Jay Simeon (born July 27, 1976) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

artist of Haida heritage on his father's side. He was born into the Kaawaas branch of the Sdast’a.aas Eagle clan. His crests are Eagle, Supernatural Killer Whale, Frog, Beaver, and Raven. His mother is of

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 ...

ancestry and he was born in

Fort Macleod Fort Macleod ( ) is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It was originally named Macleod to distinguish it from the North-West Mounted Police barracks (Fort Macleod, built 1874) it had grown around. The fort was named in honour of the then Commis ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Jay has been practicing Haida art since the age of 14, finding his passion while studying the fundamentals of Haida design with his aunt, Sharon Hitchcock. Jay completed an advanced design course at Vancouver Community College and studied advanced design with Robert Davidson at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Center. He has been included in every major gallery exhibit featuring Haida artworks held since 2003 at leading galleries in

Vancouver, BC Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

and

Seattle, WA Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of ...

. His art spans a variety of media including wood,

argillite :''"Argillite" may also refer to Argillite, Kentucky.'' Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts ...

, silver, gold and

silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open me ...

prints. Especially of note, Jay's work has been featured in the exhibition Raven Travelling at the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

in 2006, the largest Haida exhibition in recent years. His work is also in the permanent collection of the

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Burke Museum) is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club fo ...

, Seattle, WA. His most recent creation of note being a grand piano painted with one of his designs, especially for the Olympics; the paint used was infused with the dust of argillite from Haida Gwaii.

References

External links

Jay Simeon Official Site

Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre

Vancouver Community College
1976 births Living people 20th-century First Nations sculptors Canadian male sculptors 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian sculptors 21st-century Canadian male artists 21st-century First Nations people First Nations jewellers First Nations printmakers First Nations stone carvers Haida woodcarvers {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub