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Artist Spotlight

Artist Spotlight: Kent Monkman

Artist Spotlight: Kent Monkman

Kent Monkman

Monkman uses painting, sculpture, video, and awesome drag to settle a few scores. His work is hilarious and chilling all at once.

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Kent Monkman channels his perceptions beautifully into grand landscapes that present allegories of a reimagined past. His past has a much happier, if somewhat saucy result. At first his paintings, sculpture, and performance pieces seem played for laughs, almost a tongue-in-cheek Native American minstrel show -- with drag. Then you realize you are laughing at work that addresses the white genocide of Native American societies and the destruction of their culture. His point of view changes rapidly from enraged Indigenous person to romantic storyteller to huh art drag queen -- sometimes all in the same piece of work.

Monkman is an artist of Cree ancestry who works in a variety of media, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. Monkman has exhibited widely in Canada and is well represented in numerous private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

See more of Kent Monkman's huge and amazing output on his website.

The-four-directionsx633_0Four Directions
40" x 30" -- 2012
acrylic on canvas
(detail below)

The-four-directions-detailx633_0

Cree-master-1x633_0Cree Master 1

10" x 12" -- 2002
acrylic on canvas (detail below)

Cree-master-1_detailx633_0

East-vs-westx633_0East vs. West
48" x 72" -- 2011
acrylic on canvas (detail below)

East-vs-west_detailx633_0

History-is-painted-by-the-victorsx633_0History Is Painted by the Victors
72" x 113" -- 2013
Acrylic on canvas (detail below)

History-is-painted-by-the-victors_detailx633_0

Ceci-nest-pas-une-pipex633_0Ceci N'est pas un Pipe
8" x 10" -- 2001
acrylic on canvas (detail below)

Ceci-nest-pas-une-pipe_detailx633_0

The-rape-of-daniel-boone-jrx633_0The Rape of Daniel Boone Junior
18" x 24" -- 2002
acrylic on canvas
(detail below)

The-rape-of-daniel-boone-jr_detailx633_0


Les-castors-du-roix633_0Les Castors du Roi
96" x 84" -- 2011
acrylic on canvas

KentThe Emergence of a Legend (1/5)
4.5" x 6.5" / 16" x 13.25" (framed) -- 2006
series of five photographs (chromogenic prints on metallic paper) signed edition of 25 with five proofs, collaboration with photographer Christopher Chapman & makeup artist Jackie Shawn

"The studio portraits, shot, printed, and framed to emulate antique daguerrotypes, feature my alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle in various performance guises. The photos trace the history of Aboriginal performance culture -- more specifically 'Indians' performing for a European audience."

KentThe Emergence of a Legend

KentThe Emergence of a Legend

KentThe Emergence of a Legend

KentThe Emergence of a Legend

Miss-americax633_0Miss America
84" x 132" -- 2012
Acrylic on canvas (detail below)

Miss-america_detailx633_0

Montcalms-haircut_0Montcalm's Haircut
48" x 60" -- 2011
acrylic on canvas

Wolfes-haircutx633_0Wolfe's Haircut
48" x 60" -- 2011
acrylic on canvas

My-treaty-is-with-the-crownx633_0My Treaty Is With the Crown
60" x 96" -- 2011
Acrylic on canvas (detail below)

My-treaty-is-with-the-crown_detailx633_0

Si Je T'aime Prends Garde a Toi (Study for Icon for a New Empire)
36" x 24" -- 2007
acrylic on canvas

Talltailsx633_0Tall Tails
installation -- 2007
The Triumph of Mischief
touring exhibition

Tall Tails is an installation with sound (music) that references Monkman's performance work. Fashion, as a signifier of cultural change, is a recurring theme Monkman explores in various media. The costume on the mannequin is one of three successively larger and more outlandish headresses worn by Monkman (as Miss Chief) during the performance Seance.

Right-click to download "Dance to Miss Chief (Dwayne Minard Cellout Remix).mp3"

Photo: Walter Willems

The-symposiumx633_0The Symposium
67" x 47.5" -- 2012
acrylic on canvas (detail below)

The-symposium_detailx633_0

Two-kindred-spirits-1x633_0Two Kindred Spirits
Multi Media Installation -- 2012

Based on similarities found between fictitious American and German buddy characters, Tonto and the Lone Ranger, and Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, this multimedia installation explores male warrior/lover relationships found in the Greek myths of Achilles and Patrocles and Apollo and Hyacinthus.

Two-kindred-spirits-2x633_0Two Kindred Spirits (detail)

Two-kindred-spirits-3x633_0Two Kindred Spirits (detail)

Maryimg2x633_0"We Agreed to Share, Not Surrender"
18.5" x 10.5" -- 2011
Archival Giclee Print

Faint-heart-534x633_0Faint Heart 534
12" x 9" -- 2008
watercolor on paper

Faint-heart-9273x633_0Faint Heart 9,273
12" x 9" -- 2008
watercolor on paper

Louisvuittonquiverx633_0Louis Vuitton Quiver
installation -- 2007

Monkman has used the Louis Vuitton brand to refer to social hierarchies and monopolies of class, power, and wealth, established by trade among Europeans and Native Americans. Monkman has fashioned faux "Louis Vuitton" birch bark luggage (Boudoir de Berdashe) and an arrow quiver (Shooting Geronimo) that Miss Chief has worn in live performances and films.

Photo: Brian Boyle

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Christopher Harrity

Christopher Harrity is the Manager of Online Production for Here Media, parent company to The Advocate and Out. He enjoys assembling online features on artists and photographers, and you can often find him poring over the mouldering archives of the magazines.
Christopher Harrity is the Manager of Online Production for Here Media, parent company to The Advocate and Out. He enjoys assembling online features on artists and photographers, and you can often find him poring over the mouldering archives of the magazines.