Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (b.1957) is one of Canada’s most outspoken and influential contemporary native artists. Of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) and Okanagan (Syilx) descent, he is one of the most outspoken and influential contemporary artists in Canada today. Yuxweluptun presents his ideas through hard-hitting, polemical, but also playful artworks that now span a forty year career. Yuxweluptuns’ works can be brutal critiques of issues such as land title, residential schools, and the destruction of the environment, making him a pivotal voice in contemporary art. He lives and works on unceded, traditional and ancestral xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories.

The artist has participated in more than 24 pivotal exhibitions at venues like the Heard Museum (2023), Philbrooke Museum of Art (2023), Eiteljorg Museum (2022, Indianapolis, Indiana), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2023), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) Indigenous Art Collection (2021-2023, Sussex Courtyards in Ottawa), McMichael Canadian Art Collection (2021, Ontario), Montreal Museum of Fine Art (2020, 2021, Montreal), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2018-2020, Bentonville, Arkansas), SITE Santa Fe (2018, New Mexico), the Art Gallery of Ontario (2017, Toronto), the Vancouver Art Gallery (1997, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2020), the National Gallery of Canada (2013, 2014, Ottawa, Ontario) and the Banff Centre for the Arts (2003, Alberta). In 2016, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia mounted a major 30-year survey of his work, titled Unceded Territories.

Studio Visit with Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

A studio visit with the artist

INQUIRE ABOUT AVAILABLE WORKS

The Impending Fire Storms,

2024, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 108", Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery

Fire Landscape,

2023, Acrylic on canvas, 108 x 84”, Peabody Essex Museum Collection

Little Colonial Reservations in British Columbia, Land Reserved for Indians Under the Indian Act,

2023, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36′′

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Along The Coastal Shores of the Salish Seas Traditional Native Territories,

2023,

73 x 97",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Neo Ovoids,

2023, Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 72”

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Spirit Walker,

2023, Acrylic on cedar, 24 x 13 x 13”

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Our Ancestral Spirits Walk With Us,

2022,

72 x 54”,

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Harvest Moon,

2022,

54 x 36”,

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Untitled ( landscape),

2020,

35.35 x 26",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

The Other side of the Inlet ,

2021,

72 x 54”,

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Untitled (Landscape),

2020,

84 x 96",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Northwest Coast Climate Change,

2019,

76 x 96",

Acrylic on Canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Indian World My Home and Native Land,

2012,

120 x 84",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Natives playing on the Land ,

2015,

108 x 72",

Acrylic on canvas

Floor Opener,

2012,

76 x 96",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

The One Percent,

2015,

84 x 60",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Christy Clark and the Kinder Morgan Go-Go Girls,

2015,

Acrylic on canvas

Photo credit: Maegan Hill-Carroll, Vancouver Art Gallery

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Fucking Creeps They’re Environmental Terrorists,

2013,

84 x 72”,

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

The Direction of Land Claim Negotiations,

2013,

72 x 68”,

Acrylic on Canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

New Chiefs on the Land,

2016,

66 x 84",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Installation view, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Neo-Totems ,

2016,

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Untitled,

16 x 11 x 10",

Cedar, acrylic

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Untitled ,

2016,

15 x 9 x 10",

Cedar, acrylic

Rainy Cowichan winter Ceremony in the Longhouse,

2004,

92 x 76",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

Portrait of a Residential School Child ,

2005,

63.3 x 52.8",

Acrylic on canvas

First Nations, Contemporary native artist, Yuxweluptun, Indigenous painting, Native American Art

The Impending Nisga’a’ Deal. Last Stand. Chump Change, 1996, Acrylic on canvas 80 x 96". Collection Vancouver Art Gallery. Photo credit: Trevor Mills