Morrisseau (Copper Thunderbird), Carl Ray, Joseph Sanchez, Eddy Cobiness, and Alex Janvier.

Characterized by bright colours, abstracted landscapes and stylized images of animals, humans, spirits, and the earth, their diverse contemporary work visually interprets oral stories and legends, addresses post-contact history from an Aboriginal perspective, contemplates spirituality, and maps the land in abstract, painted form and drawing.

Frontrunners exposes the impact of the P.N.I.A. within Manitoba. 

In partnership with Plug-In ICA, Frontrunners acknowledges and references the complicated history, impact, and positions created from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perceptions of Aboriginal art that surfaced in the early 70s and the ground-breaking actions of the P.N.I.A. Inc.