Introducing the First Nations artists behind our collection of Northwest Coast Native art prints
Born in Alert Bay in 1946, Eugene Hunt was the son of Chief Thomas Hunt and Emma Hunt. As a member of the Fort Rupert band of the Kwagiulth, he spent roughly four years carving at Thunderbird Park at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria in the early 1960s. At...
Francis Dick was born in 1959 into the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw Band of Kingcome Inlet. She is a contemporary Native artist and member of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation. Francis descends from the supernatural Wolf, Kawadelekala. Kawadelekala was the first ancestor of the Kingcome people—an image that anchors much of her work and...
Henry Reece was born in 1973 in Prince Rupert as a member of the Tsimshian Nation. He grew up in Hartley Bay and during his childhood took a keen interest in carving and designing. Henry represents the new generation of mask carvers who are creating traditional pieces relating to their...
Tlehpik Hjalmer Wenstob was raised on Tzartus island in Barkley Sound, in Huu-ay-aht First Nation’s territory, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Hjalmer is Nuu-Chah-Nulth from the Tla-O-Qui-Aht First Nations on his father’s side, and Norwegian and English on his mother’s side. He is an interdisciplinary artist who specializes...
Joe Wilson is a Coast Salish artist who was born in 1967, and raised at Koksilah near the small city of Duncan on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. His keen interest in native art began at the tender age of 12 whilst watching his stepfather, Johnny Sampson, design and carve beautiful...
Born in 1954, John Laford is an Ojibway artist from Manitoulin Island, Ontario. He has thoroughly studied his culture and art at Algonquin College in Pembroke, Ontario. He also studied pottery in New Mexico and the old pictographs and rock paintings of his ancestors. Although he sees himself as a...
John Livingston was born in Vancouver, BC in 1951. He moved to Victoria early on, and this is where he developed a life long interest in Northwest Coast Native art and culture. He began a carving and design apprenticeship at the Royal British Columbia museum in 1965 under the tutelage...
Namgis / Mamlilikala artist Kevin Cranmer was born in Alert Bay, British Columbia, but has lived all but four years of his life in Victoria. Cranmer can trace his ancestry to the many nations of Kwakwaka’wakw people, as well as to the Tlingit of Alaska. His formal instruction came under...
Leslie Robert Sam is a Coast Salish artist, born in Duncan, BC in 1973. He adopted the artist name lessLIE in reference to the deception and betrayal that First Nations peoples suffered as a result of colonization. When lessLIE was six months old, he and his mother moved to Seattle...