Sonny Assu

Sonny Assu
Born(1975-05-09)May 9, 1975
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
NationalityWe Wai Kai First Nation
EducationEmily Carr University of Art and Design
Known forpainter, printmaker, installation artist, sculptor
MovementKwakwaka'wakw art
Websitehttp://sonnyassu.com

Sonny Assu (born 1975 in Richmond, British Columbia)[1] is a Canadian contemporary artist. Assu's paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and interventions are all infused with his wry humour which is a tool to open the conversation around his themes of predilections: consumerism, colonization and imperialism.[2]

Career

Assu was given a suburban upbringing by his grandparents in North Delta, British Columbia, and didn't learn of his own Kwakwaka'wakw heritage until he was eight years old. He studied painting at Kwantlen College and then at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where he combined his interests in pop art with traditional drum-making and cedar bark weaving.[3]

Assu was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2012, 2013, and 2015.[4] In 2017 he was the recipient of a REVEAL Indigenous Art Award / Prix en art autochtone from the Hnatyshyn Foundation.[5]

Assu is an author in the graphic novel anthology "This Place: 150 Years Retold."[6] His story, 'Tilted Ground,' follows Assu's great-great-grandfather[7] as well as the Potlatch Ban in Canada.[8]

Art

Assu series Breakfast series, Personal Totem series, and Urban Totem series all reflect on how consumer items and icons of pop culture define individual lineage and relate to the idea of totemic representation.[9] In his 2006 Breakfast series, Assu appropriates the form of the cereal box and subverses it with commentaries on First Nations issues such as the environment, treaty rights and land claims.[10]

Selected exhibitions

  • Ready Player Two: Sonny Assu and Brendan Tang, organized and circulated by The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford (2017), and touring to the Yukon Art Centre, Whitehorse (2018), Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art & History, (2018), Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catherines (2018), the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (2019), and Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary (2020).[11]
  • We Come to Witness: Sonny Assu in Dialogue with Emily Carr, Vancouver Art Gallery (2016–17)[12]
  • The Paradise Syndrome (solo), Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver, BC (2016)[13]
  • Home Coming (solo), Campbell River Art Gallery, Campbell River, BC (2016)[14]
  • 1UP (solo), Surrey Art Gallery Urban Screen (2016)[15]
  • Continuum (solo), Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario (2015)[16]

Public collections

A work of Assu spoofing the Coca-Cola logo and replacing it by the words "Enjoy Coast-Salish Territory" is in the collection of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.[3][17] He also has works in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada,[18] the Vancouver Art Gallery,[19] Seattle Art Museum,[20] the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC,[21] and Burnaby Art Gallery,[22] amongst others.

References

  1. ^ "Sonny Assu". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  2. ^ Rynor, Becky (June 8, 2015). "An Interview with Sonny Assu". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Thom, Ian M. (2009), "Sonny Assu", Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast, Douglas & McIntyre, pp. 12–15.
  4. ^ "An Interview with Sonny Assu". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  5. ^ "Indigenous Awards | The Hnatyshyn Foundation". www.rjhf.com. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  6. ^ This Place | Highwater Press. Retrieved 2019-04-23. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  7. ^ "An Interview with Sonny Assu about "This Place: 150 Years Retold"". Portage & Main Press / Highwater Press - The Exchange. 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  8. ^ "Honouring the Indigenous tradition of potlatch". Portage & Main Press / Highwater Press - The Exchange. 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  9. ^ Martin, Keavy (2010). "<i>Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations</i> (review)". ESC: English Studies in Canada. 36 (4): 137–140. doi:10.1353/esc.2010.0050. ISSN 1913-4835. S2CID 161670524.
  10. ^ "Breakfast Series". Seattle Art Museum. February 11, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  11. ^ "Ready Player Two – The Reach". Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  12. ^ "Vancouver Art Gallery". www.vanartgallery.bc.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  13. ^ "The Paradise Syndrome | Malaspina Printmakers". Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  14. ^ "Past | Campbell River Art Gallery". Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  15. ^ Surrey, City of. "Sonny Assu: 1UP". www.surrey.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  16. ^ "SONNY ASSU TALKS LIVE AND IN PERSON THURSDAY » Thunder Bay Art Gallery". Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  17. ^ Mayer, Carol Elizabeth; Shelton, Anthony (2009), The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Douglas & McIntyre, p. 37, ISBN 9781553654155.
  18. ^ National Gallery of Canada: Sonny Assu, retrieved 2014-08-12.
  19. ^ "Vancouver Art Gallery Annual Report 2015–16" (PDF).
  20. ^ "Collection". art.seattleartmuseum.org. SAM. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  21. ^ "Collection – Audain Art Museum". Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  22. ^ "There Is Hope, If We Rise #1 | Art Gallery Collections". collections.burnabyartgallery.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-12.