Máret Ánne Sara and Cecilia Vicuña, Gákte-Quipo, 2017–21. Courtesy of the artist and Musée d'ethnographie de Genève. Photo by Johnathan Watts.
Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity
Toronto, Ontario
Presented by
The Power Plant
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery spotlights contemporary Indigenous artists from the circumpolar Arctic and the Amazon.
Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity explores the ways in which Indigenous contemporary artists and collaborators take on issues of climate change, globalized Indigeneity, and contact zones in and about the Arctic and the Amazon during a time of crisis.
A constellation of new and past works by artists Pia Arke (Greenland/Denmark), Sonya Kelliher-Combs (United States), Tanya Lukin Linklater (United States/Canada), Couzyn van Heuvelen (Canada), Máret Ánne Sara (Norway), Uýra (Indigenous in diaspora), Olinda Reshijabe Silvano (Peru), Morzaniel Iramari (Brazil), Leandro Lima & Gisela Motta (Brazil), Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (Venezuela), and Outi Pieski (Finland) will be featured in Arctic/Amazon. Curated by Governor General’s Award–winning Indigenous curator and educator Dr. Gerald McMaster—alongside co-curator Dr. Nina Vincent and institutional curator Noor Alé— Arctic/Amazon seeks to shed light on the geopolitical and environmental sustainability issues currently informing artistic practices in these two vastly different, yet interconnected, regions.
Gaëtane Verna, Director & Artistic Director, says: “At a time when Canada is striving toward reconciliation, this exhibition platforms contemporary Indigenous culture across borders and continents. We are grateful for the dedication and expertise Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent bring to this project and are confident that the accompanying publication will contribute invaluable insights to the study of Indigenous contemporary art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a robust program of engaging events, talks, children’s workshops, and artist-led tours. See Nordic participants below.
Outi Pieski is a Sámi visual artist from Finland. Pieski’s paintings, collages, and installations are inspired by traditional Sámi handicrafts and depict the light and landscapes of northern Sápmi. Her artwork revolves around themes of northern nature and incorporates visual expressions often associated with embroidery. She was part of a collective selected to represent Finland for the 2019 Venice Biennale. She was recently selected to exhibit in the 13th Gwangju Biennale, and the 23rd Biennale of Sydney.
Máret Ánne Sara is a Sámi artist, author, and journalist, whose visual art practice calls attention to the violent mandatory reindeer-culling policies of the Norwegian government. In 2017, she exhibited her Pile O Sápmi project at Documenta 14 in Kassel, where the main piece of 400 bullet-ridden reindeer heads was acquired by the National Gallery of Norway in 2018. Sara is one of three Sámi artists representing Sápmi in the Nordic pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Pia Arke (1958-2007) used her dual ethnicity in Greenland and Denmark as a point of departure for powerful and poetic works that delve into Danish colonial history and her personal journeys and kinships. Her work plays consciously, and with great relevance, on relations within the Danish Commonwealth. She was the subject of a posthumous retrospective at Copenhagen’s Louisiana Museum in 2021.
