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A Celebration of Womanhood

Lita Fontaine. Untitled (Pink decorated buffalo), 2023-24. Mixed media on wood panel. Collection of the artist.

Lita Fontaine, a Dakota, Anishinaabe, and Metis artist and educator from Treaty One will have her work on display in WAG-Qaumajuq this summer.
The survey of her work will span two gallery spaces and revisit some of her pieces in our permanent collection, as well as borrowed and newly commissioned artworks.

Winyan – the Dakota word for woman – is a celebration of femininity and challenges us all to expand our perceptions of what it means to be a woman. Fontaine is known for her work with textiles, which will feature heavily in Winyan, as well as collage, dress making, and installations.

Fontaine has a long history with the Gallery. She remembers attending the opening of the 1971 WAG building, worked at the café in the 1970s and in the Studio in the early 2000s, and has had several artworks included in various exhibitions throughout the years, most recently Kwaata Nihtaawakihk: A Hard Birth (2022). She had a solo exhibition at the Gallery curated by Cathy Mattes in 2002, entitled Without Reservation. She currently teaches classes at WAG Studio, and to come full circle now with this major retrospective couldn’t be more timely.

This important project responds to Call for Justice 2.7 of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG2S+, the release of which marks its fifth anniversary this June.

WAG-Qaumajuq Assistant Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art, Marie-Anne Redhead, hopes to reacquaint Winnipeggers with Fontaine’s work and introduce her art to a new audience.

“Lita is an arts educator first and foremost. I hope this show highlights the importance of Indigenous artwork through a Treaty One perspective and helps to redefine what we view as fine art,”
-Marie-Anne Redhead, WAG-Qaumajuq Assistant Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art

“I want to display the art in a way that emphasizes their value and meaning, and makes the viewer think of their relationship to the object.”

Stay tuned for more information about this exhibition in the coming weeks and be sure to include a visit to WAG-Qaumajuq in the summer.

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July 5-December, 2024
Galleries 5 & 6

Curated by Marie-Anne Redhead, WAG-Qaumajuq Assistant Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art

 

Save the Date

Join us for the FREE opening celebration of Winyan on Friday, July 5 at 7pm. Doors open at 6pm.

Hear from the artist and other special guests, enjoy music, a cash bar, and of course, preview the exhibition!

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July 5-December, 2024
Galleries 5 & 6

Curated by Marie-Anne Redhead, WAG-Qaumajuq Assistant Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art

 

Save the Date

Join us for the FREE opening celebration of Winyan on Friday, July 5 at 7pm. Doors open at 6pm.

Hear from the artist and other special guests, enjoy music, a cash bar, and of course, preview the exhibition!

Details

Share
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WAG-Qaumajuq recognizes that land acknowledgements are part of an ongoing dialogue with Indigenous Nations, and we are grateful to live and work on these lands and waters. Institutionally, WAG-Qaumajuq is committed to acknowledging our colonial history and we are actively working to interrogate the Gallery’s colonial ways of being.

WAG-Qaumajuq is LEED certified.

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Winnipeg Art Gallery—Qaumajuq
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