Meryl McMaster, "Edge of a Moment" (at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump), 2017 (photo courtesy the artist)
Meryl McMaster's stunning photographs at Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump in Alberta are drawing media attention in Britain, where they are on display at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery.
A story about the show, As Immense As the Sky, McMaster's first solo show in Britain, was published last month in the Guardian.
Installation view of Meryl McMaster, "As Immense as the Sky" at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham UK, 2019 © Ikon Gallery
The article, by Matthew Wilcox, says Ikon's current string of Indigenous shows is designed "to wake the U.K. up" and notes Britain's growing interest in Indigenous art from North America.
"Like the landscape she captures, McMaster’s photographs feel loaded with meaning, her meticulously constructed outfits and props suggesting complex stories of exploitation, migration, place and heritage," Wilcox writes. "They’re performance, fable, self-portrait and landscape photography all rolled into one."
McMaster is of Plains Cree heritage and a member of the Siksika First Nation. She was born and raised in Ottawa. Her father, Gerald, is an an artist and curator who grew up on the Red Pheasant Nation reserve in Saskatchewan. Her mother is of British and Dutch heritage.
The show opened Dec. 4 and is on view until Feb. 23.
Ikon, an educational charity organization established in 1964, operates a contemporary art venue in Birmingham.
Source: The Guardian, Ikon Gallery