Beau Dick: Walas Gwa'yam / Big, Great Whale: Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, New York, 10013

Opening Reception:

Thursday, April 11, 6-8 PM

 

Andrew Kreps Gallery
22 Cortlandt Alley & 394 Broadway

 

Beau Dick's works are deeply informed by the tradition of potlatch, a gift-giving ceremony practiced by Indigenous people of the coast of Pacific Northwest Canada, which focused on the redistribution of wealth as a tool for building solidarity. Outlawed by the Canadian Government  for nearly seventy years as part of an ongoing history of forced assimilation, the seclusion of Dick's birthplace on Kingcome Inlet (Gwa'yi) allowed his community to continue practicing customs relatively free from the gaze of colonial authorities. Trained in wood-carving by his father, grandfather, and other master carvers, and completing his education in Vancouver, Dick was acutely aware of inherent tensions between contemporary consumer culture and Kwakwaka'wakw teachings. Refuting his masks as static objects, his carvings reference supernatural figures, like Dzunuk'wa, the "wild woman of the woods," and her counterpart, Bakwas, "wild man of the woods," which are reanimated to combat what Dick saw as capitalism's "ravenous" oppression. Frequently employing his works in dances and performances, in 2012 he took forty Atlakim (Forest) masks to his community in Alert Bay, where after one final ceremony, they were ritually burned, referencing the ongoing responsibility for rebirth, and recreation in the face of erased tradition.

 

In 2023, Beau Dick's work was included in the major exhibition Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, curated by Candice Hopkins. Past solo exhibitions included Devoured by Consumerism, White Columns, New York, 2019, traveled to Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada, 2019, Beau Dick: Revolutionary Spirit, Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC, 2018. In addition, Dick participated in important group exhibitions during his lifetime, such as documenta 14 in Athens, GR, and Kassel, Germany, 2017, Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2013, and the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2010, among others. A lifelong advocate  and activist, Dick was Inspired by the ongoing movement Idle No More, which was initiated in response to legislative abuses of Indigenous treaty rights by the Canadian Government. In 2013, Dick broke Copper Shields on the steps of the BC legislative assembly, and the next year, gathered even more supporters to break copper in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, stating "In breaking this copper we confront the tyranny and oppression of a government who has forsaken human rights and turned its back on nature in the interests of the almighty dollar, and we act in accordance with our laws."

 

About Andrew Kreps Gallery

Andrew Kreps Gallery was founded in New York in 1996. After over 20 years of operation in Chelsea, the gallery relocated to 22 Cortlandt Alley in Tribeca in 2019. Spanning 10,000 square feet across two levels, the gallery currently mounts more than ten exhibitions by international artists each year. Since 2019, the gallery has additionally presented exhibitions at 55 Walker, an exhibition space co-operated with Bortolami and kaufmann repetto. In 2022, the gallery once again expanded its programming to 394 Broadway, a storefront space that connects Broadway to Cortlandt Alley, and will present seven additional each year.