With an ongoing dedication to the advancement of American Indian art, Heard Museum has partnered with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection as the first stop for its upcoming touring exhibition, Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMicheal.

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, New Climate Landscape (Northwest Coast Climate Change), 2019. Acrylic on canvas.

Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in collaboration with indigenous artists, scholars, writers and other stakeholders, Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMichaelis the first large-scale survey of Indigenous art from Canada to be presented internationally. 

The exhibition will be on display at Heard Museum from September 1, 2023 through January 2, 2024. According to the museum, the exhibition explores the powerful tensions and continuities that exist between the present and the past, along with relationships to the land, ancestors and to each other.

“We are honored to be the first stop on this world tour,” says David M. Roche, Heard Museum’s CEO and director. “The exhibition allows us to share the magnificence of Indigenous art from coast-to-coast-to-coast in Canada with the people of Arizona.”

Norval Morrisseau, Artist’s Wife And Daughter, 1975. Acrylic on hardboard.

Viewers of the Early Days exhibition will discover the diversity and vitality of Indigenous art in Canada through a display of objects ranging from eighteenth-century ceremonial regalia to the work of the vanguard artists of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, including Norval Morrisseau, Carl Beam and Alex Janvier, as well as leading contemporary artists, like Kent Monkman, Meryl McMaster and Rebecca Belmore. 

Additionally, Heard Musuem’s display of the Early Days exhibition marks the first time that the work of many of the exhibition’s living artists is shown in Arizona, inviting viewers into a deeper connection with the heart of the Indigenous experience and revealing a vibrant and transforming culture of the twenty-first century.

For more information, visit heard.org.