The Art of Faye HeavyShield

About the Exhibition

Curated By

Felicia Gay

Organized & Circulated By

The MacKenzie Art Gallery

Galleries

Kenderdine & Sim Galleries

The Art of Faye HeavyShield will present work that spans forty years of her practice. The exhibition situates HeavyShield as a major contributor to contemporary Indigenous art through her creation of a new aesthetic vocabulary. While bearing a resemblance to conceptual installation, her work is rooted in the deep art history of the Canadian prairies and in personal/communal experience. Arising from an intensive research project led by Felicia Gay, and guided by the personal ties between the artist and curator, the project will be multi-faceted in its approach. HeavyShield is a senior visual artist who has had a profound impact on Indigenous artists from the Northern Plains and across Turtle Island through an approach based on relationality, an aesthetics of humility, and her poetic visual articulations of Blackfoot language—all rooted within her cultural context as a Blackfoot (Blood) woman from the Kainai territory.

Touring Details

Nickle Galleries, Calgary Alberta: 21 September – 9 December 2023

Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa ON: January 2024 – April 2024

Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB: 29 April – 28 August 2023

About Faye Heavyshield

Born in 1953, Faye HeavyShield entered the Canadian contemporary art scene during her third year at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta in 1983 and has since inspired several generations through her work as an artist, mentor, and writer. While many notable Blackfoot artists have been men, Faye’s work grows out of her experience as a Blood woman and cultural matriarch, resulting in a potent minimalist aesthetic that differentiates her from other senior artists of her territory. HeavyShield has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including: Nations in Urban Landscapes at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, BC; rock paper river at Gallery Connexion, Fredericton, NB; Into the Garden of Angels at The Power Plant in Toronto, ON; blood at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery; Land, Spirit, Power at the National Gallery of Canada; Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, MB; and Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her work is found in the collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Glenbow Museum, Heard Museum (Phoenix), Kelowna Art Gallery, MacKenzie Art Gallery, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, National Gallery of Canada, and Nickle Galleries (Calgary).

Works in the Exhibition

Faye Heavyshield, Sisters, 1993, Plaster and acrylic. McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg, ON.

Faye Heavyshield, Slivers, 2010, Mixed media. Collection of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

Faye Heavyshield, Lot’s Wife-One stage, 1987, Artwork type-oil on paper. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Gatineau, QC.

Faye Heavyshield, Wave, 2018, Digital image on paper, mixed media. Private Collection of the artist.

Faye Heavyshield, Lot’s Wife-Situation 1, 1987, Artwork type-oil on paper. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Gatineau, QC

Faye Heavyshield, Red dress, 2008 nylon, cotton, metal and paper tags, glass beads. Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Faye Heavyshield. Survive, 1985, mixed media on canvas. Indigenous Art Collection, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Photo by: Lawrence Cook.