Kent MonkmanLife & Work

Subversive, bold, unapologetic, and unforgiving, the work of Kent Monkman (b.1965) has left an unmistakable mark on contemporary Canadian art. Since the early 2000s, Monkman, accompanied by his time-travelling, shape-shifting, gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, has redefined the Canadian cultural landscape. Riffing on techniques of the Old Masters, Monkman first found fame by recreating notable landscape paintings and populating them with Indigenous visions of resistance.

Kent Monkman: Life & Work is the first comprehensive book on one of the most important and internationally celebrated contemporary artists in Canada. Author Shirley Madill details Monkman’s youth in Manitoba, where he grew up as a member of the Fisher River First Nation. He was the child of missionary parents who lived in the Cree community of Shamattawa, and later in Winnipeg, where colonial realities left a deep impression on him. Monkman displayed incredible skill in art making at an early age. His first abstract works incorporated syllabics from his parents’ Cree hymnbook; soon, he began to directly engage with Indigenous experience and expression in art and culture.