what sustains us
May 12 – July 29, 2022
Co-curated by asinnajaq (Guest Curator) and Rhéanne Chartrand (Curator of Indigenous Art)

what sustains us celebrates the mutually sustaining relationships Inuit have with sila (weather), nuna (land), imaq (water), piruqtuminiit (plants) and nirjut (animals), with ourselves, and with each other.

This exhibition presents prints and sculptures by twenty-four Inuit artists in the McMaster Museum of Art Collection, augmented by artworks from three contemporary Inuit artists. Together, these artists and their artworks consider human sustenance as interdependent with how we care for ourselves, our communities, and the earth, emphasizing that the visualization of webs of relationality has been, and continues to be, central to Inuit art-making.

NIIPA 20/20
May 31 – September 2, 2022
Curated by Rhéanne Chartrand

NIIPA 20/20 presents over 150 photographic works by fifty alumni photographers of the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association (NIIPA).

Created between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, and sourced from NIIPA’s permanent collection and past exhibitions, the photographs in NIIPA 20/20 visualize the diverse interests and concerns of the alumni photographers and promote a positive, realistic, and contemporary image of Indigenous life on Turtle Island.

NIIPA 20/20 celebrates the individual and collective artistic achievements of the alumni photographers, and the dedicated staff that supported the presentation of their photographic works over the span of NIIPA’s 20-year history.

This exhibition is the culmination of a five-year archival research project shining light on the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association, an Indigenous arts service organization founded in Hamilton in 1985, which played a critical role in advocating for, supporting, and building up a community of emerging and established Indigenous photographers in Canada and the United States.

Register for the panel talk!
NIIPA in the 90s: A panel discussion/ roundtable presented in conjunction with NIIPA 20/20 exhibition
Online via Zoom, June 16, 3:00pm
Register here

Public Art Projects

Artist Garden
In 2014, the M(M)A began commissioning artists to create site specific work for an empty garden plot positioned just a few steps away from the museum’s entrance. Exhibited artists include Simon Frank, TH&B, and Ernest Daetwyler. Beginning this summer for a two-year term, the museum is pleased to bring to the garden a new piece by Susan Blight and Michael Dellios, titled A Medicine Plant Held a Ceremony for all those who couldn’t remember if they were in this world or moved on. More information and details about the project will be released shortly.

Ernest Daetwyler’s The Boat Project/everythingwillbefine
On May 28, Ernest Daetwyler’s The Boat Project/everythingwillbefine sails home to McMaster University campus! Originally commissioned in 2018 for the museum’s artist garden, Daetwyler transformed pieces of driftwood into a 27-foot boat which invited the community inside to meet and relax in. Following its two-year installation in the artist garden from 2018-2020, the boat became a beloved spot for visitors at the Cambridge Sculpture Garden and was included in the CAKFA biennale last spring. The Boat Project/everythingwillbefine will be permanently installed on campus, in an open field across from McMaster Museum of Art.