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![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4297436_web1_260609-WAG-Reframed-2-.jpg\")
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Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
Marie-Anne Redhead, assistant curator of Indigenous and contemporary art at Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq says she \u2018wanted to highlight Indigenous perspectives on these artworks to really see these people as people,\u2019 with Reframed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to highlight Indigenous perspectives on these artworks to really see these people as people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Redhead said the idea came to her in 2021, while working on a project to rename historic Indigenous settler art with racist titles.<\/p>\n
Through this process, she realized that less than one per cent of the WAG-Qaumajuq\u2019s collection is by First Nations or M\u00e9tis artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our collection (we) actually have more of these ethnographic representations of us rather than artwork by us,\u201d Redhead says.<\/p>\n
This is when she decided to expand the scope of the original project and pair the historical paintings with modern work that resists colonial stereotypes and brings forward Indigenous presence.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t photos by Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n Marie-Anne Redhead, assistant curator of Indigenous and contemporary art at Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq, wanted to highlight Indigenous perspectives with Reframed.<\/p>\n \u201cI looked around at what a lot of contemporary First Nations and M\u00e9tis artists were doing, and I found that a lot of them were already sort of doing the work Reframed was doing, which is to speak against those stereotypes and representations of us,\u201d Redhead says.<\/p>\n One example of her pairings is a painting from Quebec expressionist artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, who is well known for his abstract paintings.<\/p>\n Riopelle\u2019s paintings are usually placed with his contemporaries, who are also white settlers, but by placing his work next to Indigenous artist Rita Letendre, whose work comes from the same artistic movement, Redhead wanted to show that racialized artists have been using these practices for just as long without the same recognition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m reframing the way that we engage with not only Indigenous art but also art history,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Reframed presents an unsanitized version of Indigenous and settler relations that the curator admits could be hard for some to take in and reckon with.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ruth Bonneville Free Press<\/p>\n Artwork by American Indigenous artist Fritz Scholder, right, juxtaposed against work by William Armstrong at the Reframed exhibit.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people walking through this exhibit may be dealing with a little bit of discomfort,\u201d she says. \u201cI want people to sit with that discomfort and understand where it might be coming from. I also want people to learn more about the history of Indigenous presence and resistance as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Redhead says representation in places such as the Winnipeg Art Gallery plays a big role in breaking down colonial views, because Indigenous work was never historically considered fine art.<\/p>\n Vi Houssin, one of the emerging artists featured in the exhibition, says beadwork has been the \u201cflagship artistic medium\u201d of the M\u00e9tis people, but hasn\u2019t been considered high art until the last 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been undervalued, it has been sold for ridiculously low amounts of money and it has been treated as ethnographic items rather then works of fine art,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Houssin\u2019s beadwork in the exhibit consists of three separate pieces that depict the most influential women in her life.<\/p>\n
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