Winter Exhibition at The Whyte - I AM: Indigenous Artist Mentorship

I AM: Indigenous Artist Mentorship

I AM: Indigenous Artist Mentorship is an exhibition featuring 13 Indigenous artists spanning nations, generations, and career stages. Each artist has created new work in response to The Ancestors Are Talking, a 2025 exhibition at The Whyte that was curated by Joseph M Sanchez, the last surviving member of the “Indigenous Group of Seven.” For Sanchez, this was an opportunity to help foster the next generation of notable Indigenous artists in Canada. A year-long intensive mentorship program has resulted in I AM, an exhibition exploring a range of subject expressions – from kinship to pop culture, from spirituality to self-representation. Through diverse practices, the artists in this exhibition have declared: I AM… I am here, I am multifaceted, I am the past, present, and future of Canadian art.

This exhibition is organized by the Whyte and curated by emerging Métis curator Emma De Sousa, who embodies a curatorial philosophy rooted in kiyokewin (visiting methodology) and wahkohtowon (kinship and reciprocity praxis).