Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Faye HeavyShield is a leading Indigenous contemporary artist with a practice spanning 40 years. Her work has been taught in numerous classes throughout ECU’s history, inspiring Indigenous students with her conceptual and minimalist art pieces that speak volumes to First Nations histories, cultures, and knowledge-based philosophies. The 2021 recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, HeavyShield has created powerful installations and sculptures characterized by repeating forms and motifs, including spirals, circles, grids and lines. Drawing from personal experience, her work reveals a deep relationship with the land, in particular the Kainai (Blood) Nation in Southern Alberta where she grew up and still lives.
During her first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in 2025, “Faye HeavyShield: Issokawo’taan,” HeavyShield presented several works, including a re-staging of her acclaimed 1995–96 multimedia installation Venus as Torpedo. This large-scale work, with audio in both Blackfoot and English, features assorted garments draped over a protruding arm that extends across the museum floor. The exhibition was curated by Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the AGO, and organized by the AGO in partnership with the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation.
HeavyShield has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including “Nations in Urban Landscapes” at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver; “rock paper river” at Gallery Connexion, Fredericton; “Into the Garden of Angels” at The Power Plant in Toronto; “kuto’iis (blood)” at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery; the 2005 Alberta Art Biennial; “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; and “Clans” at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Her work is held in private and public institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada; the McMichael Canadian Art Collection; the Alberta Foundation of Art; the Glenbow Museum; the Heard Museum; the Eiteljorg Museum of Native American Art and Western Art; the MacKenzie Art Gallery; and the Kelowna Art Gallery. She is the recipient of an Eiteljorg Native American Contemporary Art Fellowship and received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award in 2021.
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Faye HeavyShield is a leading Indigenous contemporary artist with a practice spanning 40 years. Her work has been taught in numerous classes throughout ECU’s history, inspiring Indigenous students with her conceptual and minimalist art pieces that speak volumes to First Nations histories, cultures, and knowledge-based philosophies. The 2021 recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, HeavyShield has created powerful installations and sculptures characterized by repeating forms and motifs, including spirals, circles, grids and lines. Drawing from personal experience, her work reveals a deep relationship with the land, in particular the Kainai (Blood) Nation in Southern Alberta where she grew up and still lives.
During her first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in 2025, “Faye HeavyShield: Issokawo’taan,” HeavyShield presented several works, including a re-staging of her acclaimed 1995–96 multimedia installation Venus as Torpedo. This large-scale work, with audio in both Blackfoot and English, features assorted garments draped over a protruding arm that extends across the museum floor. The exhibition was curated by Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the AGO, and organized by the AGO in partnership with the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation.
HeavyShield has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including “Nations in Urban Landscapes” at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver; “rock paper river” at Gallery Connexion, Fredericton; “Into the Garden of Angels” at The Power Plant in Toronto; “kuto’iis (blood)” at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery; the 2005 Alberta Art Biennial; “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; and “Clans” at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Her work is held in private and public institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada; the McMichael Canadian Art Collection; the Alberta Foundation of Art; the Glenbow Museum; the Heard Museum; the Eiteljorg Museum of Native American Art and Western Art; the MacKenzie Art Gallery; and the Kelowna Art Gallery. She is the recipient of an Eiteljorg Native American Contemporary Art Fellowship and received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award in 2021.
To stay up to date with current ECU news + events, follow @emilycarru on social media:
Instagram: instagram.com/emilycarru
Facebook: facebook.com/EmilyCarrU
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/school/29691
TikTok: tiktok.com/@emilycarru
