Meryl Mcmaster
Cree
(1988)
First Name:Meryl
Last Name:McMaster
Full Name:Meryl McMaster
Date of birth: 1988
Place of birth:Ottawa
Community/Heritage:Plains Cree/ Blackfoot
Sex:Female
Website:http://merylmcmaster.com/
Art Media:photography, performance
Bio:
Meryl McMaster blends photography, performance, and sculpture, making extensive use of props, makeup, and constructed clothing to create staged self-portraits. These performances are situated within the histories of Indigenous representation and the enmeshed structures of inherited narratives. With Indigenous and European ancestry - Plains Cree (Nêhiyaw) on her father’s side and British/Dutch on her mother’s - McMaster’s work confronts the tensions of personal heritage and the construction of a sense of self, read through landscape, lineage, and history.
Straddling the line between recollection and re-enactment, McMaster stages her photos at locations of personal and cultural significance, drawn from stories told by relatives, knowledge keepers, and friends: places where her ancestors visited or passed by, or sites of social exchange. These geographies that have undergone colonial trauma and transformation (meeting places now destroyed, landscapes now compromised) become sweeping, theatrical backdrops for a restlessness, embodied selfhood. Her densely-built garments animate these overlapping tensions, re-mythologizing them and imbuing them with imaginative power.
McMaster lives and works in Ottawa. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the REVEAL Indigenous Art Award, the Scotiabank New Generation award, and the Charles Pachter Prize for Emerging Artists, and was shortlisted for the 2016 Sobey Art Award. She has been exhibited in the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), and the Canada Gallery (London, UK). Her work can be found in public collections including the AGO, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Canada Council Art Bank.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions:
2020
As Immense as the Sky, Canada House, London, England
Confluence, The Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery, Sarnia, ON
2019
Meryl McMaster: As Immense as the Sky,Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
As Immense as the Sky, Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC
As Immense as the Sky, Stephen Bulger Gallery Reading Room, Toronto, ON
As Immense as the Sky, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, ON
Confluence, Glenbow, Calgary, AB
2018
Meryl McMaster: Second Self/Ancestral, Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC
Confluence,The Rooms, St. John’s, NL
Confluence, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AB
2017
Threads of Self, Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC
Entre-Deux Mondes – In-Between Worlds,MOMENTA Biennale, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, QC
Confluence, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, MB
Confluence, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON
Confluence, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC
2016
Confluence,Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto, ON
Confluence, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Collected Journeys, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS
Wanderings, Artspace, Peterborough, ON
2015
Meryl McMaster: Ancestral, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Wanderings, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
Wanderings, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Meryl McMaster: Second Self, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY
2013
In-Between Worlds, Art Gallery of Hamilton Design Annex, Hamilton, ON
In-Between Worlds, Peterborough Art Gallery, Peterborough, ON
In-Between Worlds, Katzman Kamen Gallery, Toronto, ON
2012
In-Between Worlds, Station Gallery, Whitby, ON
2011
Second Self, The Latcham Gallery, Stouffville, ON
Second Self, Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, ON
2010
In-Between Worlds, Project Space, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
Group Exhibitions:
2020
Inaabiwin/Movement of Light, The Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery, Sarnia, ON
A New Light: Canadian Women Artists, Embassy of Canada Art Gallery in Washington, Washington, D.C
They Forget We Were Seeds, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Taking a Stand, Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor Michigan
Fairy Tails, Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, NB
Wrapped in Culture, Wanuskewin Heritage Centre, Saskatoon, SK
2019
Signal: 2019 Additions to the City of Ottawa Art Collection, Karsh-Masson Gallery/City Hall Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Inaabiwin/Movement of Light, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Native North America/Contemporary Innovations, Linlithgow Burgh Halls, Linlithgow, Scotland
Echoing the Land, Indigenous Art Centre, Gatineau, QC
Inaabiwin/Movement of Light, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
Les Rencontres d’Arles: Louis Roederer Discovery Award 2019, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles France
Henry Beaudry & Meryl McMaster, Chief Poundmaker Museum and Gallery, Poundmaker First Nation, SK
Survivance on Turtle Island: Heritage, Voice and Identity in Contemporary Native American Art, Queensborough Community College’s Kupferberg Holocaust Center, Bayside, NY
Aski | Earth | Terre | Yarta, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney Australia
The Collection Continues: A Quarter Century of Collecting, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON T
he Perennials: Works from the Permanent Collection, KitchenerWaterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON
Wrapped in Culture, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Writers Select, Doris McCarthy Art Gallery, Scarborough, ON
Manif d’art 9: Small Between the Stars, Large Against the Sky, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City, QC
2018
(RE)CLAIM, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Inaabiwin/movement of light, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, ON
Imago Mundi: Great & North, OCADU Onsite Gallery, Toronto, ON
Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award, OCADU Onsite Gallery, Toronto, ON
Resilience, National Billboard Project, across Canada
níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | ma soeur | my sister, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire, QC
We’ll All Become Stories, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Niigaanikwewag, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
Recover All That is Ours, Campbell River Art Gallery, Campbell River, B.C
Native Portraiture: Power and Perception, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Meryl McMaster and David Ellingsen: Betwixt, The Hospital Club, London, England
Embodiment, Museum London, London, ON
From here to there (then and now), Portage Bridge Tunnel, Ottawa, ON
2017
150 Acts: Art, Activism, Impact, Art Gallery of Guelph, Guelph, ON
Meryl McMaster and David Ellingsen: Betwixt, The Hospital Club, London, England
Native Art Now, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN
From here to there (then and now), Ottawa Portage Bridge Tunnel, Ottawa, ON
First Nations Now II: Contemporary Innovations, The Baldwin Gallery, London, England
My City My Six: home/place, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto, ON
Material Girls, Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catherine, ON
Future Memories (Present Tense): Contemporary Practices in Perspective, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB
Entering the Landscape, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, MB
Continuum, Karsh Masson Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Great and North: Imago Mundi Project, Venice, Italy
Re-Enact, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON
Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
It’s Complicated, Central Art Garage, Ottawa, ON
All-Day Breakfast, First Canadian Place, Toronto, ON
Drive-Thru, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
First Nations Now: Between Worlds, The Baldwin Gallery, London, England
Coyote School, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, ON
The Sublunary World, Black Club, London, England
The Sublunary World, The Baldwin Gallery, London, England
Material Girls, University of Saskatchewan College Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK
Dar’a/Full Circle, Artcite Inc., Windsor, ON
25 x 25: Twenty-Five Years of Exhibition Announcements from Twenty-Five Indigenous Artist, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa, ON
From the Belly of Our Being, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, Oklahoma
2016
Aujourd’hui Encore, Trépanier Baer Gallery, Calgary, AB
My Spirit is Strong, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Art Gallery, Gatineau, QC
Reimagining Agora: 2016 Yorkville Village Arts Festival, Yorkville Village, Toronto, ON
Back Where They Came From, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Since Then, PLATORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB
Material Girls, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, AB
Counterpoints: Photography Through the Lens of Toronto Collections, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, ON
Canadian Belongings, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
Future 33, YTB Gallery, Toronto, ON
Miller Time, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
Fifth World, Kitchen Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON
Material Girls, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto, ON
Temporal (Re)Imaginings, Canada Council for the Arts, Âjagemô Art Space, Ottawa, ON
This is Us Now, Karsh-Masson Gallery, Ottawa, ON
2015
ORANGE 2015 – Visceral, ORANGE Pavilion, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC
Gazing Back, Looking Forward, Fort York National Historic Site Gallery, Toronto, ON
Wandering Together: Johannes Zits and Meryl McMaster, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
Identity: Art Inspired by the Great Lakes, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario’s Vice Regal Suite, Toronto, ON
Ontario in Âjagemô, Canada Council for the Arts Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Fifth World, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK Imago Mundi: Map of The New Art, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venezia, Italy
The Rebel Yells: Dress and Political Re-dress in Contemporary Indigenous Art, FOFA Gallery, Montréal, QC
in-between-in-between, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
Material Girls, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, SK
In Another Place, And Here, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, B.C.
2014
I:ke - I have motion, ASpace/ IMAGINENative Film Festival, Toronto, ON
Flash Forward 10th Anniversary Exhibition: Uncanny Worlds, OCAD University ONSITE Gallery, Toronto, ON
Storytelling: Contemporary Native Art Biennale, Ottawa School of Art Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON
The Ontario-Jiangsu Photography Project, Ontario Ministry of Tourism/Ontario Arts Council online exhibition, Toronto, ON
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival: Identity, MOCCA, Toronto, ON
Storytelling: Contemporary Native Art Biennal, Art Mûr, Montréal, QC
2013
RED: Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN AGO First Thursday, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Trade Marks, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON
In the Flesh, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Face to Face, Durham Art Gallery, Durham, ON
2012
Spotlight on 40 Years: Artworks from the Canada Council Art Bank, Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON
New Faces: Portraits from the Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank, Jardins de Métis – Reford Gardens, Grand-Métis, QC
Flash Forward 2011 Group Show, Fairmont Battery Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts
1812-2012: A Contemporary Perspective, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
Fashionality: Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Art, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, ON
Flash Forward 2011, The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Portland, Maine
2011
Flash Forward 2011, Airship 37, Toronto, ON
Being She: Photography Exhibition, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON
Photopia 2011, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON
Faves, Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, ON
Merge, AGO Art Rental + Sales Gallery, Toronto, ON
2010
Past Now, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON
Past Now, OCAD Graduate Gallery, Toronto, ON
94th Annual Graduate Exhibition, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, ON
We Are Wild, XPACE Gallery, Toronto, ON
OCAD Thesis Group Exhibition, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto, ON
Endaian, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, ON
Passages: First Peoples at OCAD, OCAD, Toronto, ON
PROOF 17: Emerging Canadian Photographers, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON
2009
Latin-Afro-First Nations Festival 09, Hosted by the Latino Canadian Cultural Association at Fork York, Toronto, ON
Bring to Light, Contact Photography Festival, Steam Whistle Brewery Roundhouse, Toronto, ON
2007
Gatherings, XPACE Gallery, Toronto, ON
2006
Undercover, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, ON
Pathways: Students Interpret the Firestone Collection of Canadian art, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Collections
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Art Gallery of Guelph, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Ontario, BMO Art Collection, Canada Council Art Bank, Carleton University Art Gallery, City of Ottawa Fine Art Collection, Cornell University – Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Desjardins Bank Art Collection, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Eiteljorg Museum Heard Museum, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, McMaster Museum of Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum London, National Gallery of Canada, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Ottawa Art Gallery, RBC Art Collection, Ryerson University – Ryerson Image Centre, Schingoethe Museum, Schulich School of Business, Stewart Hall Museum, TD Bank Art Collection, The Canadian Museum of History, The Donovan Collection, The Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Art Collection, The National Gallery of Canada, The Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian, Tweed Museum, University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries Women’s College Hospital
Awards
2019
New Discovery Award 2019 Shortlist
Rencontres d’Arles Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro Arles 2019 Shortlist, Rencontres d’Arles 2018
2018
Short-Term Project Grant – Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of Frist Nations, Inuit and Metis; Canada Council for the Arts
Scotiabank’s New Generation Photography Award
2017
REVEAL Indigenous Art Award, The Hnatyshyn Foundation
2016
Sobey Art Award Long List 2015 Visual Artists: Emerging Grant
Ontario Arts Council Creation and Production Fund for Professional Artists, City of Ottawa
2013
Creation & Production Grant for Emerging Artists, City of Ottawa
Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow, The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
2012
Charles Pachter Prize for Emerging Artists, The Hnatyshyn Foundation
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2010
Canon Canada Prize
Nora E. Vaughan Award
Ontario College of Art and Design Medal, Photography
Spoke Club Membership Prize
Vaughan Imagination Zone Award
Vistek Photography Award