Contemporary Native Art Biennial

Curators: Michael Patten & Armando Perla Artists: Aïcha Bastien-N’Diaye (Canada), ARIA XYX (El Salvador), Arla Lucia (United States), Caroline Monnet (Canada), Feliciana Bautista (Mexico), Isaac Te Awa (Aotearoa New Zealand), Jeanine Clarkin (Aotearoa New Zealand), Kent Monkman (Canada), Melanie Monique Rose (Canada), Meryl McMaster (Canada), Omar Monroy / El Techichi Jewelry (United States of America / Mexico), Porfirio Gutiérrez (Mexico / United States of America), Renati Waaka (New Zealand), Taalrumiq (Canada), and Tekaronhiahkhwa Standup (Canada).

To Move Across the Land / Iaohontso’ktá:tie brings together Indigenous and diaspora artists who view fashion, ornamentation, and performance as technologies of care and resistance. Through clothing, beadwork, jewelry, textiles, clay, and drag art, the body is approached as a living territory, marked by colonial history yet a bearer of knowledge, memory, and continuity. Structured around four themes—clothing as a second skin, ornament as archives, matrilineal practices of making, and the reinvention of gender—the exhibition affirms the clothed and adorned body as a living archive, capable of resisting erasure and projecting sovereign futures.

Founded in 2012, the Contemporary Native Art Biennial is a major visual arts event in Quebec showcasing the work of artists from various nations across North America and even internationally. This year, the event will take place from April through February in five cities across Quebec: Montreal, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, Saint-Hyacinthe, and Rimouski.

This edition of BACA will feature seven additional exhibition venues, including the Art Mûr Gallery (Montreal), the Stewart Hall Art Gallery (Montreal), the McCord Stewart Museum (Montreal), Quai 5160/Maison de la culture de Verdun (Montreal), the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke, Expression – Centre d’exposition (Saint-Hyacinthe), and the Musée de Rimouski.

In order to better serve you, DRAC will now be offering three specific workshops for each exhibition: 1- Acrylic pencils 2- Exhibition curator 3- Digital drawing

These workshops are developed for various audiences, including school groups, day camps, community organizations, libraries, and seniors’ residences.