Kainai artist part of new National Gallery of Canada exhibition

Kainai sculptor and installation artist Faye HeavyShield is among the artists whose work is featured in the exhibition Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Opening May 3, Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present includes several recent acquisitions and newly restored works of art and numbers more than 150 pieces by more than 100 artists.

This major, year-long exhibition explores the many themes and movements that have shaped Canada’s visual arts landscape since 1968. It is part of the gallery’s spring/summer programming titled: Our Masterpieces, Our Stories, which launched in April with the opening of the exhibition Photography in Canada, 1960-2000. Paintings, sculptures, photographs, video art, installation and drawings are on display in 12 galleries located on two floors, until May 6, 2018.

“Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present features outstanding works of Canadian artistic genius,” said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO, Marc Mayer. “The public will appreciate the impressive legacy of our curators over the past 50 years and their diverse collecting approaches.”

The NGC’s Contemporary Galleries have been revamped to better show the variety, quality and depth of the collection – from the feminist art movement of the 1970s to present-day Inuit art. Drawings and photographs from the gallery’s collection will be in rotation until May 2018 owing to their sensitivity to light.

Androgyny, a masterwork by renowned Canadian indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau, on loan from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, is the only work in the exhibition from a collection outside the gallery.