Opening Reception ↗
Celebrate the beginning of our 2022-2023 season on September 15, 2022, 5 – 8 PM.
Artist Talk ↗
RSVP for featured artist Rebecca Belmore’s artist talk on October 3, 2022, 6 -7 PM.
Performance↗
Rebecca Belmore will also be performing on DU’s campus on October 6, 2022 at 5 PM.
Guest curated by Daina Warren, “Transformative Power: Indigenous Feminisms” examines notions of gender and structures of power from a distinctly Indigenous perspective. Despite advocating for political, economic, and social equality among the sexes, feminist discourse often reinforces existing hierarchies to the detriment of historically marginalized communities. This group exhibition looks beyond the idealistic morals of colonialist feminist thought by featuring female-identifying artists who center Indigenous voices. Through their work, they explore and critique a variety of themes, including Native politics, economics, land-based values, language loss, the body and sexuality, historical narratives and popular culture, as well as the cosmological and relational belief systems of First Peoples, among others. Together, they offer a wide-ranging, creative visioning of Indigenous women’s strength: a reclamation of transformative power.
Featured artists: Shuvinai Ashoona, Rebecca Belmore, TJ Cuthand, Dayna Danger, Rosalie Favell, Yuki Kihara, Erica Lord, Nadia Myre, Shelley Niro, Laura Ortman, Annie Pootoogook, Cara Romero, Sarah Sense, and Anna Tsouhlarakis.
This exhibition will be on view through November 27, 2022. Make sure to check out the awesome event’s VMG is curating in conjunction to the exhibition, including an artist lecture and performance by artist Rebecca Belmore. All events, including the September 15th opening reception, are free and open to the public.
About the Curator
Daina Warren is a member of the Akamihk Montana First Nation in Maskwacis, Alberta. She received her Bachelor’s degree in 2003, graduating from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Warren also graduated from a Masters in Art History program, completing the Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia (2012). In 2000, she was awarded Canada Council’s Assistance to Aboriginal Curators for Residencies in the Visual Arts program to work with grunt gallery in Vancouver.
This opportunity led to a permanent position with the artist-run centre as an associate curator and administrator until 2009. Warren then went on to complete another Canada Council’s Aboriginal Curatorial Residency tow work with, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. During this residency she curated the group exhibition, Don’t Stop Me Now. Other exhibitions of note include the online exhibitions If These Walls Could Talk and Contains Animal Byproducts! created for the CODE Screen 2010 Vancouver Olympics project. Warren was awarded the 2015 Emily Award from Emily Carr University and was selected as one of six Indigenous women curators as part of the Canada Council for the Arts Delegation to participate in the International First Nations Curators Exchange that took place in Australia (2015), New Zealand (2016), and Canada (2017).
Her most recent accomplishments have been winning the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellency in 2018 and a Director of Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba for over ten years. She is currently the Artist-in-Residency (A-i-R) Program Manager at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
