Shelley Niro

For BLANKETS (UNDER) COVER (2022), Shelley Niro reveals the economies embedded in Hudson Bay Point Blankets, iconic items emblematic of the Canadian fur trade. Each province and territory is represented by a singular blanket—some are larger and others smaller, some are antiques and some are contemporary. The blankets denote a legacy granted through a sense of ownership, entanglement/conflict, and historical wealth, circulating as precious gifts and hereditary items across homesteads, generations and within communities. These material goods hold stories that are mobile and complex, and stir relationships, good and bad, between settler society, new immigrants and Indigenous peoples.

Niro adds to the complexity of these stories with images of animals and other iconic symbols as representations of natural resources and lifeforces that were depleted, exploited and extracted from the land. By folding them onto the fibres of the blanket, Niro contends, “they hang as reminders to us as we are aware of the delicate balance that has shifted away and continues to disappear.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Shelley Niro was born in Niagara Falls, NY, and is a member of the Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk Grand River Reserve. Her work spans painting, photography and film. Recent solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina (2022); Art Gallery of Hamilton, ON (2018), Ryerson Image Center; Toronto (2018); and Taseralik-Sisimiut Cultural Centre; Greenland (2018). Her work is held in collections at Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Eiteljorg Museum of Native and Western Art, Indianapolis; Minneapolis Institute of Art; and Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York.

In 2017, Niro was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Governor General Award in Visual Art, the Reveal Award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation, Dreamcatcher’s Visual Award, and the Scotiabank Photography Award. In 2019, Niro received an honorary doctorate from OCAD University, Toronto. She is an honorary elder in the Indigenous Curatorial Collective.