April 19, 2023 7:30 pm
Kane Hall (Room 120)
History is subjective. The dominant version of history upheld in museums on this continent is told from the perspective of the colonial settler cultures who projected their values and ideals onto the Indigenous people and landscape of North America. Cree artist Kent Monkman discusses his interventions in museums that have taken form as commissioned paintings, curated exhibitions, videos, and site specific performances. Monkman will also discuss his 2019 commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York – a diptych of two monumental history paintings for the Great Hall and the creation of a new performance piece.
Registration opens March 13, 2023.
Standby Policy
If an event is sold out, as a courtesy, the Graduate School will offer standby seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Any reserved seats not taken by 15 minutes before the start of the lecture will be offered to our guests in the standby line. Please note: standby entrance is based on seat availability and there is no guarantee of admittance to the public lecture.
About the speaker
Kent Monkman
Kent Monkman (b. 1965) is an interdisciplinary Cree visual artist. A member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), he lives and works in Dish With One Spoon Territory (Toronto, Canada).
Known for his provocative interventions into Western European and American art history, Monkman explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience—the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences—across painting, film/video, performance, and installation. Monkman’s gender-fluid alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle often appears in his work as a time-traveling, shape-shifting, supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze to challenge received notions of history and Indigenous peoples.
Monkman’s painting and installation works have been exhibited at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; The National Gallery of Canada; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Hayward Gallery; Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art; Musée d’art Contemporain deb Rochechouart; Maison Rouge; Philbrook Museum of Art; and Palais de Tokyo. He has created site-specific performances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Royal Ontario Museum; Compton Verney, Warwickshire; and The Denver Art Museum. Monkman has had two nationally touring solo exhibitions, Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience (2017-2020), and The Triumph of Mischief (2007-2010).
Monkman’s short film and video works, collaboratively made with Gisèle Gordon, have screened at festivals such as the Berlinale (2007, 2008) and the Toronto International Film Festival (2007, 2015). Monkman is the recipient of the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (2017), an honorary doctorate degree from OCAD University (2017), the Indspire Award (2014), and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award (2014).
Sponsoring Departments: School of Art + Art History + Design, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies; Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Canadian Studies Center, The Graduate School