Cree/Saulteaux/Métis Nations / Canada

Lori Blondeau is Cree/Saulteaux/Métis from Saskatchewan. Since the 1990s, Blondeau’s artistic practice in the fields of performance, photography and installation, along with her curatorial work and activities as co-founder and Executive Director of the Indigenous art collective TRIBE, has proved decisive to the ever-increasing centrality of Indigenous art and knowledge production in Canada.

With her performances, which include Are You My Mother? (2000), Sisters (2002) and States of Grace (2007) and photographic work, including COSMOSQUAW (1996), Lonely Surfer Squaw (1997) and Asinîy Iskwew (2016), Blondeau’s practice, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with fellow visual artists demonstrates a clarity of focus which is remarkable for its precision, humour and strength. She has collaborated with artists James Luna on a series of installations and a performance titled Dead Fall Revue (2000). In 2006, Blondeau had a solo exhibition Grace at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon and in 2007 she was part of the Requickening project with Shelly Niro, which was presented in the Venice Biennale. 

Since 2018, Blondeau has been Assistant Professor of Indigenous Art at the University of Manitoba School of Art. Blondeau was a recipient of the 2021 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

© Lori Blondeau, Feast And/Or Famine, 2010. Photo Shannon Cochrane.