Winnipeg's North End a backdrop for renowned artist Kent Monkman to explore colonialism, resilience

A prolific and provocative Canadianartisthopes his latest exhibitionreminds Winnipeggerstheir city is bornout of Indigenous resilience.

Kent Monkman'sexhibitionShame and Prejudice: A Story of ResilienceetchesIndigenous expressions into thebackdrop ofcontemporary Winnipeg his hometown, and the latest stop for the touring exhibition.

"These are places that Indigenous people have been living in for thousands of years," Monkman, an artist of Cree ancestry, said Friday morning at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, where the show will run until next February.

The 80 paintings and museum objects in the exhibition, he said, are "really to refute these ideas that were brought by Europeans."

"European modernity was about coming to North America with a blank slate and having everybody just conveniently forget that this land belonged to somebody else," he said.

He challenges those ideas in paintings likeThe Deposition which the WAGannounced Friday morning was being gifted to its collection by an anonymous donor.

The piece, part of Monkman'sUrban Res series,portrays a number of First Nations men cradling a womanfrom one of Picasso's paintings. But she is a flattened two-dimensional character, representing both the compression thatIndigenous cultures have faced in societyand the inhumanity thatIndigenous women have endured.

Monkman draws inspiration from the Old Masters, some of the greatest painters in history.

"I wanted to use their ways of painting the female nude to talk about violence perpetrated against Indigenous people, and also the violence perpetrated against the female spirit."

Monkmannow lives in Toronto, and his work has been featured across Canada and beyond. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City recently accepted one of his commissions.

Shame and Prejudice, which has already toured to Calgary, Halifax, Charlottetown, Montreal and Kingston, Ont.,opened in Toronto in 2017 the year Canada celebrated its 150th birthday anduses Winnipeg's North End as the setting toexplorecolonialism through an Indigenous perspective.

It is Monkman's second solo exhibitionat the WAG. Hegrew up taking art classes at the gallery.

"Thisentire project was really informed by my experience as a child growing up here," Monkman said. "But it's more than thatit's informed by the experience of my family and my ancestors that are from this territory."

Winnipeg themes

His ability to fuse such themes in his work is remarkable, saysJaimie Isaac, the WAG's curator of Indigenous and contemporaryart.

"It's amazingthat he can, at once, address art history and the telling of modernity, but also reference contemporary times and social climates within the streets of Winnipeg," she said.

While admiring the new addition to the WAG's collection, Isaac noteshow Monkmanseamlesslyintegrates symbols and iconography.

As examples, she points out the "204" tattoo on one man's neck, a pair ofbeaded runners and a crow flying away with jewlery it has snatched. Isaacspots the initials of theIndian Posse street gang imprinted on a stop sign.

It is clear in his exhibition that Monkman's early years in Winnipeg shaped his artwork.

"I really feel like Winnipeg was such an important part of who I am. My ancestors are from this territory," he said.

"I think often about Winnipeg as a troubling place. It'sa difficult place to be an Indigenous person in many ways you seethe fallout of colonialism, it's so visible here, and yet there is this spirit of resiliency and positivityin the people," Monkman said.

"I also gain a lot of inspiration from all the amazing things that are happening here, in terms of the Indigenous artists and the cultural work that's happening here."

Shame and Prejudiceruns at the Winnipeg Art Gallery until Feb. 9, 2020.