BEBONKWE BROWN (Plains Cree/Anishnawbe Nations, she/her)
Based in Brooklyn, NY, Bebonkwe Brown is a contemporary multimedia Plains Cree/Anishnawbe/Metis Nation artist from Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, AB). She studied at distinguished fine art institutions in Toronto and London (UK) and apprenticed in traditional First Nations art forms and cultural/ceremonial practices with respected Native artists, craftspeople, elders, and spiritual leaders.
Bebonkwe’s work embodies and celebrates ancient First Nations creative traditions in contemporary ways, reflecting the challenge & paradox of navigating deep cultural polarities and damage within colonized Indigenous territories. Her aim - to maintain, find and/or create culturally-informed continuance and poetry within these cultural and political environments. Her practice is centered on relationship to self, earth, all our relations, and the Great Mystery. Her works often involve collaborations with culturally entwined animals and plants, acknowledging that even in urban places we are ‘on the land’.
“I embrace the healing potential in images, objects, acts &/or projects exteriorizing spiritually connected listening, seeing & creativity, while emphasizing craft. My intention is to make works that contain both cultural commentary and ‘good medicine’ through entwining beauty, hope, the uncanny, and the unexpected, often with a wry touch.”
ABOUT BEBONKWE BROWN
Bebonkwe Brown has studied at various fine art institutions in Toronto and London (UK), and apprenticed in traditional First Nations art forms and cultural/ceremonial practices with respected Native artists, craftspeople, elders and spiritual leaders.
Bebonkwe is a recipient of the prestigious Chalmer’s Arts Fellowship, has received arts funding awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council. She also has juried selections for some of these Federal and Provincial arts funding bodies. Her work has been exhibited, screened, and performed internationally.