Place: Born in Niagara Falls, she currently resides in Brantford
About the artist: Shelley Niro is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in photography, painting, beadwork, and film. Her work focuses on themes of identity, and challenges stereotypes and colonial representations of Indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on Indigenous women. With directness and humour, she crafts new narratives based on the past, pop culture, and her own lived experience. These new narratives force us to reflect on history making, representation and memory, while her work champions self-actualization and liberation. Shelley Niro was named the recipient of both a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and the Scotiabank Photography Award in 2017.
Shelley Niro, Ghost (2004), photograph
About the artwork: This piece is part of a series called “GHOSTS, GIRLS, GRANDMAS”, produced for the National Museum of the American Indian. According to the artist, “Ghost” refers to ancestors and the energy we receive from them when we contemplate time spent on earth and our own time. Here, Niro juxtaposes contemporary photography with wampum beads, which carry their own historical significance.
Rent artwork by Shelley Niro from $120 - $480 per year.
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