Miss Chief’s Wet Dream, the largest work ever produced by artist Kent Monkman, was generously gifted to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia by the Donald R. Sobey Foundation as announced on the evening of October 12, 2018. In addition to its large scale, measuring 7.5 meters by 3.5 meters, this monumental canvas is the first work by Monkman to be centered around a maritime theme.
As curator Catherine Bédard writes:
A tribute to the fairy tale, French art and history painting, we will see Géricault’s renowned Raft of the Medusa steered off its Romantic course to enter into a collision with a canoe full of Indigenous people. With the help of his queer alter ego, the impressive Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Monkman traverses the history of art and converses, freely and equal to equal, with the old “masters.”
In conjunction with the exhibition Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is pleased to showcase Miss Chief’s Wet Dream in an exclusive viewing from Wednesday, October 31, 2018 to Sunday, November 11, 2018.
Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who works with a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. His work is known for its provocative reinterpretations of romantic North American landscapes and explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience – the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experience.
This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.
Ce projet est l’un des 200 projets exceptionnels soutenus par le programme Nouveau chapitre du Conseil des arts du Canada. Avec cet investissement 35 M$, le Conseil des arts appuie la création et le partage des arts au cœur de nos vies et dans l’ensemble du Canada.
Image: Kent Monkman, Miss Chief’s Wet Dream, 2018, acrylic on canvas 365.7 x 731.5 cm. Gift of Donald R. Sobey, 2018.
