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Daphne Odjig
Canadian, 1919 - 2016
Daphne Odjig, born in 1919, was raised on the Wikwemikong Unceded Reserve on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. The painter and printmaker was Odawa, Potawatomi, and English and has often been referred to as the “grandmother of contemporary Indigenous art”. She lived for a time in Toronto where she began to paint and after marrying, moved to British Columbia and began to develop her style of painting. Odjig and her family would then move to Manitoba. She started to incorporate elements of her culture into her paintings in the 1960s.
In 1971, Daphne opened Odjig Indian Prints of Canada Ltd. in Winnipeg, where she sold her work and the work of other Indigenous artists. This would later become The New Warehouse Gallery, the first Indigenous-owned gallery in Canada, where the artists’ collective called the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. was born. The collective consisted of Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy, Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, and Joseph Sanchez—otherwise known as the “Indian Group of Seven” in the 1970s.
Odjig is known and widely recognized for her experimental Woodlands style paintings, circular motifs, intense colours, curvy designs with black outlines, and abstracted figuration. Her artwork often depicts characters, landscapes, history, family, relationships, and narrative. Her work shaped Canada’s visual culture and her activism for Indigenous people has made a lasting impact.
Daphne Odjig is the holder of several honorary degrees from universities. She received the Order of Canada in 1986 and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2007. She was also elected into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and in 2007, was presented with an Eagle Feather on behalf of the Wikwemikong Reserve. She has been the subject of several documentaries.
Her work has been in a multitude of exhibitions internationally and many institutions have her work in their collections. Daphne Odjig passed away in October of 2016 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Sources: https://www.gallery.ca/sites/default/files/documents/news/Biography_Daphne_Odjig.pdf https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/daphne-odjig-dead-1.3788123 http://odjig.com/profile.html
In 1971, Daphne opened Odjig Indian Prints of Canada Ltd. in Winnipeg, where she sold her work and the work of other Indigenous artists. This would later become The New Warehouse Gallery, the first Indigenous-owned gallery in Canada, where the artists’ collective called the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. was born. The collective consisted of Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy, Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, and Joseph Sanchez—otherwise known as the “Indian Group of Seven” in the 1970s.
Odjig is known and widely recognized for her experimental Woodlands style paintings, circular motifs, intense colours, curvy designs with black outlines, and abstracted figuration. Her artwork often depicts characters, landscapes, history, family, relationships, and narrative. Her work shaped Canada’s visual culture and her activism for Indigenous people has made a lasting impact.
Daphne Odjig is the holder of several honorary degrees from universities. She received the Order of Canada in 1986 and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2007. She was also elected into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and in 2007, was presented with an Eagle Feather on behalf of the Wikwemikong Reserve. She has been the subject of several documentaries.
Her work has been in a multitude of exhibitions internationally and many institutions have her work in their collections. Daphne Odjig passed away in October of 2016 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Sources: https://www.gallery.ca/sites/default/files/documents/news/Biography_Daphne_Odjig.pdf https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/daphne-odjig-dead-1.3788123 http://odjig.com/profile.html