Date: Sep 30, 2022
The AFA is pleased to share that Indigenous curator, visual artist and archaeologist, Autumn Whiteway (Night Singing Woman) was awarded the 2021-22 Fellowship for Emerging Curators. Her exhibition is entitled Cross Cultura.
Through the Fellowship for Emerging Curators, the AFA invites individuals and/or groups of individuals to submit a proposal for an online exhibition of Albertan visual art. Funded exhibitions are uploaded to Google Arts & Culture. We look forward to sharing Cross Cultura online soon.
About the artist
Autumn Whiteway (“Night Singing Woman”) is a Saulteaux/Métis visual artist, traditional craft worker, curator and archaeologist based in Calgary, Alberta. She explores Indigenous themes from a contemporary perspective through painting, digital art and photography.
Her painting and digital art is primarily focused on the heavily symbolic Woodland Style of Indigenous art, while her photography is used as a form of activism to highlight Indigenous issues. Her work has been exhibited at locations such as Arts Commons, cSpace King Edward, ATB Branch for Arts and Culture, and Calgary Public Library.
Autumn’s degrees include an M.A. in Anthropology from University of Manitoba (2017), a B.Sc. in Archaeology, and a B.A. in Greek and Roman Studies.
Her curatorial work has focused on elevating the voices of Indigenous creatives through a series of Indigenous focused exhibitions. Autumn’s curatorial repertoire includes three group exhibitions held at multiple Calgary venues between 2020-2022, known as “Indigenous Motherhood and Matriarchy”.
About the exhibition
Cross Cultura is a group exhibition comparing Indigenous and non-Indigenous aesthetics and epistemologies, with the latter centered on Eurocentric settler colonial perspectives.
The exhibition comprises 13 artwork pairings (one for each moon of the lunar calendar that is traditionally utilized by Indigenous peoples). Each pairing features an Indigenous and non-Indigenous artist portraying conceptually similar subject matters from different worldviews.
Subject matters range from community and family relations, to work and social life, the cosmos and human-animal interactions. Additional pairings focus on gender-based representation in portraiture, and the medium of stone carving.