Lita Fontaine

Last updated

Lita Fontaine (born 1958) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Often, her work explores the role of women in past and present Indigenous societies. She describes herself as tri-cultural: Dakota, Anishinaabe and Metis.

Contents

Early life and education

Fontaine was born in Portage la Prairie, a member of Long Plain First Nation, Fontaine spent her childhood in the north end of Winnipeg. [1] She received her Diploma from the University of Manitoba School of Art in 2000 and her MFA from what is now the First Nations University of Canada in Regina in 2005. [2]

She was a sessional instructor for the University of Manitoba’s School of Art, [3] teaching Foundation Drawing.

Her sister, Leah Fontaine, [4] [5] is also an interdisciplinary artist and arts Educator.

Artwork

For many years, Fontaine's studio practice has included community art projects and other involvement, such as mask-making. [6] In 2013, Sarah Swan wrote in the Winnipeg Free Press, "Lita Fontaine makes beautiful multimedia pieces using traditional designs from her Anishnaabe and Dakota heritage". [7]

Fontaine has had solo exhibitions at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2001, [8] and Urban Shaman Gallery [9] in 2013 [10] [11] and 2006. [12] In 2015, her work was in the Winnipeg At Gallery's We Are On Treaty Land exhibition. [13] [14] [15] [16]

Since 2002, Fontaine has been artist-in-residence [17] for the Seven Oaks School Division. [18] She incorporates art experiences into the curriculum and the lives of students. [19] In 2015, Melanie Wright wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press, "Some recent additions to their programming include … the creation of a giant mural at their headquarters titled 'We Are All Treaty People' under the guidance of Lita Fontaine (acclaimed artist-in-residence with the Seven Oaks School Division)…" [20]

Fontaine was a mentor in the Foundation Advisory Program [21] of Mentoring Artists for Women's Art in 2009. [22]

In 2008, Fontaine gave Lucy Lippard a guided tour of the Whiteshell petroforms, when Lippard was in Winnipeg to give her Wendy Wersch Memorial Lecture Series.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnipeg Art Gallery</span> Public art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba

The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collection of Inuit art. In addition to exhibits for its collection, the museum has organized and hosted a number of travelling arts exhibitions. Its building complex consists of a main building that includes 11,000 square metres (120,000 sq ft) of indoor space and the adjacent 3,700-square-metre (40,000 sq ft) Qaumajuq building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanda Koop</span> Canadian artist

Wanda Koop is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Eyre</span> Canadian artist (1935–2022)

Ivan Kenneth Eyre was a Canadian artist best known for his prairie landscapes and compositionally abstract, figurative paintings. In addition, Eyre was a Professor Emeritus of painting and drawing at the University of Manitoba where he taught for 33 years, from 1959 until his retirement in 1992. He has been described as a "visual philosopher" and "a true outsider and visionary".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ruben Piqtoukun</span> Canadian artist (born 1950)

David Ruben Piqtoukun ᑎᕕᑎ ᐱᑐᑯ ᕈᐱᐃᓐ is an Inuvialuk (Inuit) artist from Paulatuk, Northwest Territories.

Jackson Beardy was an Indigenous Oji-Cree Anishinaabe artist born in Canada. His works are characterized by scenes from Ojibwe and Cree oral history and many focus on the relationship between humans and nature. He belonged to the Woodland School of Art and was a prominent member of the Indian Group of Seven. His work has contributed to the recognition of Indigenous contemporary art within Canada.

Joi T. Arcand is a nehiyaw photo-based artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, who currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario. In addition to art, Arcand focuses on publishing, art books, zines, collage and accessibility to art.

Mentoring Artists for Women's Art (MAWA) is a feminist visual arts education center based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Created in 1984, this non-profit organization encourages and supports the intellectual and creative development of women in the visual arts by providing an ongoing forum for education and critical dialogue.

Aganetha Dyck is a Canadian sculptor residing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dyck is best known for her work with live honeybees, that build honeycomb on objects that she introduces to honeybee hives. In 2007 Dyck was awarded both Manitoba's Arts Award of Distinction and Canada's Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Sherry Farrell Racette is a Métis-Canadian feminist scholar, author, curator, and artist. She is best known for her contributions to Indigenous and Canadian art histories. She is currently an associate professor of Visual Arts at the University of Regina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle LaVallee</span> Canadian curator, artist, and educator

Michelle LaVallee is a Canadian curator, artist, and educator. She is Ojibway and a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation in Cape Croker, Ontario. She has BFA (2000) and BEd (2004) degrees from York University in Toronto.

Bev Pike is a Winnipeg-based visual artist who paints large cinematic baroque landforms. Grottesque, her current work on climate catastrophe, is a series of interconnected underground sanctuaries based on seventeenth century English shell grottos.

Diane Whitehouse is a Canadian painter, professor and art activist.

Diana Thorneycroft is a Canadian artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, whose work has exhibited nationally and internationally. She works primarily in photography, drawing, and sculpture/installation and makes photographs of staged dioramas to explore sexuality and national identity, and even, national icons such as the Group of Seven. Her work blurs the lines between gendered bodies by employing phalluses. She is also an educator: she worked as a sessional instructor at the University of Manitoba's School of Art for 25 years.

Tanya Lukin Linklater is an artist-choreographer of Alutiiq descent. Her work consists of performance collaborations, videos, photographs, and installations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaimie Isaac</span> Canadian artist

Jaimie Isaac is a Winnipeg-based Anishinaabe artist and curator.

Elisapee Ishulutaq was a self-taught Inuk artist, specialising in drawing and printmaking. Ishulutaq participated in the rise of print and tapestry making in Pangnirtung and was a co-founder of the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts, which is both an economic and cultural mainstay in Pangnirtung. Ishulutaq was also a community elder in the town of Pangnirtung. Ishulutaq's work has been shown in numerous institutions, including the Marion Scott Gallery in Vancouver, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.

Katherine Boyer is a Métis artist, whose multidisciplinary practice focuses primarily on the mediums of sculpture, printmaking and beadwork. She was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, but currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba—a location that has had a direct influence on her current artistic practice.

Caroline Dukes was a painter and installation artist, born in Hungary but moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1967. Today, she is considered a Manitoba artist.

Darlene Coward Wight is a Canadian art historian who has been Curator of Inuit art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) since 1986.

Don Proch DCL is a multimedia artist known for complex installations, masks, and silkscreen prints. His work is centered in his imaginings of the Canadian Praries combined with references to the Asessippi Valley, his life there and with global concerns of climate change.

References

  1. ↑ "Artists". www2.uregina.ca. U Regina. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  2. ↑ "FNUniversity of Canada". FNUniv.ca. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  3. ↑ "University of Manitoba - School of Art". umanitoba.ca. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ "UW-Show + Tell: Notions of Home and Place By Alumni Artists". www.uwinnipeg.ca. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Leah Fontaine - AMR Planning & Consulting". AMRPlanning.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Family Fun". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Aboriginal artists struggle between two expectations". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  8. ↑ Lizard, Visual. "WAG Publications - Winnipeg Art Gallery". WAG.ca. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Home | Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery". www.urbanshaman.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  10. ↑ "New First Nations art celebrates the sacred dress". CBC.ca. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  11. ↑ "My Mother's and Grandmother's Dresses, Lita Fontaine and Relations, Jason Baerg". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  12. ↑ "ConunDrum Online: Issue # 3 - Lita Fonatiane - Sacred Feminine". ConunDrumOnline.org. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Putting the fragments together". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  14. ↑ "We Are On Treaty Land exhibition acknowledges traditional territory". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  15. ↑ "WAG exhibition highlights indigenous artists and treaty land history". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Sideshows play to WAG strengths". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Lita Fontaine". www.7oaks.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Seven Oaks School Division". www.7oaks.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Lita Fontaine: Bringing Indigenous perspective alive in Seven Oaks". www.communitynewscommons.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Wayfinders program keeps expanding". www.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Foundation Mentorship Program". mawa.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  22. ↑ All-Mentors-Mentees-Ever.pdf Archived 2014-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.