Tania Willard
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}{{Short description|Indigenous Canadian multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and curator}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Tania Willard
| native_name =
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| image =
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| alt = Tania Willard
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1977}}
| birth_place = Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
| nationality = Canadian Secwépemc
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| known_for = Artist and Curator
| awards =
| website = https://www.taniawillard.ca/
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Tania Willard (born 1977) is an Indigenous Canadian multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and curator, known for mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas. Willard is from the Secwepemc nation, of the British Columbia interior, Canada.
Willard was the co-curator for the art exhibition, Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, which toured in major galleries across Canada.
Biography
Willard was born in 1977 and grew up in Armstrong, British Columbia, as well as back and forth to her father's Indian reserve.{{cite journal|last1=Sandals|first1=Leah|title=Q&A: Tania Willard on Life Beyond Beat Nation – Canadian Art|journal=Canadian Art|date=28 June 2013|url=https://canadianart.ca/features/tania-willard-beat-nation/|accessdate=14 June 2016}} A formative moment in her life happened when she was 16 and selling fruit for her aunt at a powwow; while there she saw a group of kids breakdancing.
Career
"Interconnectedness is the root system of my work as an artist. Land-based art, community engaged practice, printmaking, painting are the mediums I most often work in, these ways of working are tied to me, I am tied to my ancestors, we are tied to the land." - Tania Willard {{Cite news|url=http://www.brokenboxespodcast.com/podcast/2016/8/6/episode-50-interview-with-tania-willard|title=Episode 50. Interview with Tania Willard|work=Broken Boxes Podcast|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en-US}}Willard is an artist, graphic designer, and curator who focuses on mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas, often working with bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures.{{cite journal|title=Tania Willard|journal=Mice Magazine|url=http://micemagazine.ca/author/tania-willard}} In the opening essay to Willard's exhibition, Claiming Space, at the Kamloops Art Gallery, Acting Director Beverley Clayton writes: "...inspired by geological landforms on traditional Secwépemc land and by other aspects of the place, Tania Willard's art work acts as a conduit between generations and cultures."{{Cite book|title=Tania Willard: claiming space / essays by Chris Bose and Jordan Storm ; foreword by Beverley Clayton.|last=Bose|first=Chris|publisher=Kamloops Art Gallery|year=2009|isbn=978-1-895497-78-6|location=Kamloops, British Columbia|page=7}}
She works with oil and acrylic painting, printmaking, pen and ink drawing, watercolour, mixed media, and collage.{{cite journal|last1=Ryan|first1=Ming|title=Project Space|journal=Projectspace.ca|date=10 September 2014|url=http://projectspace.ca/qa-tania-willard|accessdate=14 June 2016}} She also makes public art, including a collaborative community mural with the artist Guillermo Aranda and the Secwépemc Native Youth Network entitled Neskonlith Mural, in 2013.{{Cite web|url=https://www.taniawillard.ca/gallery/neskonlith-mural|title=Neskonlith mural|last=|first=|date=|website=Tania Willard Neskonlith mural|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=October 18, 2019}} Willard is a member of the artist collective New BC Indian Art and Welfare Society.
From 2013 to 2015, Willard was the Aboriginal Curator in Residence at the Kamloops Art Gallery. She is the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awards for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art.{{cite web|url=http://www.rjhf.com/programs/mid-career/2016/recipients.php|title=2016 Recipients - Mid-Career Awards The Hnatyshyn Foundation|website=www.rjhf.com|access-date=2017-03-04}} In 2017 Willard had a solo exhibition at the Burnaby Art Gallery entitled dissimulation.{{cite web|url=https://www.burnaby.ca/Things-To-Do/Arts-and-Heritage/Burnaby-Art-Gallery/Exhibitions/Tania-Willard--dissimulation_6225.html|title=Tania Willard: dissimulation|website=www.burnaby.ca|access-date=2018-03-16}}
Curatorial work
=Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture=
Willard curated the exhibition project Beat Nation, which started as an online project for grunt gallery. It features visual art, videos, music, and writing.{{cite news|last1=Hui|first1=Stephen|title=Geek Speak: Tania Willard, curator of Beat Nation: Hip Hop as Indigenous Culture|url=https://www.straight.com/article-241272/geek-speak-tania-willard-curator-beat-nation-hip-hop-indigenous-culture|accessdate=14 June 2016|work=Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly|date=17 July 2009}}
Beat Nation the Exhibition toured starting in Vancouver to Toronto, Kamloops, Montreal, Halifax and Saskatoon. Willard states that, "it was a really important journey to take this exhibit to different places; the context of the exhibition is to present indigenous artists today who respond to both socio-political states of Indigenous peoples and struggles, as well as use a mix of quite contemporary mediums and ancestral ideas."
=BUSH gallery=
BUSH gallery is an experimental, land-based, and Indigenous-led artist residency that takes place on Willard's land in Secwépemc Nation in interior British Columbia.
In an issue of C Magazine guest-edited by Willard and Peter Morin the editors state: "BUSH gallery is a series of on-going gatherings of like-minded folks united under questions concerning art making, land, Indigenous art history and interventions into the colonial."{{cite journal|last1=Morin|first1=Peter and Tania Willard|title=Site/ation|journal=C Magazine|date=2018|issue=136|page=8|url=http://cmagazine.com/issues/136/editorialsite-ation}} This issue also included the BUSH Manifesto.{{cite web|title=BUSH Manifesto|url=http://cmagazine.com/issues/136/bush-manifesto|website=C Magazine}}
= #callresponse =
#callresponse is a multifaceted project, co-organized by Tarah Hogue, Maria Hupfield and Willard, and in partnership with grunt gallery, supported by the {Re}conciliation initiative of the Canada Council for the Arts, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. It includes a website, social media platforms, touring exhibition, and catalogue, which aim to strategically centre the vital presence of Indigenous women across multiple platforms. The project features five commissions from Indigenous women around Canada, including Willard, Christi Belcourt, Hupfield, Ursula Johnson, and Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory. Each artist invited a guest, including Isaac Murdoch, IV Castellanos and Esther Neff, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Marcia Crosby and Tanya Tagaq, to respond to their work.
Exhibitions
= Select artist exhibitions =
- 2009 – Lore, group exhibition with Willard, Duane Linklater, and Jason Lujan at Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop's University & Gallery 101, Quebec{{Cite web|url=http://www.foreman.ubishops.ca/exhibitions/single.html?tx_buexhibition_pi1%5BseasonId%5D=3&tx_buexhibition_pi1%5BexId%5D=17|title=LORE, May 9 - July 4, 2009|website=Foreman Art Gallery|access-date=2019-02-06}}
- 2009 – Claiming Space, solo exhibition, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia{{Cite web|url=https://kag.bc.ca/?p=0&action=exhibitions&subaction=view&ID=159|title=Claiming Space|date=2009|website=Kamloops Art Gallery|language=en|access-date=2019-02-06}}
- 2013 – Witnesses: Art and Canada's Indian Residential Schools, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia{{Cite web|url=https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/witnessesart-and-canadas-indian-residential-schools/|title=Witnesses: Art and Canada's Indian Residential Schools|date=2013|website=Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery|language=en-CA|access-date=2019-02-06}}
- 2016 – Unsettled Sites, Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby, British Columbia{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfu.ca/galleries/sfu-gallery/UnsettledSites.html|title=UnsettledSites - SFU Galleries - Simon Fraser University|website=www.sfu.ca|access-date=2019-03-01}}{{Cite web|url=https://canadianart.ca/reviews/unsettled-sites/|title=Unsettled Sites: Haunting Canadian Colonialism|last1=Boisjoly|first1=Raymond|last2=Gray|first2=Jonah|website=Canadian Art|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-01}}
- 2017 – Tania Willard: Dissimulation, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby
- 2018 – The Shape of the Middle, Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Centre, Toronto, Ontario{{Cite web|url=https://openstudio.ca/exhibition/the-shape-of-the-middle/|title=The Shape of The Middle|website=Open Studio|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-01}}
- 2019 – Hexsa'am: To Be Here Always, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery{{Cite web |title=Hexsa’a̱m: To Be Here Always |url=https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/hexsaam-to-be-here-always/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery |language=en-CA}} at the University of British Columbia
- 2025 – Town + Country: Narratives of Property and Capital, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver{{Cite web |title=Town + Country: Narratives of Property and Capital |url=https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/town-country/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery |language=en-CA}}
= Select curation exhibitions =
- 2012 – Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, traveling exhibition with the first show at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (as co-curator).{{Cite web|url=http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_beat_nation.html|title=BEAT NATION Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture|date=2012|website=Vancouver Art Gallery|access-date=2019-02-06}}
- 2014 – unlimited edition, Kamloops Art Gallery.{{Cite web|url=https://kag.bc.ca/?p=0&action=exhibitions&subaction=view&ID=87|title=unlimited edition|last=Gallery|first=Kamloops Art|website=Kamloops Art Gallery|language=en|access-date=2019-02-28}}
- 2015 – CUSTOM MADE / Tsitslem te stem te ck'ultens-kuc, Kamloops Art Gallery.{{Cite web|url=https://kag.bc.ca/?p=0&action=exhibitions&subaction=view&ID=66|title=CUSTOM MADE / Tsitslem te stem te ck'ultens-kuc|last=Gallery|first=Kamloops Art|website=Kamloops Art Gallery|language=en|access-date=2019-02-28}}
- 2016 – Unceded Territories: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, the Museum of Anthropology at UBC (as a co-curator){{Cite web|url=https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/lawrence-paul/|title=Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun|website=Museum of Anthropology at UBC|language=en-CA|access-date=2019-02-06}}
- 2016 – Nanitch: Early Photographs of British Columbia from the Langmann Collection (as co-curator), Presentation House Gallery (now Polygon Gallery), North Vancouver, Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://thepolygon.ca/exhibition/nanitch-early-photographs-of-british-columbia-from-the-langmann-collection/|title=Nanitch: Early Photographs Of British Columbia From The Langmann Collection|date=2016-04-02|website=The Polygon|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-01}}
- 2016 – Work to Rule: Krista Belle Stewart, Kelowna Art Gallery.{{Cite web|url=https://kelownaartgallery.com/one-on-one-2016/|title=One on One: Work to Rule: Krista Belle Stewart {{!}} Kelowna Art Gallery|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-28}}
- 2017 – Maureen Gruben: Stitching My Landscape, for Landmarks/Repères2017.{{Cite web|url=https://landmarks2017.ca/info/curators/|title=Curators|website=Landmarks 2017|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-28}}
References
{{reflist|32em}}
External links
- {{Url|beatnation.org/}}
- [http://belkin.ubc.ca/publications/witnesses-catalogue Witnesses: Art and Canada's Indian Residential Schools, Exhibition Catalog PDF]
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Category:Artists from British Columbia
Category:Canadian art curators
Category:Canadian multimedia artists
Category:Canadian women painters
Category:Indigenous curators of the Americas