Joel Richardson and Nyle Miigizi Johnston, curated by Virginia Eichhorn
Gaganoonidiwag: They Talk To Each Other
On view: JAN 11 >> APR 13, 2025
Joel Richardson and Nyle Miigizi Johnston have been talking with each other for well over a decade. Their conversation began on a log over a stream in Toronto’s High Park. Johnston is an Anishinaabe visual storyteller and cultural director of Finding Our Power Together, a youth organization. His art incorporates teachings based on traditional knowledge. Richardson is a multidisciplinary artist and co- founder of the Metipso Portal, an experimental media lab in the highlands of central Kenya.
Their conversations began with the blending of stories from Indigenous and settler perspectives, harnessing art and technology to stimulate dialogue, promote cultural revival, and inspire collective responsibility for our environment. Merging historical facts with created narratives, this body of work includes mixed media and video components that follow the artists’ time travelling alter egos, Captain Jimmy Swann and Commander George Nadjiwon, as they grapple with what it means to reconcile.
Gaganoonidiwag/They Talk To Each Other is the most recent iteration of a decade’s long project. Bringing this exhibition to Thunder Bay for the first time, artists Nyle Johnston, Joel Richardson, and curator Virigina Eichhorn connect, listen, and learn from the community members, as we come together to share conversations.
Image: Joel Richardson and Nyle Miigizi Johnston, George & The Eagle, mixed media, 2023.
Giiwedinong (in the North) and Zhaawanong (in the South): Leaving and returning to our places of origin
Thursday 6, February, 2025
6:30 – 7:30 pm
Virtual Event
What can we learn from leaving – or returning to – our places of origin? What can we do to create a sense of place, home, and shared histories among us, especially if we are disconnected from the traditional lands and customs of our ancestors? How can we reimagine the idea of the “remote” north and the “urban” south in Ontario and explore what connects us regardless of the physical distance? This participatory discussion with Nyle “Miigizi” Johnston and Joel Richardson, and Virginia Eichhorn will offer opportunities for us to share our experiences with one another.
The exhibition, Gaganoonidiwag/They Talk To Each Other, extends beyond the artwork to include conversations between the artists and visitors and is the second of three participatory conversations. Visitors are welcome to join in the conversation, or simply listen and learn together.
Lunar Futures & Time Travelling
Thursday 3, April, 2025
6:30 – 7:30 pm
Virtual Event
The desire for exploration and discovery are part of who we are as humans. Indigenous knowledge systems acknowledge the solar system, stars, and worlds beyond and beside our own and help us to understand who we are in relation with the universe. With the Thunder Bay Art Gallery’s participation in the Lunar Codex, with the inclusion of Norval Morrisseau’s and other Indigenous artwork, we will look at how the traditional stories and beliefs can inform and hep us as we move forward in contemporary time, and to build together a new future. This participatory discussion with Nyle “Miigizi” Johnston and Joel Richardson, and Virginia Eichhorn will offer opportunities for us to share our experiences with one another.
The exhibition, Gaganoonidiwag/They Talk To Each Other, extends beyond the artwork to include conversations between the artists and visitors. Lunar Futures & Time Travelling is the third of three participatory conversations. Visitors are welcome to join the conversation, or simply listen and learn together
Artist bios
Nyle “Miigizi” Johnston’s spirit name, Wiishkoonseh Miigizi’enh, means Whistling White Headed Eagle. He grew up in Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and apprenticed with Storytellers since his youth. A painter, mural artist, traditional storyteller, and traditional helper, Johnston uses his gift of storytelling to connect his peoples’ stories of love and healing with the broader world and offers support to a range of community organizations. His artistic practice is focused on illustrating stories of the Anishinaabe Nation in a variety of media to raise awareness of their histories as they in turn inform his process. He was born and raised on his beautiful reserve, Neyaashiinigmiing, on the Saugeen Peninsula (Bruce Peninsula) and took a keen interest in painting and art at a very young age. His work has been exhibited across major institutions, including the AGO, ROM, Evergreen Brickworks and the Chippewas of Nawash Cultural Centre. Johnston’s Diiyah Muh’gaanag (Our First Family) is an ongoing installation in the Jennings Youth gallery at the AGO. Drawn in a pictographic style, this installation tells stories of botany, astrology and the interconnectedness of all living things. Johnston currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is a contributing member to the Indigenous & Canadian collection at the AGO.
Joel Richardson is a multi-media artist whose work spans over twenty years. His extensive body of art includes large scale installation, performance, re-workings of digital technology, video, film, portrait and mural painting. He rose to national attention in 2011 when then Toronto mayor Rob Ford erased an original work commissioned by the City of Toronto, a 150-meter-long mural of a series of men and women in business attire interspersed with the extensive Black-Scholes equation. The this piece translated into further shows in New York, Miami, Moscow and Toronto. His recent major projects include a large-scale multi-faceted historical exhibition in collaboration with the Tom Thomson Gallery. He is currently working with Olympic champion Matthew Birrir on the “Metipso Portal”, an international community interactive collaboration with many participants and moving parts based in Canada and Africa.
Virginia M. Eichhorn has worked in the visual arts field for over thirty years. A professor at Georgian College (Barrie Campus), she focuses on post-graduate advanced museum and gallery studies, fine arts, and cultural studies. With an emphasis on ecological, environmental, non-traditional exhibition spaces and community outreach and collaborations, her work as an independent curator has seen her presenting exhibitions at numerous prestigious venues including the XII Biennale of Art at Villa Nova Cerveira in Portugal. She has worked extensively with artists from across Canada and abroad, including Carl Beam, Judy Chicago, Maria Hupfield, Vessna Perunovich, Jane Ash Poitras, Jack Sures, Peter Von Tiesenhausen, and Tim Whiten, developing exhibitions for high profile Canadian galleries and museums such as the Royal Ontario Museum. In addition to curating, she has written numerous catalogue essays and has contributed articles to prominent Canadian magazines for institutions including the National Gallery of Canada, the Mackenzie Art Gallery and others. In 2009 she won the Jean Johnson/Melanie Egan Award for Curatorial Excellence awarded by the Ontario Crafts Council.