Kent Monkman’s multimedia work is engaged in a multivocal dialogue with Indigenous history, colonialism, sexuality – and the conventions of art history itself. This talk by Dr. Norman Vorano looks at how Monkman’s work plays within and around the genres of art and art history, using the conventions of history painting to quietly subvert its historical claims to superiority and autonomy while making powerful statements about the past and future.

Dr. Vorano is a Queen’s national scholar and assistant professor of art history at Queen’s University, with a cross-appointment to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. He was a former curator of Inuit and Indigenous art at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa/Gatineau.