Norval Morrisseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Indigenous Canadian artist from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. He is widely regarded as the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. Known as the "Picasso of the North," Morrisseau created works depicting the legends of his people, the cultural and political tensions between native Canadian and European traditions, his existential struggles, and his deep spirituality and mysticism. His style is characterized by thick black outlines and bright colors. He founded the Woodlands School of Canadian art and was a prominent member of the “Indian Group of Seven."
Art forgery is the creation and sale of works of art which are falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged artwork much simpler.
The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is Northern Ontario's largest art gallery specializing in the work of contemporary Indigenous artists. It is located on the campus of Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is the largest public gallery between Sault Ste. Marie and Winnipeg, featuring over 4,000 sq/ft of exhibition space.
Kevin Neil Hearn is a Canadian musician who is a member of Barenaked Ladies, and his own group, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. He primarily plays keyboards and guitars. He is also a member of Rheostatics.
Christi Marlene Belcourt is a Métis visual artist and author living and working in Canada. She is best known for her acrylic paintings which depict floral patterns inspired by Métis and First Nations historical beadwork art. Belcourt's work often focuses on questions around identity, culture, place and divisions within communities.
The Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (PNIAI) was a group of First Nations artists from Canada, with one from the United States. Founded in November 1973, they were Indigenous painters who exhibited in the mainstream art world.
Triple K Co-operative Incorporated is a Canadian Native-run silk-screen company in Red Lake, Ontario that produced high quality limited editions of several artist within the Woodland School of Art from 1973 till the early 1980s. Now it is an online and bricks-and-mortar gallery in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Robert Houle is a Saulteaux First Nations Canadian artist, curator, critic, and educator. Houle has had an active curatorial and artistic practice since the mid-1970s. He played an important role in bridging the gap between contemporary First Nations artists and the broader Canadian art scene through his writing and involvement in early important high-profile exhibitions such as Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada. As an artist, Houle has shown both nationally and internationally. He is predominantly a painter working in the tradition of Abstraction, yet he has also embraced a pop sensibility by incorporating everyday images and text into his works. His work addresses lingering aspects of colonialism and their effects on First Nation peoples. Houle often appropriates historical photographs and texts, repurposing and combining them with Anishnaabe language and traditionally used materials such as porcupine quills within his works.
Alex Simeon Janvier, LL.D is a First Nation artist in Canada. As a member of the commonly referred to "Indian Group of Seven", Janvier is a pioneer of contemporary Canadian Aboriginal art in Canada.
Carl Ray was a First Nations artist who was active on the Canadian art scene from 1969 until his death in 1978. Considered primarily a Woodlands Style artist. He was a founding member of the Indian Group of Seven. He began painting when he was 30 years old.
Daphne Odjig, D.Litt. LL. D., was a Canadian First Nations artist of Odawa-Potawatomi-English heritage. Her paintings are often characterized as Woodlands Style or as the pictographic style.
Roy Thomas (1949–2004) was one of the most influential 20th-century Anishinaabe painters in Canada, and was famous for paintings of colourful totemic animals. Like Norval Morrisseau, he became well known when Indigenous art gained mainstream popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Susan Andrina Ross CM, was a painter, printmaker, and illustrator from Port Arthur, Ontario who is best known for her portraits of Native and Inuit peoples as well as Arctic landscapes. Her work is valuable both for its artistry and for its historical significance since she captured many images of a passing way of life. In 2002 she was awarded the Order of Canada in the Visual Arts.
M. Knoedler & Co. was an art dealership in New York City founded in 1846. When it closed in 2011, amid lawsuits for fraud, it was one of the oldest commercial art galleries in the US, having been in operation for 165 years.
Jack Henry Pollock was an author, painter, art educator and art dealer who was a fixture on the Toronto art scene for over 3 decades. Pollock was the flamboyant founder and owner of The Pollock Gallery in Toronto. He was widely reputed to have a skilled eye for identifying talent in young artists and was instrumental in the careers of many notable artists that he represented including David Hockney, Susan Ross, Ken Danby, Norval Morrisseau, Roy Thomas, Catherine Senitt, Arnold Shives, Charles Pachter, Robert Bateman, Robert Kost, and Willem de Kooning.
Jamie Kastner is a Canadian writer, director and documentary filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. His company, Cave 7 Productions, produces both theatrical and television productions. Kastner is best known for his feature documentaries, including There Are No Fakes, which premiered at Hot Docs in 2019, The Skyjacker's Tale (2016) and The Secret Disco Revolution, both of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Blake Debassige was a Native Canadian artist of the M'Chigeeng First Nation, born at West Bay on Manitoulin Island in Ontario on June 22, 1956, passed June 13, 2022. A leading member of the "second generation" of Ojibwa artists influenced by Norval Morrisseau, Debassige has broadened the stylistic and thematic range of this group. Debassige's paintings and graphics frequently investigate traditional Anishabek teachings about the nature of cosmic order, the cycles of the seasons, the interdependence of animal, plant and human life and the common principles at work in the world's great spiritual systems. He frequently relates these themes to highly contemporary problems such as the destruction of the environment, the alienation of native youth and family dysfunction.
Alison Norlen is a visual artist who is known for large-scale drawing and sculpture installation. Her work is in private collections across the United States and Canada and in the public collections of the National Gallery of Canada, The Mackenzie Art Gallery, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery, the Manitoba Art Council, The Canada Council Art Bank, and the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
Carmen L. Robertson is a writer and scholar of art history and indigenous peoples. She was born in Balcarres, Saskatchewan, of Lakota and Scottish ancestry. She is Canada Research Chair in North American Art and Material Culture in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University. Before joining Carleton, Robertson was an associate professor in the Faculty of Media, Art & Performance at the University of Regina (2006-2012). She also served as the Indian Fine Arts department head at the First Nations University of Canada where she taught from 2000-2006. A number of Robertson's writings focus on the Aboriginal Canadian artist Norval Morrisseau. She is past president of the Native Heritage Foundation of Canada.
Ahmoo Angeconeb was a Canadian Ojibwe artist. His style was influenced by the Woodlands School, but incorporated elements from different cultures and artistic traditions. He travelled widely and found success as an artist in Europe as well as Canada.
