Tania Willard (born 1977) is an

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

Canadian multidisciplinary artist,

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

, and

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

, known for mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas. Willard is from the Secwepemc nation, of the

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

interior, Canada. Willard was the co-curator for the art exhibition, ''Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture'', which toured in major galleries across

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Biography

Willard was born in 1977 and grew up in Armstrong, British Columbia, as well as back and forth to her father's

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

. A formative moment in her life happened when she was 16 and selling fruit for her aunt at a

powwow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native Americans in the United States, Native American and First Nations in Canada, First Nations communities. Inaugurated in 1923, powwows today are an opportunity fo ...

; while there she saw a group of kids

breakdancing Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Nuyorican, Puerto Ricans in The Bronx borough of New York City. Breakdancing consist ...

Career

"''Interconnectedness is the root system of my work as an artist. Land-based art, community engaged practice,
printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...
,
painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
are the mediums I most often work in, these ways of working are tied to me, I am tied to my ancestors, we are tied to the land.''" - Tania Willard

Willard is an artist, graphic designer, and curator who focuses on mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas, often working with bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures. In the opening essay to Willard's exhibition, ''Claiming Space'', at the Kamloops Art Gallery, Acting Director Beverley Clayton writes: "...inspired by

geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

landforms on traditional

Secwépemc The Secwépemc ( ; Secwepemctsín: or ), also known by the exonym Shuswap ( ), are a First Nations people residing in the interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. They speak one of the Salishan languages, known as Secwepemctsí ...

land and by other aspects of the place, Tania Willard's art work acts as a conduit between generations and cultures." She works with

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and

acrylic painting Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Depe ...

, printmaking, pen and ink drawing, watercolour, mixed media, and

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

. She also makes public art, including a collaborative community mural with the artist Guillermo Aranda and the Secwépemc Native Youth Network entitled ''Neskonlith Mural'', in 2013. Willard is a member of the

artist collective An artist collective or art group or artist group is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything t ...

New BC Indian Art and Welfare Society. From 2013 to 2015, Willard was the Aboriginal Curator in Residence at the Kamloops Art Gallery. She is the recipient of the

Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awards The Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awards, the Award for Outstanding Achievement as an Artist and the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art are two annual arts awards of $25,000 and $10,000 that recognize mid-career Canadian visual ...

for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. In 2017 Willard had a

solo exhibition A solo show or solo exhibition is an art exhibition, exhibition of the work of only one artist. Rather than a group of artists who collaborate to form an exhibition. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photogr ...

at the

Burnaby Art Gallery The Burnaby Art Gallery (abbreviated as BAG) is an art museum in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The museum is located on the northern periphery of Deer Lake Park, situated off of Deer Lake Avenue. The museum occupies Fairacres Mansion, designa ...

entitled ''dissimulation.''

Curatorial work

Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture

Willard curated the exhibition project ''Beat Nation'', which started as an online project for

grunt gallery The grunt gallery is a Canadian artist-run centre, founded in 1984 and located in Vancouver, British Columbia. They show work by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. History Established in 1984, and founded by Glenn Alteen, Kempton Dexte ...

. It features visual art, videos, music, and writing. ''Beat Nation the Exhibition'' toured starting in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North Thompson River, North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the ad ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Halifax and

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. Willard states that, "it was a really important journey to take this exhibit to different places; the context of the exhibition is to present indigenous artists today who respond to both socio-political states of Indigenous peoples and struggles, as well as use a mix of quite contemporary mediums and ancestral ideas."

BUSH gallery

BUSH gallery is an experimental, land-based, and Indigenous-led

artist residency Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

that takes place on Willard's land in Secwépemc Nation in interior British Columbia. In an issue of ''C Magazine'' guest-edited by Willard and Peter Morin the editors state: "BUSH gallery is a series of on-going gatherings of like-minded folks united under questions concerning art making, land, Indigenous art history and interventions into the colonial." This issue also included the BUSH Manifesto.

#callresponse

''#callresponse'' is a multifaceted project, co-organized by Tarah Hogue,

Maria Hupfield Maria Hupfield (born 1975) is a Canadian artist. She is an Anishinaabe, specifically an Ojibwe and a member of the Wasauksing First Nation, located in Ontario, Canada. Hupfield works in a variety of media, including video and performance. Her perfo ...

and Willard, and in partnership with

, supported by the conciliation initiative of the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...

, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and The Circle on Philanthropy and

Aboriginal Peoples in Canada Indigenous peoples in Canada (also known as Aboriginals) are the Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of Canada. They comprise the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, representing roughly 5.0% of the total Canadian population. There are over ...

. It includes a website,

social media platform Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks. Common features include: * Onlin ...

s, touring exhibition, and catalogue, which aim to strategically centre the vital presence of Indigenous women across multiple platforms. The project features five commissions from Indigenous women around Canada, including Willard, Christi Belcourt, Hupfield, Ursula Johnson, and Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory. Each artist invited a guest, including Isaac Murdoch, IV Castellanos and Esther Neff, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Marcia Crosby and

Tanya Tagaq Tanya Tagaq ( Inuktitut syllabics: ᑕᓐᔭ ᑕᒐᖅ, born Tanya Tagaq Gillis, May 5, 1975), also credited as Tagaq, is a Canadian Inuk throat singer, songwriter, novelist, actor, and visual artist from Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq), Nun ...

, to respond to their work.

Exhibitions

Select artist exhibitions

* 2009 – ''Lore,'' group exhibition with Willard, Duane Linklater, and Jason Lujan at Foreman Art Gallery of

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

& Gallery 101,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

* 2009 – ''Claiming Space,'' solo exhibition, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia * 2013 – ''Witnesses: Art and Canada's Indian Residential Schools'',

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in a building designed by architect Peter Cardew which opened in 1995 ...

, Vancouver, British Columbia *2016 – ''Unsettled Sites,''

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

Gallery,

Burnaby, British Columbia Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard ...

* 2017 – ''Tania Willard: Dissimulation,'' Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby *2018 – ''The Shape of the Middle'', Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Centre, Toronto, Ontario *2019 – ''Hexsa'am: To Be Here Always,''

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

*2025 – ''Town + Country: Narratives of Property and Capital'', Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver

Select curation exhibitions

* 2012 – ''Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture'', traveling exhibition with the first show at the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (as co-curator). *2014 – ''unlimited edition,'' Kamloops Art Gallery. *2015 – ''CUSTOM MADE / Tsitslem te stem te ck'ultens-kuc'', Kamloops Art Gallery. * 2016 – ''Unceded Territories:

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is a Tsartlip/Syilx First Nations in Canada, First Nations contemporary artist from Canada. His paintings employ elements of Northwest Coast formline design and Surrealism to explore issues as environmentalism, land owne ...

'', the

Museum of Anthropology at UBC The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada displays world arts and cultures, in particular works by First Nations in Canada, First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. As well ...

(as a co-curator) *2016 – ''Nanitch: Early Photographs of British Columbia from the Langmann Collection'' (as co-curator), Presentation House Gallery (now Polygon Gallery), North Vancouver, Canada. *2016 – ''Work to Rule: Krista Belle Stewart,'' Kelowna Art Gallery. *2017 – ''Maureen Gruben: Stitching My Landscape'', for ''Landmarks/Repères2017.''

References

External links

*
Witnesses: Art and Canada's Indian Residential Schools, Exhibition Catalog PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willard, Tania 1977 births Living people Artists from British Columbia Canadian art curators Canadian multimedia artists Canadian women painters Indigenous curators of the Americas People from Kamloops 21st-century Canadian women artists Canadian women curators