Following the 6:30 p.m. Annual General Meeting, Bob Boyer Website Launch and Wally Dion Catalogue Launch.
When Lakota artist Dana Claxton smashed fine bone china to create Buffalo Bone China (1997) she succeeded in doing more than shocking her audience--she forced us to reconsider Canada's colonial roots. Carmen Robertson situates Claxton's work in its political and spiritual context as part of a lively discussion at the MacKenzie.
Dr. Carmen Robertson teaches contemporary art history at University of Regina, after five years at First Nations University of Canada in Regina, SK, where she served as the Department chairperson of Indian Fine Arts . Robertson has recently completed a book-length project on how the National Film Board of Canada has constructed contemporary Indigenous art through its documentaries. Her SSHRC-supported research investigates Indigenous representation in the mainstream press. Robertson recently published an essay concerning the work of Norval Morrisseau in the Revue d’art canadienne/Canadian Art Review and her essay concerning the editorial cartoons of Kainai artist Everett Soop was published in the British journal Media History this past February. In addition to a committed teaching and publication record, she also maintains an active curatorial agenda. Robertson curated Clearing a Path: Indigenous Traditional Arts with Dr. Sherry Farrell-Racette for the Saskatchewan Arts Board (SAB). This traveling exhibition includes the work of recipients of SAB’s first round of traditional arts grants in the province of Saskatchewan and aims to recast traditional Indigenous arts within contemporary gallery settings while maintaining their unique artistic sensibilities. The companion exhibition catalogue was just published by the Canadian Plains Research Centre.
Carmen Robertson has been an active member of the MacKenzie Art Gallery community since 2001. She is currently a board member and is Chair of the Acquisitions Committee.