Sold for: $10,625

PROVENANCE
Donated by the Artist
Courtesy of Equinox Gallery, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Sonny Assu, Speculator Boom, https://www.sonnyassu.com/pages/speculator-boom, accessed May 26, 2021

Sonny Assu (Ligwilda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) currently lives and works in unceded Ligwilda'xw territory (Campbell River). He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations Art in 2011, and has been thrice long-listed for the Sobey Art Award. He received his MFA from Concordia University in 2017 and was one of the laureates for the 2017 REVEAL—Indigenous Art Awards. His work has been collected by numerous institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, among others.

Assu is known for his striking mashups of Indigenous iconography and aspects of popular culture. His work, comprised of painting, sculpture, photography, digital media and printmaking, negotiates Euro-Canadian and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of artmaking as a means to explore family history, personal experience and the effects of colonization on Indigenous peoples. By painting and collaging directly onto the pages of his cherished Marvel comic books in 'Nuff Said! (2018), Assu continues his critical engagement with mainstream culture, which he views “as a way to not only express [his] identity as a purveyor of pop, a watcher of sci-fi and a collector of nerdy things but as a way to find a cathartic experience in the breaking of [his] childhood memorabilia...the deconstruction of something sacred to create something new.”

This work is unframed.

Please note: Consignor Hammer Price proceeds of this lot will benefit the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The Buyer is hereby advised to read fully the Terms and Conditions of Business and Catalogue Terms, including the Vancouver Art Gallery Art Auction 2021 | Spring Forward HO2 Sale Notice and Special Terms of Sale, and any Addendum or Erratum specific to the Vancouver Art Gallery Art Auction 2021 | Spring Forward HO2 auction.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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