STORIED TELLING: Performativity and Narrative in Photography

Catherine Blackburn, Lori Blondeau, Xiao Han, Mariam Magsi, Meryl McMaster, Laura St. Pierre

February 6 - May 4, 2025

Artist Bios

Catherine Blackburn, member of the English River First Nation (Dënesųłinë́) in Saskatchewan, is a multidisciplinary artist and jeweller, whose common themes address Canada's colonial past that are often prompted by personal narratives. Her work grounds itself in the Indigenous feminine and explores Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization and representation. Blackburn has exhibited in notable exhibitions including: Santa Fe Haute Couture Fashion Show, Radical Stitch and Àbadakone, and has received numerous awards for her work, including an Eitlejorg 2021 Fellowship and the Sobey Art Award longlist 2023. Now based in Toronto, her work is represented in notable collections, including the National Gallery of Canada.

Lori Blondeau is a nêhiyawak (Plains Cree)/Saulteaux/Métis artist working primarily in performance art, but also in installation and photography. Blondeau is a member of the Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan and is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she is a professor at the University of Manitoba. Much of Blondeau's work revolves around the misrepresentation of First Nations women in popular culture and media culture.

Xiao Han is a multidisciplinary artist and curator from Wuhan, China, now based in Treaty 6 Territory in Saskatoon. Han's research explores diaspora identity, contemporary gender issues, and the relationship between humans, the environment, and the Indigenous land. Through visual art and curatorial practice, Han produced numerous projects investigating the Chinese-Canadian restaurant history, the identity of home, and the aesthetic of community relationships. 

Mariam Magsi was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan and is currently based in Toronto. Her ethnic heritage is Baloch and Punjabi. Working in photography, video, performance art and installation, Magsi uses inherited textiles, cultural paraphernalia, family archives, food and orally transmitted intergenerational stories, to unpack themes related to socio-political constructions of identity, intergenerational trauma, gender and migration. Magsi’s projects include artistic and historic investigations into the practice of veiling (Purdah), an ongoing creative exploration of her Baloch identity and ancestry (Daughter of the Tribe), as well as artistic research into the food and hospitality cultures of South Asia.

Meryl McMaster is an Ottawa-based artist with nêhiyaw (Plains Cree), Métis, British and Dutch ancestry. Her lens-based practice incorporates the production of hand crafted materials and performance forming a synergy that transports the viewer out of the ordinary and into a space of contemplation and introspection. She explores the self in relation to land, lineage, history, culture and the more-than-human world. McMaster has received numerous awards, including being long listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2016, has exhibited her work internationally, and her work is included in international collections, including at the National Gallery of Canada.

Saskatoon-based, Fransaskois artist Laura St. Pierre explores her relationship with the natural environment through a multidisciplinary art practice. Her installations, sculptures, photography, and public works simulate scavenger activity within Canadian regions particularly significant to her personal history and experience. St. Pierre’s work has been exhibited in major art exhibitions such as the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, the Bonavista Biennale, and Manif d’art – La biennale de Québec. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at AKA Artist-Run, Saskatoon; Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto; Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, and University of Saskatchewan College Galleries, among others. St. Pierre has earned Bachelor degrees from the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at Concordia University in Montreal. Her work is in the permanent collections of The Dunlop Gallery in Regina, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Art Gallery of Alberta.