Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Making Mischief

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Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, "Coppers From the Hood," 2020

installation view

Gallery Jones is pleased to present Making Mischief, an exhibition of work by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. This is Yahgulanaas’ first exhibition with Gallery Jones and the first solo exhibition of his work in Vancouver in over a decade.

In a video interview that was conducted in the lead up to this exhibition, Yahgulanaas said “I approach the making of artwork with an eye to making space for people to participate. Everybody is welcomed.”

This ethos of inclusivity is borne out through the variety of materials, references and imagery present in Making Mischief, and the hybridity of forms becomes its own visual language. Copper-leafed and painted auto parts, collages built on discarded exhibition trays and paintings on ledgers and museum letterhead, are all unified through the simplicity of form that lies at the core of Haida iconography. By combining the elemental nature of shapes that defined thousands of years of creative output on the West Coast with contemporary Asian and European influences, Yahgulanaas is encouraging a space between the object and the viewer where appreciation can happen.

Yahgulanaas’ work has been collected and exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), The British Museum (London, UK), the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Museum of Anthropology (University of British Columbia, Canada), and the Seattle Art Museum, among others. He is a celebrated public speaker and author, and spent many years working on the Haida Nation’s successful campaign to protect its biocultural diversity. As a descendant of iconic Haida artists including Charles Edenshaw, Yahgulanaas’ understanding of traditional form combined with his open-minded inquisitiveness results in work that further establishes the importance of art from the West Coast.