Last year, 13 Indigenous artists began the Indigenous Artist Mentorship Project (I AM Project) at the Whyte Museum in Banff, guided by mentors AJA Louden and Joseph Sanchez.
The artists are now creating new works that will be exhibited in the museum’s main gallery in November.
“In Alberta, there are so many amazing Indigenous artists,” said Emma De Sousa, curatorial assistant and I AM Project manager. “They’re a perfect group—their creativity is completely unique.”
The project continues the museum’s ongoing relationship with Indigenous artists from the Bow Valley, building on the Cave and Basin Mural Project from previous summers. This time, artists are working in the gallery space on pieces drawn from their personal practices.
Kristy North Peigan creates illuminated works and cosplay that blend pop culture with her Indigenous identity. Mentors encouraged her to incorporate futurism, resulting in a triptych using classic religious iconography to tell the stories of three iconic Blackfoot manly-hearted women. She is also developing a three-part series titled High Boss Woman, featuring a Blackfoot Wonder Woman and a piece inspired by her life as a muralist, public artist, and cosplayer.
Cree-Métis artist Tiffany Wollman is working on a massive nine-metre painting inspired by a ditch full of flowers she saw while driving. The piece honours Métis “road allowance people” in Manitoba (1900–1960), who lived on narrow strips of Crown land after being displaced.
Wollman plans to paint it at 30 feet wide to immerse viewers in the landscape, estimating nearly 400 hours of work.
In total, more than 20 new pieces will fill the gallery.
The I AM Project exhibition opens to the public in November.
Learn more: https://www.whyte.org/post/inside-indigenous-artist-mentorship-project
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