Kent Monkman
* CONTENT WARNING
He does amazing work; but it is designed to provoke a reaction. Some pieces are highly sexual and violent. I would avoid browsing in front of students.
"I wanted to work within the conventions to shock or surprise people," he said. "They feel like they're approaching a familiar form of landscape picture-making, but as they spend time with it, they're dislocated. They have to question everything they've received. That was a kind of disconnect I wanted the audience to have."
Themes in his work:
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Colonialism
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Politics & Protest
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Sexuality
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Human Rights
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"National Mythology"
Bio:
Kent Monkman, born in Canada in 1965, is a Cree artist who is widely known for his provocative interventions into Western European and American art history. He explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience—the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences—across a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. Monkman’s gender-fluid alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle often appears in his work as a time-traveling, shape-shifting, supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze to challenge received notions of history and Indigenous peoples.
His process of creation:
Ideas that drive his work:
Kent Monkman: A trickster with a cause crashes Canada's 150th birthday party
Subverting the style of painting's Old Masters and the founding narratives of Confederation, a Cree artist and his alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, are challenging colonial national myths in a new exhibit.
Globe and Mail Article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-150/kent-monkman-shame-and-prejudice/article33515775/
The modern touch of an old master
Kent Monkman is about as famous as a living painter can be in this country. Dakshana Bascaramurty gets a peek at the process behind his art