Discipline Category: Visual Arts and Photography

Claire Johnston is a Red River Métis and settler visual artist based in Winnipeg/Treaty 1 Territory. As a Two-Spirit Piitoshi-iteeyihtam (one who thinks differently), Claire engages in creating slow meticulous floral beadwork that responds relationally to the past and present.

Claire is an artist and team member with the Re*Storying Autism project (Queen's University), which works to combat Western, colonial, capitalist, and biomedical understandings of Autism through Autistic storytelling and narratives that affirm difference as desirable and needed.

As part of Canada’s official entry to the 2025 Venice Biennale, Claire was selected as a fellow to engage in research on Venetian seed beads and their connection to Métis beadworkers past and present. Their artwork has been acquired by permanent collections at the University of Manitoba (2024) and has exhibited at Urban Shaman (Winnipeg 25’), Rosemary Gallery (Winnipeg 24’), Tangled Arts (Toronto 22’, 24’), Festival du Voyageur (Winnipeg 24’), Venice Biennale of Architecture (Venice 23’) and The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (Vancouver 22’).

Claire is a Sundancer, a step-parent, an auntie, and an MMF citizen with membership with the Two-Spirit Michif Local.

I am  a multidisciplinary visual artist, educator and visual arts advocate. I live at Schist Lake in Northern Manitoba. I work out of a studio there and at the Northern Visual Arts Centre (NorVA) in Flin Flon, MB.

Artist Statement Karen Clark

I am thrilled by the idea that people making and appreciating art works share so much with one another. This sharing is important to inspire conversations that are necessary in Canada today.

I paint the landscape here in the Boreal forest from the vantage point of my kayak or canoe. The terrain here is edgy and sharp. This is my cup of tea.

Most recently I find  myself focused on the local mine processing site nestled next to us here in Flin Flon. It is a remarkable juxtaposition, over 600 hectares devoted to extraction, crushing , smelting, prepping ore and managing waste products from those mining processes.The working title, The Long GoodBye, refers to the boom and bust cycle common to mine based towns throughout the world.

Acknowledgement

My generation has seen the deconstruction of Canada’s colonial past. I follow the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the investigation of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls with a growing sense of horror and shame. Having my roots as a settler in this land, I have a shared sense of confusion and perplexity as to how we - settlers and Indigenous people - carry on together. As a result I find myself questioning my place in this landscape which is so fundamental to my sense of self.

Olivia Cassie (she/her) is a local multidisciplinary artist whose work touches on self exploration, acceptance and making peace with the past. Growing up undiagnosed autistic, biracial and queer, Olivia often felt like an outcast and internalized these feelings into her adult life. In 2023, she connected with an artistic practice that allowed her to safely explore these feelings and the other traumas from her youth. Through portraiture, her work depicts raw emotions of loss, sorrow and bittersweet hope which helps her feel kinship with others. Olivia hopes that, through delicate displays of feeling, she can gain a better understanding of her own inner world and find her place in the world moving around her.

𝘔𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦,
𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦-𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘵,
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦-𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘵.