ExhibitionsChristian Chapman: Run to the Hills!
September 17 - December 17, 2023
Christian Chapman, "Wisdom" (2011), acrylic and oil on gesso paper. Indigenous Art Collection, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Photo by Lawrence Cook.
Christian Chapman is an Anishinaabe artist from Fort William First Nation, ON. Raised on stories passed down through generations of his family, Chapman developed a deep connection to storytelling early on that continues to guide his artistic practice and situate it within an evolving Anishinaabe storytelling legacy.
Run to the Hills! spotlights Chapman’s distinctive approach to incorporating those inherited stories into painting and printmaking, creating his unique visual language. Drawing from popular culture and lived experience, Chapman responds intuitively but with purpose to address the everyday realities of Anishinaabeg today.
Chapman’s work unfolds within a liminal space where identities blur and narratives converge, and where the everyday meets the iconic. Through this playful exchange, his work creates an intermediary realm for Indigenous audiences, a place where the signifiers of popular culture and the nuanced humour of Indigenous experience can coexist. Viewers are invited into a space that opens sharp, yet familiar intersections, revealing the fluid boundaries between these interconnected worlds.
Influenced by the visionary work of the Woodland School’s Mishomis, Norval Morrisseau, and the radical aesthetics of American Pop artist Andy Warhol, Chapman reimagines these traditions through his own lens. His approach is bold, inventive, and grounded by a deep reverence for Anishinaabe narrative forms. By animating the Woodland style with humour, satire and critical insight, Chapman both honours its legacy and affirms its continued relevance for a new generation of Anishinaabe artists.
The exhibition’s title, Run to the Hills!, nods to Iron Maiden’s iconic single while echoing Chapman’s 2017 print, Fight for Your Life. The song references the fraught history between white settlers and the Nêhiyawak (Cree), standing as both a protest anthem and a declaration of Indigenous empowerment. Chapman’s work channels these forces, illuminating humour and pop culture as tools of resilience while honouring the unyielding spirit of resistance that flows through Indigenous life, past and present.
Thank you! CUAG acknowledges with gratitude the many lenders whose generosity has made this exhibition possible: the Indigenous Art Collection at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, the Government of Ontario Art Collection, Archives of Ontario, Howard Adler, Barry Ace and Earl Truelove, Blake Angeconeb, Rawlson King and Linda Grussani, Bill Staubi and Bear Witness.
Curated by
Danielle Printup
Artists in the exhibition
Christian Chapman
