Adrian Stimson (born 1964 in

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is at the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay. The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants ...

, Canada) is an artist and a member of the

Siksika Nation The Siksika Nation ( bla, Siksiká) is a First Nation in southern Alberta, Canada. The name ''Siksiká'' comes from the Blackfoot words ''sik'' (black) and ''iká'' (foot), with a connector ''s'' between the two words. The plural form of ''Sik ...

Education

Stimson earned a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan.

Career

Stimson is a multidisciplinary artist: He creates paintings, installations,

performances A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

and

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

. His mostly black and white paintings often depict bison in fictional settings. In his installations, he refers to experiences in the

residential school system In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school sys ...

. His performances look at constructing identity and the blending of the Indian, the cowboy, the shaman and the

Two Spirit Two-spirit (also two spirit, 2S or, occasionally, twospirited) is a modern, , umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant ...

being. Two recurring personas in Stimson's performances are Buffalo Boy and the Shaman Exterminator. Stimson travelled with the Canadian Forces Artists Program to Afghanistan in 2010. In 2017, Stimson created, "TRENCH," a five-day durational performance on the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation. The performance commemorates the approximately 4,000 Indigenous soldiers who served in the First World War. This contemporary art contributed to War Stories: 1917 at Calgary's Military Museums. In 2019, Stimson collaborated with

AA Bronson AA Bronson (born Michael Tims in Vancouver in 1946) is an artist. He was a founding member of the artists' group General Idea, was president and director of Printed Matter, Inc., and started the NY Art Book Fair and the LA Art Book Fair. E ...

for the Toronto Biennial of Art on ''A public apology to Siksoka Nation'' by Bronson and ''Iini Sookumapii: Guess who’s coming to dinner?'' a work that explored the connection between two of their ancestors: Bronson's great-grandfather John William Tims, an Anglican missionary who established a residential school in 1886 and Stimson's great-grandfather Old Sun (18191897), the traditional chief of the North Blackfoot and a participant of the making of

Treaty 7 Treaty 7 is an agreement between the Crown and several, mainly Blackfoot, First Nation band governments in what is today the southern portion of Alberta. The idea of developing treaties for Blackfoot lands was brought to Blackfoot chief Cro ...

. In 2020 he created a waterbed installation, a nod to Ono's and Lennon's famous bed-ins for peace as part of the

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

’s exhibition Growing Freedom at

Contemporary Calgary Contemporary Calgary is a public contemporary art gallery located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located in the former Centennial Planetarium in the city's downtown core, the gallery offers contemporary art programming by local, national, and intern ...

Collections

Two of Stimson's paintings are in the North American Indigenous collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. His work is included in the collections of the

Glenbow Museum The Glenbow Museum is an art and history regional museum in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The museum focuses on Western Canadian history and culture, including Indigenous perspectives. The Glenbow was established as a private non-profi ...

, Calgary, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Awards

In 2018 he was awarded the

Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000 Created in 2000 by then Governor General Adrie ...

. Stimson won the Blackfoot Visual Arts Award in 2009, the

Alberta Centennial Medal The Alberta Centennial Medal is a commemorative medal celebrating Alberta's first 100 years of participating in Canadian Confederation. History In 2005, the ''Alberta Centennial Medal Act'' established the Alberta Centennial Medal. Purpose The ...

in 2005 and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003,

References

1964 births Living people 20th-century Canadian artists 21st-century Canadian artists Artists from Ontario Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners People from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario University of Saskatchewan alumni First Nations painters First Nations installation artists LGBT First Nations people Canadian LGBT artists Two-spirit people 21st-century LGBT people {{Canada-artist-stub