Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

About

Representation:

Vancouver and Edmonton Canada
Douglas Udell Galleries www.douglasudellgallery.com/

Calgary Alberta
Masters Gallery http://www.mastersgalleryltd.com/artists/michael-nicoll-yahgulanaas

Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Website: http://www.mny.ca

Education

2011 appointment:

Audain Professor of Contemporary Art of the North West
Visual Arts Department
Fine Arts Faculty
University of Victoria

Friends

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Art

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Stolen But Recovered from the series Coppers from the Hood

Collections

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Rotational Series

2 Artworks

Coppers from the Hood

3 Artworks

Events & Exhibitions

Events

Contemporary Visual Artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Work Enters
Permanent Collection of The British Museum
For immediate release
May 21, 2013
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ work Copper from the Hood (2010) has now found its home in the
permanent collection of the prestigious British Museum, after an eighteen month international
tour with Treasures of the World’s Cultures. The sculptural work was one of more than 250
cultural treasures which toured the globe with the British Museum exhibition, with stops in
Australia, the Middle East and Europe.
Copper from the Hood is one of a series of works which Yahgulanaas began in 2007, while
working on the exhibition Meddling in the Museum for the Museum of Anthropology in
Vancouver, Canada. Commissioned by the British Museum, this work presents imagery created
in Yahgulanaas’ distinctive Haida manga style and is one of a series of fifteen works made with
automobile hoods.
Fabricated from a car hood embellished with copper leaf, Copper from the Hood references the
copper shields which are highly valued by the Haida, an indigenous people of Canada, while
locating the work within the contemporary context of a world where value is defined by cars and
other consumer goods.
Jonathan King, retired chief of the British Museum’s department of Africa, Oceania and the
Americas and now with Cambridge University, said "What is exceptional about Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas' art is the imaginative leap – how Michael's design sense and sure skill in drawing
and conceptual realization – enables him to re-situate the Haida. Using crests and formline
designs he transcends the traditional to create new works which express contemporary Haida
identities.”
Measuring 132cm x 107cm (52” x 42”) the work is designed to be rotated by the viewer and to
spark new perspectives from new angles. Depending on the angle, Copper from the Hood may
be seen as a bird or a storyteller or something else which the viewer perceives.
“I want the observer to decide which is the preferred horizon,” says Yahgulanaas, “So much of
our responsibility as individuals is casually given away that our personal accountability is
undermined. At its extreme, this disengaged citizenship seriously weakens the structure and
theoretical advantages of democracy. The authority of the artist to say what the work is about
need not be at the expense of the observer's own opinions. The rotational technique is a
conversation."
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a contemporary artist whose wide-ranging practice explores
themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition. Influenced by both Haida
iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, he has created an artistic practice that
crosses diverse cultures, generations, and disciplines. Raised on the North Pacific archipelago
of Haida Gwaii, Yahgulanaas began working as an artist after many decades in the leadership of
the Haida nation's successful campaign to maintain authority over their lands and waters. In the
past decade, Yahgulanaas' work has been presented in museums across Canada and around
the world, including at international exhibitions in Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Europe.
His art works are in numerous public and private collections including The British Museum
(London, England), the Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), the Glenbow Museum
(Calgary, Canada) and the Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver, Canada). His large sculptural
works are part of the public art collection of the City of Vancouver in Canada. In 2011/2012,
Yahgulanaas was the Audain Professor in Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest at the
University of Victoria.

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For further information or images, please contact Carolyn Jack:
carolynjackconsulting@gmail.com … Read More

Exhibitions

current:
2012-2013 30 Nov-7 Apr, Bonn, Germany, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Treasures of the World's Cultures PROMISED

recent exhibits:

2012 Dec 1-7, Edmonton, Alberta Canada SOLO 3- Douglas Udell Galleries

2011-2012 25 Oct - 5 Feb, Perth, Western Australian Museum

2012 Mar-Jul, Abu Dhabi, Manarat al Saadiyat

2010- Challenging Traditions: Switzerland

2010- Visions of BC: Survey of Contemporary Art: Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

2010- RED: Grand Forks Gallery, BC, Canada
New Orleans, LA USA
Penticton, BC Canada (solo)
Toronto Ontario Canada (solo)
Vancouver BC Canada (solo) … Read More