MMFA 2017: Nadia Myre

NADIA MYRE 

TOUT CE QUI RESTE – SCATTERED REMAINS

November 15, 2017 – May 27, 2018

This is the first solo survey exhibition of Nadia Myre, a Quebec Indigenous artist, at the Montreal Museum Of Fine Arts. It features the Canadian premiere of Code Switching, a series Myre produced during an artist residency at the Darling Foundry, sponsored by the MMFA, in 2016-2017. The exhibition includes some twenty works – photographs and sculptures – created between 2000 and 2017. It is part of Woman. Artist. Indigenous. season at the Museum, devoted to female Indigenous artists.

This is an imaginative presentation of several individual works by the artists. The way they are displayed together, a coherent whole is achieved and is perceived as a single artistic installation. As one walks within the exhibition room from one displayed object to the next, it is becomes obvious that what one sees are separate puzzle pieces of the same unified body of art that tells the story how the artist reconciles her reality, the reality of her native roots, the overpowering European stronghold that took over, and the modern multi-ethnic cultural fabric of the society within which she lives and creates. She uses elements not produced by the natives to express native motives and designs, thus recreating her own identity through the blending of all separate realities of her present life. For instance, the native ornamental piece in the photo at the very top of this article was made with ceramic pieces Myre found in the mud during a river Themes' low tide, a popular activity called mud-larking by the Londoners. These ceramic pieces were used in manufacturing pipes. A a remnant of one such pipe, also found by the artist, appears in the image above this paragraph.

About Nadia Myre

Nadia Myre is a member of the Algonquin First Nation of Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg. In her works, she revisits official history and the political and social struggles of Indigenous peoples. She juxtaposes her personal experience with that of others, creating highly symbolic works that spark contemplation and reflection. She takes a participatory approach and tackles topics of identity, language, desire and memory. The works in the exhibition reflect on the encounter between Indigenous peoples and the Europeans.

Born in Montreal in 1974, Nadia Myre is a graduate of Camosun College, Victoria (1995), Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver (1997), and Concordia University (MFA, 2002). She received the Banff Centre for Arts Walter Phillips Gallery Indigenous Commission Award (2016), and the prestigious 2014 Sobey Art Award, for outstanding Canadian artists aged forty or under. In the past 15 years, her works have been presented and collected by museums in Canada and abroad, including the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Art Gallery of Ontario, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, the National Museum of the American Indian (New York), Eiteljorg Museum (Indianapolis), the Compton Verney Art Gallery (GB), Fresnoy (France), and the Sydney Biennale in Australia.

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WOMAN. ARTIST. INDIGENOUS.

This fall, the MMFA is spotlighting female Indigenous artists with exhibitions and acquisitions of their works, as part of Woman. Artist. Indigenous. In addition to the exhibition of works by Nadia Myre, this cycle presents the work of Ontario photographer Meryl McMaster, with the exhibition IN-BETWEEN WORLDS (until December 3, 2017), consisting of two photographic series entitled In-Between Worlds (2010-2015) and Wanderings (2015); artists Eruoma Awashish, Meky Ottawa and Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush, with their immersive installation KUSHAPETSHEKAN / KOSAPTCIKAN – A GLIMPSE INTO THE OTHER WORLD (until February 4, 2018), as well as recent acquisitions of works by Maria Hupfield and Rebecca Belmore. Woman. Artist. Indigenous. follows She Photographs (2016), which featured seventy works by thirty contemporary female photographers from Quebec and further afield, and Her Story Today (2015), which presented works by six contemporary Canadian female painters

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