Nadya Kwandibens: The Red Chair Sessions is an ongoing open-call portraiture series by Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) artist Nadya Kwandibens from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. The series places importance on the acknowledgement and reclamation of Indigenous lands and the revitalization of Indigenous languages. This series ultimately disrupts colonial narratives, centres Indigenous Peoples who have been here since time immemorial, and reminds us that we are all guests on Indigenous land.
Melaw Nakehk’o, Dene and Dënesųłiné Liidlii Kue from Denendeh. Photographed on the Fort William First Nation near Animikii Wiikwedong on Robinson-Superior Treaty Territory.
This past October we had the honour of hosting Nadya Kwandiben’s Artist Talk about The Red Chair Sessions. Watch it here on our YouTube channel.
ARTIST BIO
Nadya Kwandibens is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is an award winning portrait and events photographer, a Canon Ambassador, and has travelled extensively across Canada for over 10 years. In 2008 she founded Red Works Photography. Red Works is a dynamic photography company empowering contemporary Indigenous lifestyles and cultures through photographic essays, features, and portraits. Red Works specializes in natural light portraiture and headshots sessions plus event and concert photography. Red Works also provides image licensing, workshops, presentations and print products. Nadya’s photography has been exhibited in group and solo shows across Canada and the United States.
Nadya’s artistic practice builds upon three ongoing bodies of work: Concrete Indians is an open-call series of contemporary urban Indigenous identity and is a representation of decolonial assertions of resistance and resurgence; Red Works Outtakes is an uplifting portraiture series created to combat the “stoic indian” stereotype; and emergence, another open-call series, focuses on resurgent acts of decolonization by means of transmission and conveyance of Indigenous intelligence. Her most recent project is titled The Red Chair Sessions, and is an open-call series that places importance on reclamation of Indigenous spaces / places and languages. She is also currently in the research and development phase for a new multimedia series titled The Kitchen Table Talks that will bring together Indigenous wombyn, LGBTQ2S, and invited settler-allies to round-table perspectives on matrilineal leadership and nationhood with a focus on addressing urgent local and regional Indigenous matters.
Nadya is also a member of the Indigenous Laws + The Arts Collective, the founding body of Testify, a travelling multimedia group exhibition. Testify pairs artists and legal thinkers to work in conversation with each other to create art pieces that explore facets of Indigenous law. Her work in this dynamic exhibition is titled RE:Turning Home and focuses on child-welfare law and the foster care system. In 2018, Nadya won the Ontario Arts Council’s Indigenous Arts Award. Jurors stated, “Nadya is an intrepid, ground-breaking and influential artist. She has brought an Indigenous voice to portrait photography that recontextualizes images and shows us our true selves.”
In addition to commissioned works, Nadya delivers empowering photography workshops and presentations for youth, universities, and community groups. She currently resides in Tkarón:to on Wendat, Haudenosaunee, Mississauga of the Credit River & Dish With One Spoon Territory.
Justin Jacob Louis from
Nipisihkopahk in Maskwacîs
Cree Territory. Photographed on Unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & Səlilwətaʔɬ Territories
Miskobinessik from Sagkeeng
First Nation. Photographed at Bwaan Odaazhewe’onaaning on Anishinaabe Aki, Treaty 3 Territory
Derek Miller, Mohawk from Six
Nations of the Grand River. Photographed at Six Nations of
the Grand River on Dish With One Spoon Territory
Click on the logo below to visit Nadya’s website.
Organized by The Muse – Douglas Family Art Centre, Kenora, Ontario
We acknowledge the support of
