Alex Janvier is a canonical figure in Native American art history who, for over 50 years, has maintained a singular artistic practice that fuses aboriginal traditions with modernist abstraction. Influenced by Kandinsky and Klee, his murals and works on paper, canvas and linen explore the Dene geo-cultural landscape of his northern Alberta home with a combination of Indigenous iconography and contemporary realities within a personal aesthetic that is universal in reach: his works reference an ancient past, recent Indigenous history, and his own experience of colonization. Janvier’s synthesis of pictorialism and abstraction embodies a conceptual and formal aesthetic that has not been widely recognized in the work of first generation Native modernists. His original style, his influence on generations of artists, and his role in shifting the perception of Native art from a craft to fine arts status have made Alex Janvier one of the country’s most important artists working today. This major retrospective monograph celebrates a lifetime of creativity and knowledge gained through the artist’s love of the land, art and aboriginal culture.

Greg Hill is Audain Senior Curator and Head of the Department of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada.

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Lee-Ann Martin is an independent curator living in Ottawa. She is currently working with the Walter Phillips Gallery to mentor emerging curators and develop programming for their Banff International Curatorial Institute. Previously, Martin was head curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina (1998-2000), where she continues as adjunct curator, First Nations Art. While at the MacKenzie, she co-curated, with Morgan Wood, EXPOSED: Aesthetics of Aboriginal Erotic Art, and, with Bob Boyer, The Powwow: An Art History. She held the positions of First Peoples Equity Coordinator at the Canada Council for the Arts (1994-1998) and Interim Curator of Contemporary Indian Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec (1992-1994). In 1992, Martin co-curated, with Gerald McMaster, the internationally travelling exhibition INDIGENA: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on 500 Years. She has curated numerous exhibitions and published essays on critical issues in contemporary First Nations art in Canada, and served as coordinator for the 1990 National Task Force on Museums and First Peoples. She holds a master's degree.

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