Skip to Main Content
QUL logo

Fine Art

Canadian Indigenous Art and Artists

Unsettling Canadian Art History. Bringing together fifteen scholars of art and culture, this collection addresses visual and material cultural histories of settler colonialism, enslavement, and racialized diasporas in the contested white settler state of Canada, offering new perspectives for decolonial and anti-racist scholarship on art, archives, and creative practice.

Art Gallery of Ontario: The Indigenous Collection: Developing the First Nations, Inuit and Metis art collection is one of the AGO’s primary collecting goals. From Haida master carver Charles Edenshaw, to contemporary Mohawk artist Shelley Niro, the collection spans artistic movements across several centuries.

Search the CCCA Canadian Art database, housed at Concordia University. Includes First Nations and Inuit artists.

An introduction to contemporary Indigenous artists in Canada. (Library & Archives archived site)
 
Index of Canadian Artists (Visual Arts) = Répertoire des artistes canadiens (Arts visuels)
Site created by François Lareau, B.A., LL.M. (Ottawa), covering Canadian and Indigenous artists based on bio-bibliographic reference sources, with many images. Offers free listings for Canadian artists in visual arts or artists in visual arts living in Canada who have a web site.
 
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) is entrusted with the care, development, and maintenance of the Indigenous Art Collection. one of the most important collections of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada.
 
Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada: In taking inspiration from the Haudenosaunee Seventh Generation Principle, the Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada was founded in 2012 to preserve and revitalize endangered Indigenous art forms and enrich lives through Indigenous arts and culture.
 
Indigenous Protocols for the Visual Arts: Developed by CARFAC (Canadian Artists’ Representation. Designed to provide practical guidelines for respectful engagement with Indigenous Peoples. It is part of an ongoing initiative to strengthen respect for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis visual art and artists, and legal and moral rights in the territory now known as Canada.
 
Indigenous Studies Portal - The Arts: University of Saskatchewan resources of articles, e-books, theses, government publications, videos, oral histories, and digitized archival documents and photographs.
 

The Routledge companion to Indigenous art histories in the United States and Canada: critical theories and methodologies for Indigenous art history in North America.

The Sioux Project—Tatanka Oyate 

"Tatanka Oyate fills a major gap in our understanding of contemporary Sioux aesthetics in North America with a specific focus on the knowledge and practices of Lakota/Nakota/Dakota (Sioux) communities in Saskatchewan, Canada. The publication reflects over three years of on-the-ground research involving a team led by Lakota video/performance artist Dana Claxton, art historian Lynne Bell, artist Gwenda Yuzicappi, and filmmaker Cowboy Smithx.

An introduction to contemporary native artists in Canada.
 

Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun: portrait of eight Indigenous communities from across North America, shown through archival photographs.

Artist Names

Aboriginal Artists in Canada

Art Canada Institute

Important Indigenous Artists in Canada: compiled in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Cree Native Arts and Crafts: Artists Directory

The Witness Blanket is a large‐scale art installation by Carey Newman made from hundreds of items reclaimed from survivors and their families, residential schools, churches, government buildings, and traditional and cultural structures across Canada. The documentary Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket shares the journey.

Canadian Library Project: country-wide art installation to recognize Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls

Education through Art

CanadARThistories: Reimagining the Canadian art history survey: A Queen's open access textbook that addresses "growing concerns around inclusion, regionalism, Indigenization, and internationalization in art history curricula, and is conceived as a response to these ideas."

Art Canada Institute: Includes guides to the study of many topics through the work of Canadian artists including the following by Indigenous artists: