Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill facts for kids

Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill (born 1979) is a talented Cree and Métis artist and writer. She lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Gabrielle creates art using sculptures, collages, and installations. She often uses found objects in her work. Her art explores how land is sometimes treated only as a way to make money. This can lead to pollution and harm to people living on the land.

Gabrielle is also part of a group called BUSH Gallery. With this group, she works on art projects that use Indigenous ways of knowing and making art. This helps to show different ideas about art, moving away from only European ways of thinking. In 2019, Gabrielle was recognized for the Sobey Art Award. In 2024, she received a VIVA Award for her amazing work.

Early Life and Learning

Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill was born in 1979 in Comox, British Columbia, Canada. She studied English and Visual Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2011 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2014. Later, she completed her Master of Fine Arts at the California College of the Arts in Oakland.

Her Work

As a Writer

Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill has written for many magazines and books. Her writing has appeared in Capilano Review. She also contributed to the exhibition catalog Beginning With the Seventies in 2019. She helped edit books like The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (2009). She also co-edited Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island (2017).

As an Artist

Gabrielle uses natural materials she finds in her art. She makes sculptures, installations, and collages. Her art looks at the connections between different ways of living and making money. This includes how settlers and Indigenous people have used land.

As a member of BUSH gallery, an Indigenous artist group, Gabrielle works to challenge common ideas about art. She uses land-based teaching and Indigenous knowledge in her art practice. Gabrielle also helps guide the Simon Fraser University Gallery. She is on the board of Other Sights for Artist’s Projects, a non-profit art group in Vancouver.

Her art has been shown in many galleries in Canada and the United States. These include the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and The Polygon Gallery in Vancouver. Her work has also been seen in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, San Francisco, and Atlanta.

Special Artworks

• Loose Spells is a series of collage paintings. Gabrielle first coated paper with tobacco-infused Crisco oil. She applied the oil many times. It took several months for the paper and colors to dry. Then, she added found materials to the paper. These included wildflowers, beer can tabs, magazine pieces, and small items from a dollar store. She used glue and even sewed some items on. Loose Spells shows Gabrielle's interest in how things that seem temporary can be connected to things that last. Her art often shows how settlers' actions have impacted Indigenous culture and the environment.

• Coney Island Baby is a film that Gabrielle made with other artists. These artists are Jeneen Frei Njootli, Chandra Melting Tallow, and Tania Willard. The film was made during winter in Secwépemc Nation territory. It shows the artists learning how to snare wild rabbits. They used knowledge shared by women in Indigenous communities. This film suggests that sharing resources can be a different way to live, instead of focusing only on money.

Art Shows

Gabrielle's art has been shown in many places across North America.

Solo shows include:

• Projects: Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, June 27 - September 13, 2020, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill: Four Effigies for the End of Property, 2020, College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
• Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill: Money, March 30 - May 12, 2019, Unit 17, Vancouver
• Loose Spells, March 28 - May 4, 2019, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto

Group shows include:

• Woven Work From Near Here, September 7 - October 20, 2018, grunt gallery, Vancouver
• Li Salay, May 25 - September 9, 2018, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton
• Summer Institute Session II: Site/ation with BUSH gallery, August 7–24, 2018, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg
• bust/boom, May 25 - June 29, 2018, The New Gallery, Calgary
• These Hands, Mar 23 - May 5, 2018, Western Front, Vancouver
• N.Vancouver, November 18, 2017 - April 29, 2018, Polygon Gallery
• Patrick Cruz + Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill: Other-Portraits, September 15 - November 3, 2017, Stride Gallery, Calgary
• To refuse/To wait/To sleep, January 12 - April 9, 2017, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver
• Town + Country: Narratives of Property and Capital, January 10 - April 13, 2025, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver