Ancestral 9 by Meryl McMaster

Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree member of the Siksika Nation, British, and Dutch) is an Ontario-based artist, and a BFA graduate from OCAD University, Toronto. Her work explores questions of identity, representation, perception, myth, memory, and the environment; it unravels identity and subjectivity as something that is never complete, but always in process, and invariably formed from within.

McMaster is the recipient of the Charles Pachter Prize, the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, the Canon Canada Prize, and the OCAD Gold Medal. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions throughout Canada and the United States, and has been acquired by various public and corporate collections including: the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Eiteljorg Museum, the Bank of Montreal, Lerners LLP, and the Donovan Collection.

Artist CV  (PDF)
Artist Bio  (PDF)
Artist Process  (PDF)

Photographer Meryl McMaster: ‘How the world is really transformed’- Macleans, April 26, 2019

Interview: How ‘The Photography Show’ Became the Premier Event for Contemporary Photography - My Modern Met, April 25, 2019

With haunting photos and elaborate costumes, Meryl McMaster shows us the deep history of the land - CBC, January 30, 2019

Dramatic self-portraits by Cree artist seek to reclaim colonial images of Indigenous peoples - CBC, February 22, 2019