|Devangana Sharma| The Atlantic Muse| 2024-07-07|
Hello Fellow Readers!
The July sun is out, so what better time to add to your art collection with some of the best Indigenous art books and illustrated books? In this article, you might not only find some of your favourite art, but you will also discover how Indigenous art uncovers history, preserve cultures, and inspire others.
This list of books expands the boundaries of emotional depth, quality, and balance. Get ready to experience a medley of colours, mediums of tools, and amalgams of inspiration.
I recommend you find a refreshing drink and a comfy spot to enjoy these fresh and exciting titles. Let’s begin!
ISBN: 9781771086622
Author: Loretta Gould
Artist: Loretta Gould
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Price: $14.95 CAD
"One is Ne’wt, for one bear. Two is Ta’pu, for two women making offerings. Counting from one to ten in English and Mi’kmaw, baby is introduced to both the ancestral language of Mi’kmaki and to Mi’kmaw culture and legend, through beautifully rendered illustrations of important animals, like turtle, bear, and beaver, to concepts integral to the Mi’kmaw world view, like the Four (Ne’w) Directions, and the Seven (L’luiknek) Mi’kmaw teachings. Features bright and detailed illustrations from celebrated Waycobah-based Mi’kmaw illustrator, Loretta Gould."
2. ISBN: 9781771086417
Author: Alan Syliboy
Artist : Alan Syliboy
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Price: $14.95 CAD
"Alan Syliboy, author of The Thundermaker, showcases his vibrant artwork in this new baby board book. Colourful images depicting Canadian animals like moose, whales, and caribou, and more makes this vibrant book a perfect introduction to the Mi’kmaw language. With English and Mi’kmaw translations for the animal names on every page, babies will enjoy the vivid paintings while they learn new words and discover a bit of Mi’kmaw culture in a fun way."
3. ISBN: 9781771085076
Author: Prune Harris, Lilian Marshall, Murdena Marshall,
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Price: $12.95 CAD
"The story of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters is a very old Mi’kmaw legend. It happens in the North Sky as the stars that show the story of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters move around Tatapn, the North Star.
In pictures in this book you can see how these stars, shown as they appear two hours before dawn, move through the night sky. They are in a different position each of the seasons because they are the time-keepers, the calendar. All through the year, as the stars and plants travel through the sky, the Mi’kmaq watch the story of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters as it unfolds before their eyes."
4. ISBN: 9781897407356
Price: $50.00 CAD
"Shelley Niro is widely known for her ability to explore Traditional Stories, transgress boundaries, and embody the ethos of her matriarchal culture. A member of the Kanyen’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, she uses a wide variety of media, including photography, installation, film, and painting to bring greater visibility to Indigenous women and girls.
Pushing the limits of photography, Niro incorporates imagery from Traditional Stories to focus on contemporary subjects with wit, irony, and parody. Throughout her work — in her portraiture, sculptures, landscape paintings, photography, and film and video work — Niro challenges common preconceptions about gender, culture, and Indigenous Peoples.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch brings together 215 reproductions from Niro’s expansive oeuvre, including work published here for the first time. Also included in this career retrospective are three major essays about Niro’s work by Melissa Bennett, Greg Hill, and David W. Penney, as well as texts from seven guest artists, scholars, and curators. Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch accompanies an international touring exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian with the collaboration of the National Gallery of Canada."
5. ISBN: 9781773100913
Author: Kenojuak Ashevak
Price: $45.00 CAD
"Kenojuak Ashevak shot to fame in 1970 when Canada Post printed The Enchanted Owl, a print of a black-and-red plumed nocturnal bird, on a postage stamp. She later became known as the magic-marker-wielding "grandmother of Inuit art," famous for her fluid graphic storytelling and her stunning depictions of wildlife. She was a defining figure in Inuit art and one of the first Indigenous artists to be embraced as a contemporary Canadian artist.
Ashevak's legacy inspired her nephew, Timootee (Tim) Pitsiulak, to take up drawing at the Kinngait Studios. In his relatively short career, he became a popular figure, known for drawing animal figures with a hunter's precision and capturing the technological presence of the South in Nunavut.
Tunirrusiangit, "their gifts" or "what they gave" in Inuktitut, celebrates the achievements of two remarkable artists who challenged the parameters of tradition while consistently articulating a compelling vision of the Inuit world view. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, opening on 16 June and continuing until late August, Tunirrusiangit features more than 60 reproductions of paintings, drawings, and documentary photographs. Completing the book are essays by contemporary artists and curators Jocelyn Piirainen, Anna Hudson, Georgiana Uhlyarik, Koomuatuk Curley, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, and Taqralik Partridge that address both the past and future of Inuit identity."
6. ISBN: 9781894243971
Author: Wanda Nanibush Publisher: Art Gallery of Ontario- (Goose Lane Editions)
Price: $24.95 CAD
"Critically acclaimed Rita Letendre is one of the most eminent living abstract artists. Her painting career began in Montreal in the 1950s, when she associated with Quebec's Automatistes and Plasticiens. Often the sole female artist in their group shows, she broke away from their approach to painting. Seeking to express the full energy of life and harness in her powerful gestures an intense spiritual force, Letendre worked with oils, pastels, and acrylics, using her hands, palette knife, brushes and uniquely the airbrush.
Born of Abenaki and Quebecois parents, Letendre lived in Quebec until 1969, when she moved to Toronto. She has received the Order of Canada, completed commissions across Canada and the United States, and participated in national and international exhibitions. Rita Letendre: Fire & Light features thirty large-scale paintings and an essay by Wanda Nanibush, curator of Canadian and Indigenous Art at the AGO."
7. ISBN: 9781773102689
Author: Sarah Milroy Publisher: Goose Lane Editions with McMichael Canadian Art Collection
Price: $55.00 CAD
"Over three generations, the Sobey family of Nova Scotia has demonstrated their discerning and enthusiastic commitment to Canadian art. Accompanying a major exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the prestigious Sobey Art Award, Generations tells the story of a visionary family and their engagement with Canadian and Indigenous art.
This sweeping survey encompasses works by the beloved leaders of Canadian 20th-century art — the Group of Seven, Tom Thomson, David Milne, and Emily Carr — as well as offering a rich display of works by Cornelius Krieghoff, the Quebec Impressionists, Automatiste painters Jean Paul Riopelle and Paul-Émile Borduas, and Ukrainian Canadian artist William Kurelek, before moving onward to showcase leading contemporary artists. Among them are international artist Peter Doig, whose works draw on the legacies of Canadian art, and Indigenous artists Brenda Draney, Ursula Johnson, Kent Monkman, and Brian Jungen.
Featuring more than 200 full-colour images, Generations includes an introduction by McMichael Chief Curator Sarah Milroy, essays by McMichael Executive Director Ian A.C. Dejardin, art historians Jocelyn Anderson, John Geoghegan, and Michèle Grandbois, and an interview with contemporary artist Kent Monkman."
8. ISBN: 9781773102023
Price: $45.00 CAD
"Winner, Toronto Book Awards
"Moving the Museum documents the reopening of the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art with a renewed focus on the AGO’s Indigenous art collection. The volume reflects the nation-to-nation treaty relationship that is the foundation of Canada, asking questions, discovering truths, and leading conversations that address the weight of history and colonialism.
Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 reproductions, Moving the Museum: Indigenous + Canadian Art at the AGO features the work of First Nations artists — including Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, and Kent Monkman — along with work by Inuit artists like Shuvinai Ashoona and Annie Pootoogook. Canadian artists include Lawren Harris, Kazuo Nakamura, Joyce Wieland, and many others. Drawing from stories about our origins and identities, the featured artists and essayists invite readers to engage with issues of land, water, transformation, and sovereignty and to contemplate the historic and future representation of Indigenous and Canadian art in museums."
9. ISBN: 9781773104072
Publisher: (Goose Lane Editions)
Price: $35.00 CAD
"Tom Wilson Tehoháhake is a modern Mohawk artist, Juno Award winner, best-selling author, and newly appointed member of the Order of Canada. In his 2017 memoir, Beautiful Scars, Wilson revealed the astonishing story of how he discovered he is Mohawk. In Mohawk Warriors, Hunters & Chiefs, Wilson further explores his identity through a stunning collection of paintings that explore what it means to be removed and reconnected with your cultural heritage.
Featuring over 35 full-colour images of Wilson’s work, from guitars decorated with iconography drawn from beadwork to multimedia reflections on his upbringing in Hamilton, Mohawk Warriors, Hunters & Chiefs explores how Wilson began painting when all he knew of his identity were hints and dreams, and how his art has developed and grown over the past few years. An interview on his artistic process with Ryan McMahon and essays by Wilson and curator David Liss round out Wilson’s stunning visual exploration of his Mohawk identity."
10. ISBN: 9780981328072
Author: Tom Smart
Price: $19.95 CAD
"A fresh look at what is going on in the world of Atlantic Canadian art.
Materiality and Perception in Contemporary Atlantic Art showcases over forty contemporary works of art from Atlantic Canada, from established artists such as Freeman Patterson, Gerald Beaulieu, Dawn MacNutt, and Alan Syliboy to emerging artists such as Emma Hassencahl-Perley, Ursula Johnson, and Marie Fox. This is art engaged with contemporary conversations: the frailty of bodies and land, the interactions between people and environment, Indigenous – Settler relations, and the inner and outer markings of identity.
Focusing intently on the materiality of the objects themselves — from jewellery to photographs, from carved paddles to video installations — the works selected for this publication and the associated exhibition ask viewers to look again, challenging their initial perceptions about what they see and what they perceive about the context in which the work is made.
Tom Smart’s accompanying essay introduces each work and its context and discusses the role of the viewer in interpreting art objects and creating meaning, whether viewing works as discrete individual objects or as part of the larger, holistic whole.
Materiality and Perception in Contemporary Atlantic Art accompanies the 2019 Marion McCain Exhibition of Atlantic Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery."
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