MMFA 2017: Meryl McMaster

MERYL McMASTER

IN-BETWEEN WORLDS

September 8 – December 3, 2017

Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level S2

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents MERYL MCMASTER – IN-BETWEEN WORLDS, as part of MOMENTA / Biennale de l’image (formerly Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal). This is a first-time presentation in Quebec of In-Between Worlds (2015) and Wanderings (2010-2015), two series by the indigenous Ontario photographer.

The exhibition presents a dozen larger scale photos - McMaster's self portraits in which she plays the lead role in an imaginary world  where she explores the feelings that arise from her pluralistic heritage: Cree from the Great Plains, member of the Siksika nation, Canadian and European. Borrowing from sculpture and from performance, she integrates costumes and accessories as talismans. Her fantastic universe evokes childhood, animal kingdom and myths related to indigenous culture.

In the Wanderings and In-Between Worlds series, McMaster employs a 

plethora of props – clothes, jewellery, talismans – which become extensions of the body and lead to telescoping of identities. She positions herself in the middle of nature, considering the landscapes and the seasons as part of a cultural context in which myth and narration come together. Her different images become parables of her identity.

About Meryl McMaster

Meryl McMaster (born in 1988) is a Canadian artist who lives and works in Ottawa. Through portrait and self-portrait photography practices, she explores self-construction through lineage, history, and culture. Her work is presented throughout Canada and the United States. Recent solo and group exhibitions include 25 x 25, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 2017); From the Belly of Our Being, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art (Stillwater, 2017); Collected Journeys, Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax, 2016); Back Where They Came From, Sherry Leedy Contemporary (Kansas City, 2016); Meryl McMaster: Ancestral, Bockley Gallery (Minneapolis, 2015); and Meryl McMaster: Second Self, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (New York, 2015). She has received the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017) and the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship (2013), and was long-listed for the 2016 Sobey Art Award.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

Meeting with Meryl McMaster

A discussion with the artist takes place on October 4 at 6 p.m. in the exhibition space at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. By reservation.