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About
It is our pleasure to announce the second annual recipient of ohpinamake.
ohpinamake is an award for Indigenous artists whose territories intersect with the current colonial borders of Canada.
The name, ohpinamake, was brought forward by Elders and authors Louise Bernice Halfe and Maria Campbell, alongside artist and educator, Ruth Cuthand.
ohpinamake means “to lift others” in nêhiyawêwin.
The award is made possible through the partnership of Jim Knock (BE ‘76) and Marian Knock with the University of Saskatchewan. The partnership was established with the express purpose of creating an award that acknowledges the unique capacity of art to bridge differences, but also to make things different. This year, Jim and Marian Knock are inviting others to participate in this opportunity to support Indigenous knowledge and achievement by making a gift to ohpinamake. Your gift to ohpinamake underscores the importance of the inclusion of cultural diversity, which is essential to ensure that artists have the equal access to resources and the same opportunities to gain recognition and develop their art.
Please join Jim and Marian, following their exemplary leadership, to make this bold vision a reality by contributing to the fund here.
The artist chosen must clearly engage in a practice that ‘lifts others’. This can be understood as active social practice or as the production of art works that elevate Indigenous world-sense and create community. It can also be modeling behaviour that supports others in truly relational ways.
This year’s recipient was chosen by a jury of exceptional cultural workers and community members:
Lori Blondeau
KC Adams
Ruth Cuthand
Throughout this process we have endeavoured to remove the systemic barriers that keep Indigenous artists and others from accessing opportunities like this. We will continue to develop both the processes of application, adjudication, and the possible outcomes of ohpinamake over these next four years.
This event is made possible through the support of the Office of the Vice Provost Indigenous Engagement, The University Art Galleries, and the Mistatimōk Committee.
Image Credit (left): Sweetmoon Photography
Joi T. Arcand is an artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory, currently residing on unceded Algonquin Territory in Ottawa, Ontario. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan in 2006. In 2018, Arcand was shortlisted for the prestigious Sobey Art Award. Her practice began in photography and has expanded to creating large-scale installations with a focus on nêhiyawêwin Syllabics.
Recent solo exhibitions include Central Art Garage (Ottawa, ON); College Art Galleries (Saskatoon, SK); ODD Gallery (Dawson City, Yukon); Wanuskewin Heritage Park (Saskatoon, SK); Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina, SK). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Àbadakone at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON), Singing Mother Earth at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Busan, South Korea), and the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial in (Melbourne, Australia).
Arcand has been artist-in-residence at Wanuskewin Heritage Park (Saskatoon, SK); OCAD University (Toronto, ON); Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art (Winnipeg, MB); the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff, AB); and Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (Dawson City, Yukon); and Harbourfront Centre (Toronto, ON).
Along with Felicia Gay, Arcand was the co-founder of the Red Shift Gallery, a contemporary Indigenous art gallery in Saskatoon. She was founder and editor of the Indigenous art magazine, kimiwan (2012-2014). She has curated various exhibitions including Language of Puncture at Gallery 101 (Ottawa, 2017), nākatēyimisowin, an outdoor mural exhibition in Ottawa. In her past role as Director of SAW Gallery’s Nordic Lab she curated The Travellers (Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018). She is now pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Cree degree at University nuhelotʼįne thaiyotsʼį nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills and is a member of the Ottawa-based art and curatorial collective Wolf Babe.
Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux/Métis artist who tells the traditional stories of Indigenous peoples through her performance and photography-based works. Born to activist parents, she was influenced early on by their work, as well as their art-making and storytelling. “That’s something that the colonizer couldn’t take away from us,” she says, “our stories.” In 1995, Blondeau co-founded Tribe, an artist-run centre for contemporary Indigenous artists, and in 2007, worked alongside Kanien’kehà:ka (Mohawk) filmmaker and visual artist Shelley Niro at the Venice Biennale. Blondeau is particularly interested in the contemporary misrepresentations of Indigenous women. Blondeau received the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts in 2021. In her nomination text, curator Nasrin Hamida articulates, “Blondeau frequently adopts personae that confront the hegemonic, violent images of Indigenous women that proliferate throughout settler culture. Her artwork, activism, curatorial work and pedagogy are essential, and her transformative work continues to be ground-breaking and relevant."
KC Adams is a Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A in studio arts. Adams has had several solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and been in three biennales including the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Parramatta Arts Gallery in Australia. Her work is in many permanent collections Nationally and Internationally. Twenty pieces from the Cyborg Hybrid series are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa and four trees from Birch Bark Ltd, are in the collection of the Canadian Consulate of Australia, NSW. She was the scenic designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. She helped design a 30-foot public art sculpture called Niimamaa for the Winnipeg Forks and a piece for the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and Canada's Senate 150 medal recipient for her accomplishments with her Perception Photo Series. KC is now an author with her book Perception: A Photo Series that Quill & Quire. chose as one of 2019 Books of the Year.
Ruth Cuthand is an artist, mentor, teacher, activist and mother, and member of Little Pine First Nation. Her career has been devoted to exploring the impacts of colonialism on Indigenous people in Canada and resisting the forces of oppression through the use of sharp intellect, biting humour and powerful aesthetics. She is well-known as a leading figure in contemporary Indigenous art as well as a powerful voice in the Canadian art scene’s ongoing discussions of colonialism, racism and Reconciliation. As a Governor General’s Award winner in 2020, and recipient of the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship in 2023, her influence, mentorship and support of many, past and present, have been an important component in the building of an infrastructure for contemporary Indigenous art in Canada.
