Current Exhibition

Lita Fontaine, Whess Harman, Meagan Musseau, Rhayne Vermette

Curated by Jennifer Smith

The aceartinc. & National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition’s Indigenous Curator In Residence, invite you to the opening of Oneself, and one another. Funded by The Winnipeg Foundation.

The blanket use of the word ‘Indigenous’ can eclipse the incredible diversity within Indigenous cultures across Turtle Island. Oneself, and one another is an exploration of this and the inter-identities of Indigenous artists in Canada. Each of the four artists creates work about their own distinct culture, interests and lives. What we discover is how non-homogenity is itself a defining feature of Indigenous culture, a means of working together, and a source of great power.

The great power brings together four artists, who independent of each other explore ideas of gender, multiple cultural identities, tradition, age, territory, the Dakota Nation, the Metis Nation, the Mi’kmaq Nation, Lake Babine Nation, environmental issues, history, punk culture, decolonization, the lives of artists and Indigeneity. Together the artists form an exhibition that places their Indigeneity at the centre, but makes room to celebrate each difference and explore how combined each difference strengthens each other.

Activities

July 20
6pm- talk with Lita Fontaine and Meagan Musseau
7pm- Opening reception, with drummer and song carrier Dawn Lavand

July 25
7pm- Come for a discussion about the exhibit with the curator, Jennifer Smith

July 31
6pm- Artist talk with Whess Harman

August 8
Screening the films of Rhayne Vermette. Time TBA.

 

 

About the Artists:

Lita Fontaine
Lita Fontaine is of Dakota, Anishinaabe, and Metis descent. Fontaine is a Mother, sister, Art Educator and Visual Artist. Her mother Rose Anne Fontaine’s band affiliation is Long Plain, her father’s, Sagkeeng First Nation. Fontaine was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, and grew up in Winnipeg’s North End. Ever since childhood, Fontaine always enjoyed the act of creation like drawing, building, sewing and collecting recyclables.

During Fontaine’s late twenties, the creative urge to become an artist became quite strong. Being a single mother at the time she decided to return to school and enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s School of Art in the Diploma program where she developed and hone her skills and abilities in drawing and black and white photography. She later pursued an higher education at the University of Regina, Visual Arts Faculty where she attained a Master of Fine Arts, (M.F.A.) specializing in Inter-media and, as some may know as Mixed–media.

Fontaine’s practice is predominately studio based and her methodology in the area of arts education is hands on, where creative processes play an integral role in learning. Fontaine believes the visual arts acts as a catharsis that nourishes emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual growth while making art.

Whess Harman
Whess Harman is a queer, mixed-race, trans/non-binary artist, born in prince rupert, BC in 1990 and is a member of the Lake Babine Nation. Their work uses multi-media strategies in print, text and illustration to address issues of representation and memory. Whess completed a BFA at emily carr university in 2014. They have attended residencies at the banff art centre in 2014 and 2016 and at plug-in ICA in winnipeg in 2017. On-going work in includes beadwork and DIY strategies around punk aesthetics creating “Indigenous Punk” jacket series, as well as text based wheat-pasting projects.

Meagan Musseau
Meagan Musseau is an interdisciplinary visual artist of Mi’kmaq and French ancestry from the community of Curling in the Bay of Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador––Elamstukwek, Ktaqmkuk territory of Mi’kma’ki. She works with customary art practices and new media, such as beadwork, basketry, land-based action and installation to explore memory, language, and the relationship between land and body, object and narrative. Musseau graduated with a BFA in Visual Art from Grenfell Campus Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She was a member of the Indigenous Emerging Artist Program 2015-16 on unceded Coast Salish territory and has participated in artist residencies both nationally and internationally, at such venues as; Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Alberta; Centre for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College Chicago, Illinois, United States; University of Brighton Fine Art Printmaking, Brighton, England; and the National Artist Program, 2011 Canada Games, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her work has been supported by awards such as the Emerging Artist Award, VANL-CARFAC (2018); Atlantic Canadian Emerging Artist Residency at the Banff Centre, the Hnatyshyn Foundation (2018); Aboriginal Arts Development Award, First Peoples’ Cultural Council (2016); and Corner Brook Emerging Artist of the Year (2013).

Rhayne Vermette
Following a very conscious departure from architectural academia, Rhayne Vermette (b. 1982, Notre Dame de Lourdes, Manitoba), figured a distinctive craft within the construction of images through film and photography. Primarily self-taught, and under the influence of post-war Italian architects, Vermette’s work is ignited by themes from the Decadent movement as well as notions of the indeterminate. Her artistic practice comes into focus through a volume of analogue moving images works exceeding over 20 short films. These films have screened at innumerable occasions including Images Film Festival, Jihlava International Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, European Media Arts Festival, DOXA, Melbourne International Animation Festival, the Architecture Biennale, and so on …

Though treading the artistic landscape under the guise of a filmmaker, the ephemera from this practice is unconditionally instructed by a camouflaged contemporary art practice. Across this expanse, you will find spatial inquiries articulated through images sculpted at varying scales – from microscopic collages fixed onto individual 16mm cells to a flip of the mirror portraying vast landscapes or insipid spaces through 35mm still photography.

Rhayne lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

About the Curator:

Jennifer Smith is a Métis curator, writer and arts administrator in Winnipeg, Canada. Jennifer has been working in arts administration for ten years, and has worked for organizations such as the Costume Museum of Canada, the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, the Winnipeg Film Group, and currently at Video Pool Media Arts Centre. Jennifer is the President of the board for the Coalition of Canadian Independent Media Art Distributors that runs VUCAVU.com. She has curated exhibits and video programs for the Manitoba Craft Council, Video Pool Media Arts Centre, Open City Cinema, MAWA, and the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library. Jennifer is the Indigenous Curator in Residence at aceartinc. from March to August 2018.