Rosalie Favell (born 1958) is a

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

(Cree/British) artist from

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

currently based 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 Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, working with photography and digital collage techniques. Favell creates self-portraits, sometimes featuring her own image and other times featuring imagery that represents her, often making use of archival photos of family members and images from pop culture.

Early life

Rosalie Favell was born in 1958 to a Métis father named Gerald, and a mother of Scottish/English descent named Florence McFadyen. She was raised in an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

household where the family's ancestry was not openly discussed. Receiving her first camera at age ten, Favell first formally explored her artistic impulse a number of years later at a night photography course which inspired her to continue learning the medium.

Education

Favell completed a bachelor of applied arts at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in 1984, a master of fine arts at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

in 1998, and a PhD(ABD) in Cultural Mediations at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

in 2009. In the late 1990s, when she was making a shift from documentary photography to digital photo manipulations, Favell learned from fellow artist Larry Glawson. Rosalie Favell has taught many courses and workshops throughout her career. She has taught courses at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba. Carleton University, and the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

, to name a few. Favell has also taught digital photography at Discovery University since 2013, a program run jointly by The Ottawa Mission and the University of Ottawa to offer people of low-income situations educational opportunities. Favell has done several residencies as well, including residencies at the

Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

, and the Nigig Visiting Artist Residency at

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

, where she presented the work ''Facing the Camera'' (2008-ongoing) that consisted of a series of portraits of members of the Indigenous arts community.

Involvement in organizations

Favell was an early member of the NIIPA (Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association) in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, the first

artist-run centre An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental ...

specializing in photo-based artwork by Indigenous artists in Canada. She was a board member at the Floating Gallery Centre for Photography in Winnipeg and the Original Women's Network: a Native Women's Resource Centre. Favell has also worked with Nepalese women's groups in

Katmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Nepal, Province , subdivision_name1 ...

Themes

A prominent and ongoing theme in Favell's work is self-portraiture. Favell often references the traditions of portraiture and self-portraiture, using traditional composition or even existing portraits, and replacing the historical sitter with herself. An example of this is Favell's ''The Artist in Her Museum: The Collector'' (2005) that references Charles Wilson Peale's self-portrait displaying his collection, ''The Artist in His Museum'' (1822). In Favell's work she replaces the collector with her own image and the collection of specimens with her family photos, and in doing so questions and overwrites the colonial practice of collection and display. In her photo manipulations, Favell re-contextualizes specific portraits and the portrait tradition on a whole, often introducing her own Indigenous identity to create a dialogue. Fellow artist and writer Barry Ace summarizes Favell's approach by stating: “The collected images act as an ''aide-memoire'', igniting personal and collective memory, while photo-digital practice provides her with an expansive tableau for visual expressions of self, family, identity and sexuality.” Favell has also created many works using documentary photography to create an image of the Indigenous community that she is a part of. Works such as ''Portraits in Blood'' (1980s) use photographic portraits of Indigenous artists and friends to express and document Favell's own navigation of Indigenous identity. Her ongoing ''Facing the Camera'' series, which began in 2008, consists of dynamic photographic portraits of roughly 450 Indigenous artists from across the globe including

Daphne Odjig Daphne Odjig, D.Litt LL. D. (September 11, 1919 – October 1, 2016), was a Canadian First Nations artist of Odawa-Potawatomi-English heritage. Her paintings are often characterized as Woodlands Style or as the pictographic style. She was the ...

, Greg Hill, Bear Witness of

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 ...

, Caroline Monnet,

Heather Igloliorte Heather L. Igloliorte (born 1979) is an Inuit, Inuk scholar, independent curator and art historian from Nunatsiavut. She was appointed inaugural Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at the ...

Kent Monkman Kent Monkman (born 13 November 1965) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He is a member of the Fisher River band situated in Manitoba's Interlake Region. He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety ...

, Mary Watt,

Maree Clarke Maree Clarke is a Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, BoonWurrung/Wemba Wemba woman living in Melbourne, known for her work as a curator and artist. Clarke is a multidisciplinary artist renowned for her work in reviving South-eastern Aboriginal Australian ...

Alex Janvier Alex Simeon Janvier, LL.D (; born February 28, 1935) is a First Nation artist in Canada. As a member of the commonly referred to " Indian Group of Seven", Janvier is a pioneer of contemporary Canadian Aboriginal art in Canada. Career Alex Janv ...

, and

Mary Anne Barkhouse Mary Anne Barkhouse (born 1961) is a jeweller and sculptor residing in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada. She belongs to the Nimpkish band of the Kwakiutl First Nation. Early life and education Barkhouse was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in ...

. The active poses that Favell captures in ''Facing the Camera'' lend agency to the sitters and call into question stereotypes created in part by a history of portraiture of Indigenous people from a colonial perspective.

Awards

Favell has received recognition and support for her work through several awards and grants throughout her career. Favell was awarded the biennial Karsh Award in 2012 in recognition of her extensive body of photographic work, the

Ontario Arts Council The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Based in Toronto, OAC was founded in 1963 by On ...

Chalmers Arts Fellowship in 2004, and the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in 2003, to name a few. In 2017, Favell was awarded The Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Art Photography.

Works

Exhibited and collected works

Favell's work has been exhibited at and collected by the

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 ...

, the

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 ...

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 ...

, the

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 ...

, Karsh-Masson Gallery, Cube Gallery, the

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. An exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (National Gallery of Canada) called ''Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists'' that challenged stereotypical portrayals of Indigenous people through portraiture featured Favell's work. Her portraits appeared alongside the work of other Indigenous artists such as KC Adams,

Carl Beam Carl Beam (May 24, 1943 – July 30, 2005), born Carl Edward Migwans, made Canadian art history as the first artist of Native Ancestry (Ojibwe), to have his work purchased by the National Gallery of Canada as Contemporary Art. A major retrospec ...

Dana Claxton Dana Claxton (born 1959) is a Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. Her work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First Nations. ...

, Thirza Cuthand, Kent Monkman,

David Neel David Anthony Neel (born April 7, 1960) is a Canadian writer, photographer, and artist who is a member of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation of coastal British Columbia. Background Neel was born on April 7, 1960, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He i ...

Shelley Niro Shelley Niro (born 1954) is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario.

, Greg Staats, Jeff Thomas, and Bear Witness.

Group exhibitions

* 2013: ''Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists'',

Mendel Art Gallery The Mendel Art Gallery was a major creative cultural centre in City Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Operating from 1964 to 2015, it housed a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works of art. The gallery was managed by the city-owned Saskatoon G ...

, Saskatoon, SK * 2019: ''Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists'',

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

, Minneapolis, MN

Selected works

* 1994 ''Living Evidence'' * 1980s ''Portraits in Blood'' * 1998 ''Longing and Not Belonging'' * 2005 ''The Artist in Her Museum: The Collector'' * 1999-2006 ''Plain(s) Warrior Artist'' * 2010 ''Wish You Were Here'' * 2008-ongoing ''Facing the Camera''

Collaborative projects and groups

In 2017, Rosalie Favell organized a collaborative project called ''Wrapped in Culture'' which involved Indigenous artists from Canada: Favell herself, Barry Ace (

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, ...

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They ha ...

), Meryl McMaster (

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

) and Adrian Stimson (

Siksika 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 ''Siks ...

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...

), and from Australia: Maree Clarke (Mutti Mutti,

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

Boon Wurrung The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...

), Vicki West (

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n), Mitch Mahoney (Boon Wurrung,

Barkindji The Paakantyi, or Barkindji or Barkandji, are an Australian Aboriginal tribal group of the Darling River (known to them as the Baaka) basin in Far West New South Wales, Australia. Name The ethnonym Paakantyi means "River people", formed from ...

), Molly Mahoney (Boon Wurrung, Barkindji), Kerri Clarke (Boon Wurrung), and Wade Mahoney (Barkindji). The ten artists created a traditional Blackfoot

buffalo robe A buffalo robe is a cured buffalo hide, with the hair left on. They were used as blankets, saddles or as trade items by the Native Americans who inhabited the vast grasslands of the Interior Plains. Some were painted with pictographs or Winte ...

and an Australian Aboriginal possum skin cloak at workshops spanning a few weeks. The robes were incised and painted with designs in an act of storytelling, reclamation, and community building. Rosalie Favell is part of the OO7 (Ottawa Ontario Seven) Collective, a group of Indigenous artists that includes Ariel Smith,

Barry Ace Barry Ace (artist) (born 1958) is an Anishinaabe ( Odawa) photographic and multimedia artist and curator from Sudbury, Ontario. Ace's work includes mixed media paintings, and mixed media textile and sculptural work that combines traditional Anis ...

, Frank Shebageget, Leo Yerxa, Michael Belmore, Ron Noganosh, and invited “special agents.” The group provides an alternative and experimental space for Ottawa-based Indigenous artists at different stages in their careers.

References

* Ace, Barry. 2007. ''Rituals of Collecting and Transformation: The Artistic Journeys of Rosalie Favell'', BlackFlash, Vol. 24(3). *Ace, Barry and Rice, Ryan. 2000. "Rosalie Favell: Longing and not Belonging." ''CV: Photographie contemporaine'' 53(Winter 2000):23–30. * Ash-Milby, Kathleen, ed. 2010. ''Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor''. New York:

. * Beatty, Greg. 2000. "Exposed: Aesthetics of Aboriginal Erotic Art." ''Artichoke'', 12(1):34–6. * Butler, Sheila. 1987. "A Sense of Place: Photography in Manitoba." ''Vanguard'' 16(2):41–2. * Campbell, Suzan. 2001. ''The American West: People, Places, and Ideas''. Santa Fe, NM: Western Edge Press. * Cerdan, Alice. 2000. "girl Guides boy Scouts: Navigating by our Grandmothers, Rosalie Favell and Arthur Renwick." ''Cahier'' 43. Montréal: Galerie B-312. * Dahle, Sigrid. 2001 February 1. “Dynamic of Riel images examined by 10 artists.” ''Winnipeg Free Press'', 3/2/01, B:7. * Dessureault, Pierre, Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Andrea Kunard, Daniel Chartier, and Jan-Erik Lunstrõm. 2010. ''Nordicité.'' Québec, Qc: J'ai VU. * Di Rusio, Tonia. 1998. ''In Absentia.'' Halifax, NS: Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery. * Enright, Robert. 2001 May 12. "Legends of the fall." ''The Globe and Mail'', 2001/05/12, sec. V, p. 8. * Eyland, Cliff. 2001. "Officialdumbing." ''Border Crossings'' 20.2(78):122-3. * Farrell Racette, Sherry, 2011. ''Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years''. Plug In Editions. * Favell, Rosalie. 2000. “''Dossier: Amérindiens et Métis: art et politique''.” ''Spirale'' 171(mars-avril 2000):3, 6–7, 11–12. * ——. 1994. "Living Evidence." ''Talking Stick'' 1(3):3. * Février, Ève. 1994. “''Speculum de Rosalie Favell.''” ''Esse'' 25(Automne 1994):8–11. * Fraser, Graham. 1999. “Portraits of a people''.''” ''The Globe and Mail'', 20/11/99, sec. R, pp. 1, 3. * Gessell, Paul. 2001 January 18. "The Riel thing: exhibit shows Métis leader as hero to many." ''The Ottawa Citizen'', 2001/01/18, sec. K, pp. 1, 5. * Gilbert, André. 2004. ''Self Portraits in Contemporary Canadian Photography''. Éditions J’ai VU. * Goggin, Kathleen. 1995. ''Rosalie Favell: Living Evidence.'' Montréal: Dazibao. * Hill, Richard William, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, and Joseph Nayhowtow. 2008. ''The World Upside Down = Le monde à l’envers.''Vancouver BC: Walter Phillips Gallery. * Jenkner, Ingrid. 1994. ''Living Evidence''. Regina, Saskatchewan: Dunlop Art Gallery. * Lippard, Lucy R. "Independent Identities." Pp. 134–48 in ''Native American Art in the Twentieth Century'', edited by W. J. Rushing III. London: Routledge. * Madill, Shirley. 1987. ''A Sense of Place: Photography in Manitoba''. Winnipeg: The Winnipeg Art Gallery. * Martin, Lee-Ann, and Morgan Wood. 1999. ''Exposed: Aesthetics of Aboriginal Erotic Art''. Regina, SK: Mackenzie Art Gallery. * Mattes, Catherine. “''Introduction.''” First Voices, First Words Issue. '' Prairie Fire'' 22(3):64–80, 215. * Melnyk, Doug. 1985. "Rosalie Favell." ''Vanguard'' 14(7):36. * Robertson, Sheila. 1998 January 17. "Exhibition draws on family photographs." ''The Star-Phoenix'', 17/1/98, sec. C, p. 10. * Smith, Jaune Quick-to-See. 1997. ''We are One, We are Many: An Exhibition of Contemporary Native American Art''. La Crosse, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. *Starling, Mike. 1997 February 20. "UW-L art gallery director hopes ‘We Are One, We Are Many’ will change attitudes about style of art." ''La Crosse Tribune'', 1997/02/20, sec. E, p. 8. * Tsinhnahjinnie, Hulleah J., and Veronica Passalacqua. 2006. ''Our People, Our Land, Our Images International Indigenous Photographers''. Davis, California: The Regents of the University of California. * Urbanowski, Greg. 1995 January 20. "Métis photographer bares her soul: polaroids reveal intimacy of relationship." ''Prince Albert Daily Herald'', 1995/01/20, p. 9. * Whitebear-Reed, Joyce. 1994. “''Photo-Realities: photographs by First Nations photographers''." ''Talking Stick'' 1(2):6. {{DEFAULTSORT:Favell, Rosalie 1958 births Living people Artists from Ottawa Artists from Winnipeg Canadian women photographers Canadian portrait photographers 20th-century Canadian photographers 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian photographers 21st-century Canadian women artists Canadian Métis people Toronto Metropolitan University alumni University of New Mexico alumni Carleton University alumni Academic staff of the University of Manitoba Institute of American Indian Arts faculty Academic staff of Carleton University Academic staff of the University of Ottawa Academic staff of OCAD University Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian people of English descent 20th-century women photographers 21st-century women photographers