Sonny Assu: A Selective History

SONNY ASSU | Ligwiłda'xw of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nations with CANDICE HOPKINS | Carcross/Tagish + MARIANNE NICOLSON | Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw + RICHARD VAN CAMP | Tłı̨chǫ Dene + ELLYN WALKER foreward by JANET ROGERS | Mohawk/Tuscarora

  • English

  • Indigenous rights and history, colonialism, capitalism, branding, Indigenous sovereignty and worldview

  • Kindergarten +

A stunning retrospective highlighting the playfulness, power, and subversive spirit of Northwest Coast Indigenous artist Sonny Assu. Through large-scale installation, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and painting, Sonny Assu merges the aesthetics of Indigenous iconography with a pop-art sensibility. This stunning retrospective spans over a decade of Assu’s career, highlighting more than 120 full-colour works, including several never-before-exhibited pieces.

Essays and personal narratives from Richard Van Camp, Marianne Nicolson, Candice Hopkins, and Ellyn Walker provide brilliant commentary on Assu’s practice, its meaning in the context of contemporary art, and its wider significance in the struggle for Indigenous cultural and political autonomy. Exploring themes of Indigenous rights, consumerism, branding, humour, and the ways in which history informs contemporary ideas and identities.