Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas | |
---|---|
Born | 1954 (age 69–70) |
Nationality | Haida |
Known for | Painting, sculpture, carving |
Notable work | Hachidori Coppers from the Hood Pedal to the Meddle |
Movement | Indigenous art, Haida manga |
Website | http://mny.ca |
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist, author, and public speaker. His work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries and private collections across globe. Institutional collections include the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Humboldt Forum.
Yahgulanaas has a long history of environmental activism and political involvement. For many years he was an elected Chief Councillor of the Old Massett Village Council and a member of the Council of the Haida Nation.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas was born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia in 1954 and grew up alongside Delkatla, near the fishing village of Masset on Haida Gwaii, off the north coast of British Columbia. [1] He is a descendant of the influential Haida artists, Isabella Edenshaw and Charles Edenshaw. [1] [2]
As a child, Yahgulanaas was an avid comic book reader and cartoonist. A prolific young artist, he soon covered the walls and ceilings of his bedroom with drawings. [1]
At age 22, he began to direct his artistic endeavors outward, to effect change in the community and in relation to broader movements of environmental activism. [1]
In 1978, Yahgulanaas began an apprenticeship with renowned Haida artist Robert Davidson. Yahgulanaas credits Davidson, as well as Haida master carver James Hart, in providing him with formal training in the classical forms of Haida art. [1]
While Yahgulanaas trained under master carvers, his brief exposure to Chinese brush techniques with Cai Ben Kwan encouraged a departure from the typical expressions of the Haida art form and the development of a new genre of narrative art called "Haida manga." [3]
Haida Manga blends Pacific Northwest Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. Haida Manga is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement. It offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection, and action. [4]
Yahgulanaas's works in metal include commissions from the British Museum (2010), The City of Vancouver (2011) and the 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee. In 2015, his sculpture Sei, depicting a sei whale, was unveiled at the Vancouver International Airport. [5] In January 2016, his sculpture Yelthadaas from the Coppers From the Hood series joined the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. [6] This work was put on display in 2017. The piece hangs in Gallery 399, between the Modern and Contemporary Art wing and the Rockefeller Wing, where contemporary art borders Indigenous art. [7]
Hachidori has sold over 100,000 copies in Japan, with a single-day record sale of 20,000 copies. Flight of the Hummingbird, first published in North America and now available in five languages, is also a bestseller and includes essays contributed by the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai. Declaration of Interdependence, written by Dr. David Suzuki, was illustrated by Yahgulanaas. [9] [10]
William Ronald Reid Jr. was a Haida artist whose works include jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and paintings. Producing over one thousand original works during his fifty-year career, Reid is regarded as one of the most significant Northwest Coast artists of the late twentieth century.
The Haida are an Indigenous group who have traditionally occupied Haida Gwaii, an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.
Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between 55–125 km (34–78 mi) off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecate Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound lies to the south, with Vancouver Island beyond. To the north, the disputed Dixon Entrance separates Haida Gwaii from the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Haida manga is a contemporary style of Haida comics and print cartoons that explores the elements of both traditional North Pacific indigenous arts and narrative, while also adapting contemporary techniques of artistic design from the western portion of the North Pacific, namely the Japanese manga from which its name derives. Haida manga have so far been published in several countries including Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Macao, France, and Canada.
The Spirit of Haida Gwaii is a sculpture by British Columbia Haida artist Bill Reid (1920–1998). There are two versions of it: the black canoe and the jade canoe. The black canoe features on Canadian $20 bills of the Canadian Journey series issued between 2004 and 2012.
Gidansda Giindajin Haawasti Guujaaw, also known as Gary Edenshaw, is a singer, wood carver, traditional medicine practitioner, political activist and leader. He of Gakyaals Kiiqawaay, a Haida family of the Raven moiety. He has currently inherited the name Gidansda from his potlatch in 2017, the title of Gakyaals Kiiqawaay hereditary leader. The family's alternate name, "Skedans", is an anglicized mispronunciation of the family's hereditary leader's title.
Masset is a village in the Haida Gwaii archipelago in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Masset Sound on the northern coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately 50 km (31 mi) west of mainland British Columbia. It is the primary western terminus of Trans-Canada Highway 16 and is served by Masset Airport, with flights to Vancouver and Prince Rupert. During the maritime fur trade of the early 19th century, Masset was a key trading site. It was incorporated as a village municipality on May 11, 1961.
Robert Charles Davidson LL. D. D.F.A., is a Canadian artist of Haida heritage. Davidson's Haida name is G̲uud San Glans, which means "Eagle of the Dawn". He is a leading figure in the renaissance of Haida art and culture. He lives in White Rock, British Columbia.
Florence Edenshaw Davidson (1896–1993) was a Canadian First Nations artist from Haida Gwaii. She created basketry and button-blankets and was a respected elder in her village of Masset, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.
Charles Edenshaw was a Haida artist from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. He is known for his woodcarving, argillite carving, jewellery, and painting. His style was known for its originality and innovative narrative forms, created while adhering to the principles of formline art characteristic of Haida art. In 1902, the ethnographer and collector Charles F. Newcombe called Edenshaw “the best carver in wood and stone now living.”
Jay Simeon is a Canadian artist of Haida heritage on his father's side. He was born into the Kaawaas branch of the Sdast’a.aas Eagle clan. His crests are Eagle, Supernatural Killer Whale, Frog, Beaver, and Raven. His mother is of Blackfoot ancestry and he was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta.
Ḵung is a Haida village, located on the west side of Alexandra Narrows on Graham Island, the largest and northernmost island of Haida Gwaii alongside British Columbia, Canada. Alexandra Narrows, known on some old maps as Mazzaredo Sound, connects Naden Harbour and Virago Sound. An earlier village located at the current village site was named ‘Nightasis’ by the fur trader John Work, and records that in 1840 there were 15 houses with 280 residents.
Primrose Adams was a Canadian First Nations artist and member of the Raven Clan from the Haida nation. She wove hats and baskets in the Haida method and is most notable for her spruce root basketry, which involves working in the traditional manner of collecting and dyeing her own spruce root. Adams died in January 2020.
James Hart is a Canadian and Haida artist and a chief of the Haida Nation.
Isabella Edenshaw was a First Nations basket weaver who lived in Haida Gwaii. She was given this name by an Anglican priest when she was married. She is also known by the Haida names K'woiyeng, Yahgujanaas and S'itkwuns. Some sources list her birth year as 1858.
Kiusta located on Haida Gwaii is the oldest Northern Haida village: and the site of first recorded contact between the Haida and Europeans in 1774. Haida lived in this village for thousands of years, due to the sheltered nature of its location it was used for boats offloading, especially in rough waters. Kiusta is one of the oldest archeological sites of human use in British Columbia, and continues to be a site for cultural revitalisation.
Edge of the Knife is a 2018 Canadian drama film co-directed by Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown. It is the first feature film spoken only in the Haida language. Set in 19th-century Haida Gwaii, it tells the classic Haida story of a traumatized and stranded man transformed into Gaagiixiid, the wildman.
Gwaai Edenshaw is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada. Along with Helen Haig-Brown, he co-directed Edge of the Knife, the first Haida language feature film.
Joice M. Hall is a Canadian artist from Alberta, now based in British Columbia. She is known primarily as a landscape painter of large panoramas.
Lisa Hageman Yahgulanaas is a Haida weaver. She is from Haida Gwaii and is based in Masset. She has won multiple awards in British Columbia.
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