The Land Holds Our Dreams
by Mike Alexander
April 20 – August 31, 2024
In Person Only
Artist Statement:
Anishinaabe art is about discovery. These pieces are portals into another world I found that lives inside of me. Within this world, I find my family, homeland, and community. In these works, I also find myself. I am inherently connected to these other places, and it is through these paintings that I re-discover my cultural identity. My worldview is currently best expressed through the language of dreams, of colour, and of visions that have been central to the creation of these works.
In my culture, the storytellers are medicine for those who seek. In an anthropological context, the artists are the ones who record the stories and teachings to pass on to the next generation. We are the ones that help guide the people through the visual expression of balance, harmony and peace. Anishinaabe people use art to celebrate who we are and to show how proud we are of our Indigeneity. It is a gift to be able to take up my artistic birthright and to grow and develop with it, as did my ancestors before me whose medicine I embrace whole-heartedly.
Artist Bio:
Mike Alexander is an emerging Anishinaabe visual artist and writer originally from Swan Lake First Nation in Treaty #1 Territory. Adopted out to a non-Indigenous family shortly after birth, Mike is a 60’s Scoop survivor and a second-generation Residential School survivor who grew up in Winnipeg before moving to BC in 2015.
He has attended the University of Victoria, the Victoria College of Art and the Vancouver Island School of Art. Mike is honoured to receive mentorship from master of the Woodlands School of Art, Mark Anthony Jacobson (Anishinaabe). He has been the recipient of several generous grants from the Kamloops Arts Council, the First Peoples Cultural Council, the BC Arts Council as well as the Canada Council for the Arts and is currently practicing as a full time, internationally collected, and exhibiting gallery artist in and around Vancouver BC and beyond.
Mike identifies very strongly with the Woodlands School of Art. He celebrates his ongoing reclamation of culture using art as a process of decolonization, healing, and cultural revitalization. He has been focusing on acrylic painting since 2016.
He is currently an artist in residence at Skwachays Lodge in Vancouver where he lives and works.
Find Mike Online:
@Thundercloud924
thunderclouddesigns.org