Rebecca Belmore facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rebecca Belmore
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Rebecca Belmore performing at Nuit Blanche 2016 in the Art Gallery of Ontario
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| Born | March 22, 1960 Upsala, Ontario, Canada
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| Nationality | Lac Seul First Nation (Canadian) |
| Known for | installation artist, Performance artist |
| Awards | Governor General's Award 2013 |
Rebecca Belmore RCA (born March 22, 1960) is a talented Canadian artist. She is known for her powerful performances and installations. These artworks often share important messages about society and politics.
Rebecca is Ojibwe and a member of the Lac Seul First Nation. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since 1986, Rebecca has shown her art all over the world. Her work often explores themes of home, identity, and the experiences of Indigenous people.
Her art, whether it's a sculpture, video, or photo, often starts with a performance. Rebecca uses her art to challenge common ideas and tell stories that might not be heard otherwise. She often uses repeated actions and natural materials in her work. Her art shows her strong dedication to political issues and how they shape who we are. She has exhibited her art in Canada, the US, Mexico, Cuba, and Australia.
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About Rebecca's Life
Rebecca Belmore was born on March 22, 1960, in Upsala, Ontario, Canada. When she was young, she spent her summers with her grandparents in Northwestern Ontario. Her grandmother taught her how to gather traditional foods from the land.
Rebecca's teenage years were tough. She had to go to high school in a different city and live with a non-Native family. This was a common practice at the time that separated Indigenous children from their families and culture. This experience made her art often speak about feeling out of place and losing parts of her culture. She turns these feelings into powerful messages of healing and protest. In 1988, she studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
Rebecca's mother was born on a small island in Northern Ontario. Rebecca's journey to visit her mother's birthplace has greatly influenced her art.
Rebecca's Art Career
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Rebecca Belmore has shown her work at many large art exhibitions called biennials. In 1991, she was part of the IV Bienal de la Habana in Cuba. She has also represented Canada twice at the Sydney Biennale in Australia.
A big moment in her career was in 2005. Her artwork Fountain was shown at the Canadian Pavilion of the 51st Venice Biennale. She was the first Indigenous artist to represent Canada at this important international event.
Rebecca has had two major traveling solo exhibitions. The Named and the Unnamed (2002) was an installation that remembered missing women from Vancouver. 33 Pieces (2001) was another important show. In 2008, the Vancouver Art Gallery held Rising to the Occasion, which looked back at her art over the years.
In 2014, Rebecca was asked to create a special artwork for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This piece included a blanket made of hand-pressed clay beads. People in Winnipeg helped her create these beads.
In 2017, Rebecca's art was shown at documenta 14, a major art exhibition in Greece and Germany.
In 2018, the Art Gallery of Ontario organized a large exhibition of her work called Facing the Monumental. This show included sculptures, installations, photos, and videos from 30 years of her career. It was her biggest exhibition to date and traveled to galleries in Canada and the United States.
Rebecca also took part in the 2022 Whitney Biennial in New York. Her sculpture ishkode (fire) (2021) was featured there. It's a clay sculpture of a figure wrapped in a sleeping bag, surrounded by empty bullet casings. This artwork speaks about the challenges faced by Indigenous people.
Important Artworks
Descriptions of Key Works
One of Rebecca's interactive artworks is Mawa-che-hitoowin: A Gathering of People for Any Purpose (1992). For this piece, she arranged a circle of chairs from her kitchen and chairs from other women. Each chair had headphones. Visitors could sit and listen to stories from different Indigenous women in Canada. They shared their struggles and successes in their own voices.
This artwork was created for an exhibition about Indigenous art. It marked 500 years since Columbus arrived in Hispaniola. Rebecca used traditional Indigenous storytelling to challenge stereotypes and show strength.
Selected Works
- Twelve Angry Crinolines (1987), a parade and video performance in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- Artifact #671B (1988), a protest supporting the Lubicon Cree people.
- Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991), a performance that toured Canada.
- Mawa-che-hitoowin: A Gathering of People for Any Purpose (1992), a mixed-media installation.
- Tourist Act #1 (1995), a performance where people could participate.
- Vigil (2002), a performance at the Talking Stick Aboriginal Art Festival.
- Tongue River (2003), a performance with artist Bently Spang.
- Making Always War (2008), a performance at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- Artifact #671B (1988), Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
- Nah-doe-tah-moe-win (1989), Galerie Saw, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- Wana-na-wang-ong (1993), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- 33 Pieces (2001), organized by Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga.
- The Named and the Unnamed (2002), organized by Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion (2008), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental (2018), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 1991: Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba.
- 1992: Land, Spirit, Power, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- 1995: Longing and Belonging: From the Faraway Nearby, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
- 2012: Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA.
- 2019: Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
- 2022: Quiet As Its Kept: Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York City, New York, USA.
Awards and Honours
Rebecca Belmore is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 2004, she was an artist-in-residence with MAWA in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2005, she received the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council. That same year, OCAD University gave her an honorary doctorate for her amazing career.
She also won the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2013. In 2016, she received the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, and in 2018, an honorary doctorate from Emily Carr University. In 2024, Rebecca was awarded the Audain Prize for the Visual Arts.
Images for kids
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Rebecca Belmore performing at Nuit Blanche 2016 in the Art Gallery of Ontario
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ishkode (fire) (2021) at the Whitney Biennial in 2022
See also
In Spanish: Rebecca Belmore para niños
