Senior Canadian artist Robert Houle is known for his distinctive brand of abstraction that blends traditions of modernist painting with elements of his Saulteaux heritage. This presentation features a selection of mixed-media works recently acquired by the Gallery that combine gestural forms, vivid colour fields, non-narrative text and porcupine quills. Intuitively composed, Houle’s abstractions evoke questions of identity and biculturalism, and consider the complex interweaving of colonial and indigenous art histories.
Robert Houle is an Anishinaabe artist, curator, critic and educator active in the arts since the mid-1970s. A pivotal figure in contemporary Canadian art, he received a BA in Art History from the University of Manitoba and a BA in Education from McGill University. His work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. Houle was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba and currently lives in Toronto.
