Sonny Assu: Omnibus

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Sonny Assu, "Oh, yeah, the area’s gettin’ real built up, for sure. Local indians are making a killing." 2021

acrylic paint, acrylic ink, acrylic medium, Marvel comic book pages on panel, 51" x 33"Photo: Byron Dauncey

Sonny Assu has been recognized for his mashups of Indigenous iconography and popular culture. He addresses the ways in which traditions of the past have come to inform contemporary ideas and identities, particularly as related to the effects of colonization, and the loss of language and cultural resources in Indigenous culture. Through a variety of mediums, including museum interventions, large-scale installations, sculpture, and painting, Assu’s work maintains a profound connection to past traditions. His practice emphasizes the complex conversation relating to the intersections and boundaries of traditional Indigenous art within the larger realm of contemporary art practices.

"I've recently returned to an exploration of pop-culture as a way to not only express my identity as a purveyor of pop, a watcher of sci-fi, and a collector of nerdy things, but as a way to find a cathartic experience in the breaking of my childhood memorabilia. Through this, I'm finding a new understanding of the attribution of wealth by the deconstruction of something sacred to create something new. "

- Sonny Assu