July 25, 2019 to September 29, 2019
From July 25 to September 29, La Guilde, in partnership with Land InSights, a society for the dissemination of Indigenous culture and the organizer of Montreal First Peoples Festival, proudly presented Nehirowisidigital, an exhibition of illustrations by emerging artist Meky Ottawa.
Comprising eleven works on paper, some of which were taken from the exhibition held at the Musée amérindien de Mashteuiatsh, the pieces created in 2017 were being presented for the very first time in Montreal. This exhibition marked La Guilde’s first collaboration with Meky Ottawa and the artist’s second solo exhibition in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal).
Modern and minimal in style, and halfway between the traditional and the contemporary, her work is strongly inspired by her Atikamekw culture and heritage, her feminist perspective and her daily urban life. Her works are often humorous and committed and at times political through reverse reappropriation.
Although she is mostly known for her work in video, this does not prevent the multidisciplinary artist from being active in illustrations and installations. Notably, she is the artist behind the sumptuous mural dedicated to the great Indigenous filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. Throughout her early career, Meky Ottawa has exhibited her works in Mashteuiatsh, Nantes and Montreal, notably at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts as part of the collective exhibition titled Elles Autochtones (2017). Her animation films have been presented in Toronto, New York, Santiago (Chile), Marseille and Paris (France), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Guadalajara (Mexico). In 2019, she presented Résurgence at the Conseil des arts de Montréal and completed an artist residency at the Centre d’art et de diffusion Clark as part of a project dedicated to the work of Indigenous women artists.
“The creative process allows me to discover myself, to know myself better, but also to make part of my cultural heritage known to others. I believe that creation is a reflection of the self and our influence; in my case, being an Indigenous artist means being an activist. With my work, I want to contribute to the creation and promotion of a multiplicity of Indigenous identities. Art allows me to evolve, to grow, to share and to know myself a little more each time.”
- Meky Ottawa