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This exhibition runs September 27, 2025 - January 6, 2026, at Dunlop Art Gallery (Central Library)
Sonny Assu is a member of the Ligwiłda’xw people of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations on Vancouver Island. This exhibition, called Confluence, brings together several bodies of work that respond to the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Indigenous communities, such as the loss of land, language, cultural belongings, traditional knowledge, and self-determination.
Working in many mediums, Assu sparks conversation about Indigenous life. He often uses humour and pop culture to connect with audiences, while also drawing on the visual traditions and histories of his ancestors. Through this blending of past and present, his work reclaims stories of power and identity, celebrating Indigenous strength, resilience, and perspectives.
Sonny Assu, an Indigenous artist of the Ligwiłda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations, was raised in North Delta, BC, and now lives on his ancestral land on Vancouver Island. He studied at Emily Carr University and earned an MFA from Concordia. His many honours include the Emily Carr Distinguished Alumnus Award, BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations Art (2011), Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017), and the Eiteljorg Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2021). Assu has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally, with works held in public and private collections across Canada, the UK, USA, and Australia.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Dunlop Art Gallery Exhibitions |
TAGS: | Dunlop Art Gallery | Current | Artist and Author Talks |
Christina Battle, William “Billy” Beal, Anna Binta Diallo, Cheryl Foggo, Judah Iyunade, Richard Allan Thomas, Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, NASRA, Frank B. Jamerson fonds
BLACK PRAIRIES honours more than one hundred years of Black/African-Canadian cultural production in the Prairies, spanning the 1920s to the present, with a focus on lens-based media. The exhibition includes newly commissioned contemporary artwork, original glass plate negatives by early 1900s Black Manitoban photographer William “Billy” Beal, and archival photographs from the City of Edmonton’s Frank B. Jamerson fonds.
Beal’s glass plate negatives, taken between 1915 and 1925, document homesteading life in western Manitoba from the perspective of a lone Black man living in an all-white rural township during the early 1900s. Meanwhile, the photographs in the Frank B. Jamerson fonds, created by unnamed photographers, depict everyday Black life in and around Amber Valley, Alberta—a historic community formed during the Great Black Migration of 1910. This migration saw African-Americans fleeing racial violence in the United States to seek refuge in the Canadian Prairies. The selected photographs in this exhibition capture the first thirty years after the migration, reflecting the experiences of the first generation of Black migrants in the region. The contemporary artists in this exhibition foster important dialogues about personal histories, a changing climate, and collective experiences in the region.
Additionally, the exhibition includes the newly created short film For Caesar by filmmaker Cheryl Foggo. The film features Leander Lane, the great-grandson of Julius Caesar Lane, a founding member of the Shiloh People, the historic African-Canadian community in Saskatchewan.
BLACK PRAIRIES provides space for communal grounding and reflection on the ongoing and ever-expanding continuum of Black life and Black cultural production in the Prairies.
Image: Rosa and Mary, Amber Valley, Alberta c. 1940, black and white photograph, 5 x 6 cm. Frank B. Jamerson fonds, courtesy City of Edmonton Archives.
