Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream Past 10
Artifact
2023.002.001
Adrian Stimson
2022
Adrian Stimson
Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream Past 10
2022
oil, graphite, and charcoal on canvas
Collection of the University of Saskatchewan. Gift of the artist, 2023.
Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream Past 10, one of 36 in a series of paintings produced for Stimson’s first solo European exhibition in London, United Kingdom, evokes space for viewers to reflect and engage with the dark and continued consequences of colonial violence brought through the 19th century paradigm Manifest Destiny: a phrase and belief voicing the supposed preordained right of European expansion across turtle island. The piece, a prevalent motif in the artist’s work, features a Bison reimagined; its solitude somber in the grey wintered plains, “…a memory”—in Stimson’s own words—“…of one of those slaughtered."
Adrian Stimson is a Two-Spirit interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation. He holds a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design, and earned his MFA from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005. Collected in public and private collections globally, Stimson’s practice explores themes of cultural fragility, resilience, and identity construction, and continues to garner recognition through major awards including the recent Governor General Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2018, the University of Saskatchewan Alumni of Influence Award in 2019, and REVEAL Indigenous Art Award in 2017.
Cayden Brooks, YCW Institutional Memory Practitioner: Collections and Registrar
University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries and Collection
10 October 2024
oil, graphite, charcoal on canvas
Width: 106.7 cm;
Height: 72.4 cm;
Width: 106.7 cm; Height: 72.4 cm; Thickness: 4.5 cm;
Notes: stretcher only
Width: 106.7 cm; Height: 72.4 cm; Thickness: 4.5 cm;
Notes: stretcher only
PAINTING
Collection of the University of Saskatchewan. Gift of the artist, 2023.