Bright Futures

On View from April 26, 2023 to January 14, 2024

Bright Futures brings together the innovative art of Bill Reid with new works by contemporary emerging and established Indigenous artists of the Northwest Coast. To celebrate the life of Bill Reid 25 years after his death, contributing artists were invited to ponder and critique the question: How is Bill Reid continuously inspiring contemporary Northwest Coast artists?

Over 50 years ago, Bill Reid wrote an eloquent essay in which he celebrated the traditions of Northwest Coast art in the past and into the future. He recognized art as “objects of bright pride” which “told the completeness of their culture (…) and their closeness to the magical world of universal myth and legend.”

Along with Bill Reid, the exhibition features: Rebecca Baker Grenier (Kwag’ul/Squamish), Tamara Bell (Haida), Sherri Dick (Haida), Shoshannah Greene (Haida), Maynard Johnny Jr. (Kwakwaka’wakw/Salish), Keith Kerrigan (Haida), Cody Lecoy (Sylix/Lekwungen), Latham Mack (Nuxalk), Calvin Morberg (Teslin Tlingit), Kelly Robinson (Nuxalk), Natasha Seymour (Tahltan/Tsimshian/Nisga’a), Dustin Sheldon (Teslin Tlingit), Krystle Silverfox (Selkirk & Northern Tutchone), and Yolonda Skelton (Gitxsan).

Bright Futures is both a retrospective on how Northwest Coast art has evolved over the past 25 years and an invitation for the next generation of Indigenous artists to continue to create bright futures for Northwest Coast art.

Bright Futures
April 26, 2023 - January 14, 2024