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Kent Monkman explores the evolution of Indigenous culture through his provocative art

The artist uses his own paintings, drawings and sculptural works, paired with historical artifacts, to narrate a story of Canada's Indigenous history in his new exhibition.
q digital staff · CBC ·
Kent Monkman's The Bears of Confederation, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas (Kent Monkman)

Kent Monkman's art is a journey through Canada's history, from the period of New France and the fur trade to present-day life on the reserve. In his new exhibition, Shame and Prejudice, the artist of Cree ancestry reconsiders our history from the perspective of First Nations' resilience. Monkman's alter-ego, drag persona Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, is the show's narrator and she takes us on a journey through Monkman's provocative paintings, drawings and sculpture alongside artifacts and artworks from across Canada.

Below is a selection of his work, annotated by the artist.

The Daddies

"Here's Miss Chief confronting the Fathers of Confederation. She calls them the daddies, so in a way she is looking for her sugar daddy."

Kent Monkman's The Daddies, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas. (Kent Monkman)

Seeing Red

"This is a bull by Picasso. So I'm setting up this conflict or staging this tension between Picasso — a European, white male misogynist — against Miss Chief who is Indigenous, gender-ambiguous, obviously embracing female energies." 

Kent Monkman's Seeing Red, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas (Kent Monkman)

The Subjugation of Truth

"This was the arrest and incarceration of chief Poundmaker and Big Bear and this painting was based on a suite of archival photographs in the Glenbow collection. It also relates to the beginning of this period of incarceration of Indigenous people."

Kent Monkman's The Subjugation of Truth, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas (Kent Monkman)

Study for Les Castors Du Roi

"This was a pretty violent period of time. There was a lot of warfare between the varying nations. Everyone was fighting each other, vying for a better position in the fur trade. So the beavers, here being the victims of the fur trade, I wanted to give them human qualities or human characteristics that could speak to the violence that was happening between warring nations."

Kent Monkman's Study for Les Castors Du Roi, 2011, Acrylic on Canvas (Kent Monkman)

Le Petit dejeuner sur l'herbe

"This speaks to the violence against missing and murdered Indigenous women, so I used Picasso's butchered female nudes as a metaphor to talk about that violence against the female. Prior to Picasso, the female nude reached its zenith and then it was deconstructed through modernism. So, that period of modernity basically runs concurrently with the last 150 years. I'm speaking to this last 150 years, lensing it through art history, saying that that period of modern art and these idioms from art history are metaphors that I use in my work to talk about the compression of culture, the flattening of pictorial spaces as a metaphor for the flattening of Indigenous culture."

Kent Monkman's Le Petit dejeuner sur l'herbe, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas (Kent Monkman)

To see more of Monkman's work, check out his latest exhibit, Shame and Prejudice, on now until March 4 at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Find more details here. 

— Olivia Pasquarelli, q digital staff