Michael Belmore - Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor at the National Museum of the American Indian 2010-2011
(reposted from The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian website)
Michael Belmore
Michael Belmore (Ojibway), a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, was born in 1971 north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. He holds an associated diploma (1994) in sculpture/installation from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Ontario, and currently lives in the Haliburton Highlands in Ontario. Belmore works in a variety of media including plastics, metal, wood, and stone. These materials are important to understanding his work, bringing into account how we view nature as a commodity. Belmore’s work has warranted numerous awards from the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council, and Canadian Native Arts Foundation.
Michael Belmore Artist Statement
The North American landscape, especially its watersheds, continues to be shaped by our divergent tendencies to that of nature. Rivers have been dammed, streams redirected and wetlands drained all in order to better satisfy the demands of western society. Over the past few years my practice has focused primarily on stone carving and the traditional metalsmithing technique of chasing and repoussé. Through the arduous process of hammering copper, I have continued to map out waterways through calculated and miscalculated blows. The shorelines of New York City offer the perfect opportunity to demonstrate fully our long influencing actions on landscape. Although this work is not literally in skin, as landscape and as place it is just as much a part of us.
Michael Belmore Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009 Embankment, Station Gallery, Whitby, ON
2006 Downstream, Forest City Gallery, London, ON
2005 Stream, Rails End Gallery & Arts Centre, Haliburton, ON
2002 Vantage Point, Sacred Circle Gallery of American Indian Art, Seattle, WA
2001 fly by wire, AKA Artist-Run Centre/Tribe, Saskatoon, SK
2000 Eating Crow, Sâkêwêwak Artists’ Collective, Regina, SK
1999 Ravens Wait, Indian Art Centre, Hull, QC