Kent Monkman's SHAME AND PREJUDICE Begins Canadian Tour

After premiering at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto with over 23,000 visitors, Kent Monkman's Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience will begin its national tour, travelling between Canadian coasts for the next three years. Calgary's Glenbow Museum is the first stop to welcome Monkman's searing critique of Canada's colonial policies in response to the Sesquicentennial of Confederation.

As both artist and curator, Monkman includes his own paintings, drawings and sculptural works, in dialogue with historical artefacts and art works borrowed from museum and private collections from across the country. Shame and Prejudicewas repeatedly described by Art Museum visitors as the show that "everyone needs to see."

Barbara Fischer, Executive Director at the Art Museum, underlines the significance of the exhibition, which narrates a story of Canada through the lens of First Nations' resilience. "Monkman's artistic and curatorial project puts unreconciled settler-indigenous relations front-and-center of a singularly powerful reconfiguration of the museum's role as narrative form. Over three years in the making, Monkman's project is a major revisioning of the way in which the relationship between settler and indigenous peoples is typically represented."

Narrated by Monkman's time-travelling alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, the nine chapters of her memoirs tell of the disastrous consequences of the newcomers' taking of the lands. Miss Chief's journey takes her from the Fur Trade to the bitter tales of subjugation through starvation and sickness, to present-day life on the Urban Res to witness the fall-out of centuries of shame and prejudice.

A catalogue published in English, French, and Cree is forthcoming in the fall of 2017, with an introduction by Barbara Fischer and contributions from Richard Hill, Lucy Lippard, and John Ralston Saul.

Comments from the visitors' book
"Kent Monkman has given us a powerful and moving reality check."

"Fantastic - this show should be on tour from coast to coast. We have so much to learn and this has so much to teach us."

Enabled by the leading support of the Donald R. Sobey Foundation, the Art Museum partners with the Confederation Centre Art Gallery to present this major exhibition in venues across the country.

Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience
Canadian Tour Schedule

Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta
June 17 - September 10, 2017

Agnes Etherington Art Centre - Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario
January 6 - April 8, 2018

Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island
June 24 - September 15, 2018

Art Gallery of NOVA Scotia in Halifax, NOVA Scotia
October 10 - December 15, 2018

McCord Museum in Montréal, Québec
January 15 - February 24, 2019

Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Ontario
Summer 2019

Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba
October 2019 - January 2020

Museum of Anthropology at UBC in Vancouver, British Columbia
May - October 2020

Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist and curator of Cree ancestry who works with a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. His most recent curatorial project was the exhibition My Treaty is with the Crown at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University in 2011. As an artist, he has had solo exhibitions at numerous Canadian museums including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has participated in various international group exhibitions including: The American West at Compton Verney, Warwickshire; Remember Humanity at Witte de With, Rotterdam; 2010 Biennale of Sydney; My Winnipeg at la maison rouge, Paris; and Oh, Canada at MASS MoCA, North Adams. Monkman has created site specific performances at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Royal Ontario Museum, and Compton Verney. He has also made Super 8 versions of these performances which he calls "Colonial Art Space Interventions". His award-winning short film and video works have been screened at various national and international festivals, including the 2007 and 2008 Berlinale, and the 2007 and 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. His work is represented in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Denver Art Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum London, Glenbow Museum, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and Vancouver Art Gallery.

This touring exhibition is produced by the Art Museum at the University of Toronto in partnership with the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown and has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada.??

Lead Sponsor: Donald R. Sobey Family Foundation.

Additional support has been provided by the Ontario Arts Council's National and International Touring program.?The Art Museum at the University of Toronto gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.?

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