Jeff Thomas (1956) is an

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

photographer, curator, and cultural theorist who works and lives in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario."Jeff Thomas’s three decades of ‘Bear Portraits’ trace the evolution of his son from child to grown up member of A Tribe Called Red"
''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', August 12, 2015. Thomas is known for his photographic work that addresses and interrogates the place of

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people in contemporary Canadian society. His work includes the "Indians on Tour" series began in 2000, in which stereotypical "Indian" figurines are posed against natural or urban landscapes, otherwise against historical monuments and contemporary culture, as Thomas' photographs document First Nations people. He is the father of Ehren "Bear Witness" Thomas of the musical group

A Tribe Called Red The Halluci Nation, formerly known as A Tribe Called Red, is a Canadian electronic music group who blend instrumental hip hop, reggae, moombahton and dubstep-influenced dance music with elements of First Nations music, particularly vocal chant ...

Early life

Thomas was born in 1956 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

Photographic career

Thomas' photographic practice is primarily concerned with showing the perspective of an "urban Iroquoian person," and what he calls “symbols of Indian-ness.” His work has been shown in galleries and museums across Canada, as well as in the United States and parts of Europe. In 1997, Thomas was featured in

Ali Kazimi Ali Kazimi D. Litt. (born 1961) is an Indo-Canadian filmmaker, media artist and writer. Early life and education Born and raised in India, Kazimi attended St. Columba's School and graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University in 198 ...

's documentary film, "Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas," which premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

Collections

Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP) (french: Le Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine (MCPC)) was a gallery of Canadian contemporary art and documentary photography. Founded in 1985 and affiliated to the National Galle ...

, Ottawa *

Canadian Museum of Civilization The Canadian Museum of History (french: Musée canadien de l’histoire) is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of C ...

, Ottawa *Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa *

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

Ottawa *Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario *Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, B.C. *

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

, Ottawa *

MacLaren Art Centre The MacLaren Art Centre is an art gallery and museum, located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. It is named in honour of Maurice MacLaren, who bequeathed his Victorian home, Maple Hill, to the Barrie Gallery Project in 1989. The MacLaren Art Centre l ...

, Barrie, Ontario *

Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Smi ...

Washington * Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne *

Museum der Weltkulturen The Museum of World Cultures (german: link=no, Museum der Weltkulturen) is an ethnological museum in Frankfurt, Germany. Until 2001 it was called the Museum of Ethnology (''Museum für Völkerkunde''). History It was founded in 1904, as a ...

Frankfurt *

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 documen ...

, London *

Ottawa Art Gallery The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) is a municipal gallery in Ottawa, Ontario that opened in 1988 at Arts Court. The gallery has a permanent collection of over one thousand works, houses the City of Ottawa-owned Firestone Collection of Canadian Art, and ...

Winnipeg Art Gallery The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collect ...

*Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford, Ontario

Selected solo exhibitions

* 2008'': Com·mem·o·ra·tion'',

, Barrie, Ontario * 2008'': Who’s your Daddy?: Four Hundred Years Later,'' Karsh/Mason Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario * 2008: ''Don’t Mess with the Pediment,'' Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto * 2008: ''Drive By: A Road Trip with Jeff Thomas'', University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, Ontario * 2007: ''Jeff Thomas: Traces of Iroquois Medicine,'' Ontario Museum of Archaeology, London, Ontario * 2006: ''Jeff Thomas: A Study of Indian-ness'',

Southern Alberta Art Gallery The Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin is a contemporary art gallery located in downtown Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. It has three gallery spaces and a gift shop. History In 1974, local residents formed the Southern Alber ...

, Lethbridge, Alberta; Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia * 2004–2005: ''Jeff Thomas: A Study of Indian-ness'',

Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (AGSM) is a contemporary art museum in Brandon, Manitoba. Founded in 1907 as the Brandon Art Club, the AGSM is the oldest centre for visual art in Manitoba and one of the first in Canada. As a not-for-p ...

, Brandon, Winnipeg; Regina, Saskatchewan; Toronto, Ontario * 2004: ''Scouting for Indians'', the Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario * 2001: ''Scouting for Indians'', Artspace, Peterborough, Ontario; American Community House, New York City * 2001: ''Lurking in the Shadows'', Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland * 2001: ''Geronimo Was in Here'', The Buffalo Arts Studio, Buffalo, New York * 2000: ''Scouting for Indians,'' Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario

Awards

In 2008, Thomas was awarded the Karsh Award in Photography. He was a recipient of 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 ...

in 2019."Photographer Jeff Thomas Wins Governor General’s Award"
. ''PhotoLife'', February 28, 2019.Loft, Steven, "Acquisition Proposal for Jeffrey Thomas’s The Delegate at the Highway 17 Hiawatha Wampum Belt, Arnprior, Ontario and The Delegate Visits London England, King Street," accession #42491 and #42492, Curatorial File, National Gallery of Canada.

References

External links

Jeffrey M. Thomas fonds (R10613)
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Jeff 20th-century Canadian photographers 21st-century Canadian photographers Iroquois people First Nations photographers Living people 1956 births Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners Artists from Buffalo, New York Artists from Ottawa American emigrants to Canada