Artist

Kent Monkman

Kent Monkman (b. 1965) is an interdisciplinary Cree visual artist. A member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), he lives and works in New York City and Toronto.

Known for his thought-provoking interventions into Western European and American art history, Monkman explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience—the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences—across painting, film/video, performance, and installation. Monkman’s gender-fluid alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle often appears in his work as a time-traveling, shape-shifting, supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze to challenge received notions of history and Indigenous peoples.

Monkman’s painting and installation works have been exhibited at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal; Musée d’artcontemporain de Montréal; The Royal Ontario Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Hayward Gallery; Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art; Musée d’art Contemporain de Rochechouart; Maison Rouge; Philbrook Museum of Art; Palais de Tokyo; and the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College. He has created site-specific performances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Royal Ontario Museum; Compton Verney, Warwickshire; and The Denver Art Museum. Monkman has had two nationally touring solo exhibitions, Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience (2017-2020), and The Triumph of Mischief (2007-2010).

Monkman’s short film and video works, collaboratively made with Gisèle Gordon, have screened at festivals such as the Berlinale (2007, 2008) and the Toronto International Film Festival (2007, 2015). Monkman is an Officer of the Order of Canada (2023) and the recipient of the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (2017), an honorary doctorate degree from OCAD University (2017), the Indspire Award (2014), and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award (2014).

Artist Code: 672

Videography

Miss Chief's Praying Hands

2019, 00:45 minutes, colour, English with English subtitles

Casualties of Modernity

2015, 14:20 minutes, colour, English

Miss Chief of Hearts

2015, 22:30 minutes, Colour, English

Miss Chief: Justice of the Piece

2013, 31:00 minutes, colour, English

Mary

2011, 03:18 minutes, colour, English

Iskootāo

2010, 05:41 minutes, colour, English

Séance

2010, 03:46 minutes, colour, English

Dance to Miss Chief

2010, 04:49 minutes, colour, English and German (with English Subtitles)

Robin's Hood

2007, 05:53 minutes, colour

Shooting Geronimo

2007, 11:11 minutes, Sepia Version, English

Taxonomy of the European Male

2005, 16:36 minutes, colour, English

Group of Seven Inches

2005, 07:35 minutes, colour, English

Future Nation

2005, 16:27 minutes, colour, English

Blood River

2000, 23:00 minutes, colour, English

A Nation Is Coming

1996, 24:00 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

Curatorial Incubator v. 18: Learning from the Local
by Lisa Steele. Toronto: V tape, 2022.
Experiments in Hybrid: Documentary and Indigenous Model Animation
by Joshua D. Miner. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2021, v. 16, no. 1-2. Sage, 2021.
Super Queeroes
by Peter Knegt et al.
Kent Monkman
by Robert Everett-Green. The Globe and Mail, Jan 6, 2017. The Globe and Mail, 2017.
Kent Monkman marks Indigenous response to Canada 150 at Toronto Pride
by Kenny Sharpe. The Globe and Mail, June 23, 2017. The Globe and Mail, 2017.
Aboriginal Digital Access Project
by John G. Hampton and Lisa Steele. Toronto: Vtape, 2012.
Toronto festival spotlights an indigenous new wave that's...
by Guy Dixon. The Globe and Mail, June 24, 2012.
Unsettling Sex
by John G. Hampton. Toronto: V tape, 2012.
The Pink Indian
by Gerald Hannon. Toronto Life, Sept. 2011, v. 45, no. 9.
Traditional Futures
by David Garneau. Border Crossings, June 2011, v. 30, no. 2.
Kent Monkman
by M J Thompson. Border Crossings, Fall 2011, v. 30, no. 3.
Are we past the age of an aboriginal art show?: Aboriginal art...
by Sarah Milroy. The Globe and Mail, Apr. 22, 2009.
Asserting The Right To Sovereingty, Audio-Visually: RED EYE First...
by James Missen. Fuse, Jan. 1 Winter, 2008, v. 31, no. 1.
Testing Testickle: Monkman's Alter Ego Always Provokes
by Leah Sandals. NOW, Nov. 22, 2007, v. 27, no. 12.
Kent Monkman: Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton
by Debra Antoncic. Canadian Art, Winter 2007, v. 24, no. 4.
The Double Entendre of Re-Enactment
by Gerald McMaster. Toronto: Vtape, 2007.
Kent Monkman's Postindian Diva Warrior:: From Simulacral Historian...
by David McIntosh. Fuse, July 2006, v. 29, no. 3.
Manned Claims: Sex upends our national mythology
by John Davies. Xtra, Oct. 13 Fall, 2005, no. 547.
From a native perspective: Noteworthy: ImagineNATIVE: The...
by Helen Buttery. The National Post, Sept. 9, 2000.
Nervy First Nations Festival
by Cameron Bailey. NOW, Sept. 7 Fall, 2000, v. 20, no. 1.