On November 14, 2025, the MacKenzie Art Gallery will open two brand new exhibitions: Joi T. Arcand: ayâtaskisow (Nov 14, 2025–May 3, 2026), curated by Felicia Gay, and The Memory of Trees (Nov 14, 2025–Feb. 22, 2026), curated by Nicolle Nugent.

The two exhibitions will launch as part of Gathering Great Plains, a four-day gathering that reflects on contemporary art rooted in the rich and layered narratives of the Great Plains.

Together, these exhibitions offer distinct yet interconnected reflections on the land as part of Prairie land and memory. Arcand’s work explores family history and relationship to agriculture on Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, while The Memory of Trees brings together a cross-disciplinary gathering of works by Françoise Sullivan, Agnes Martin, Jaime Black-Morsette, and FadaDance Troupe.

ABOUT JOI T. ARCAND: ayâtaskisow

In Plains Cree, ayâtaskisow expresses when one is firmly planted or deeply rooted. Arcand contemplates her place and connection to the Great Plains, specifically her family farm on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Her investigation of family history and agriculture spans the “reserve period” that followed the adoption of the Indian Act in 1874.

Arcand’s work explores the intersections between Indigenous history and her father’s experience as a farmer. She draws on her family archive as she reflects on agricultural policies in Saskatchewan that were established to help assimilate First Nations people.

During the pass and permit systems of the 1880s–1940s, Indian Agents surveyed and monitored reserves, enforcing regulations that required Indigenous people to get permission to leave reserves or to sell or purchase goods. Arcand contemplates this legacy through the lens of her family archive and her grandfather’s abandoned house on their farm. For Arcand, her grandfather’s farmhouse became a site to gather with family, but it is also a monument to family survival.

 

ABOUT THE MEMORY OF TREES

This exhibition brings together four artists who explore their environments through movement and kinetic spirit, holding space for relationships and community with humans, non-humans, and the land.

Four artists/collectives reflect on their relationship to this land. Featuring work by Canadian icon Françoise Sullivan, Saskatchewan-born American abstractionist Agnes Martin, Manitoba-based Métis artist Jaime Black-Morsette, and active local dance artists FadaDance Troupe.

Through dance, printmaking, installation, and photography, these artists invite us to consider all that we count among our relations—the natural world and all that it holds.

 

ABOUT THE MACKENZIE

The MacKenzie Art Gallery envisions a world where art inspires and heals across generations. Located in Treaty 4 / oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, the MacKenzie is Saskatchewan’s oldest public art gallery, with a 50-year history of championing Indigenous art from Indigenous perspectives. The MacKenzie embraces its unique position within the Canadian and international art landscape, celebrating the diverse perspectives of all artists within the Plains region and Canada. It has a focus on Indigenous and contemporary art, contextualized through select historical and international work. 

 

MEDIA CONTACT

Angela Lackey
Communications Coordinator
MacKenzie Art Gallery
alackey@mackenzie.art
(306)-584-4250 x4271

 

Image credit:

Joi T. Arcand, to the depth of a plow, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.

FadaDance Troupe, The Weight of Our Feet, film still, featured in the exhibition Memory of Trees. Photo: Shawn Fulton.

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