Group Exhibition Power in Resistance
- Iván Argote
- Marilyn Boror
- Sebastián Calfuqueo
- Carlos Colín
- Lucia Cuba
- Meryl McMaster
This exhibition exposes voices of resistance and resilience that flourish throughout the Americas as a response to centuries of racism, poverty, and widespread economic and social exclusion of Indigenous peoples in the region. From the southern hemisphere of the Mapuche to the Cree in the north, artists in Power in Resistance address the impact of colonization, including forced sterilization, risk of language extinction, residential schools, shaming queer identities, and violence. Counteracting such attempts of cultural erasure, these artists continue a path of truth, acknowledgment, power, and transformation.
Neoliberal capitalist and historical legacies of colonial racism continue to grow, as we witness multiple killings of Indigenous peoples in countries across the Americas. Contemporary artists Iván Argote (Colombia), Marilyn Boror (Guatemala), Sebastián Calfuqueo (Chile), Carlos Colín (Mexico/Vancouver), Lucia Cuba (Peru/New York), and Meryl McMaster (Canada) respond by facing the threats posed, challenging dominant narratives, and decolonizing landscapes. They offer a legacy of Indigenous struggle for future generations to follow. By understanding the specificities of converging and diverging violent patterns across the Americas, recognition of the importance of defiance and resistance is inevitable.
Meryl McMaster (b. 1988) creates dreamlike photographic self-portraiture that crosses timescales, blending moments, lifetimes, generations, and geological eras. Drawing from her nēhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Euro-Canadian ancestry she constructs site-specific scenes with labour-intensive garments. McMaster’s work reinforces the intersections between actual and imagined experiences, in hopes of better understanding oneself, our histories, lineage and a more-than-human world. McMaster’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Urban Shaman, Winnipeg (2021), McCord Steward Museum, Montréal (2021), Canada House, London (2020), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2019) and The Image Centre [Formerly Ryerson Image Centre], Toronto (2019). McMaster was shortlisted for the Rencontres d’Arles New Discovery Award (2019), was the recipient of the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award (2018), REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017), and the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship (2013).