Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is one of Canada’s most outspoken and influential contemporary artists. Of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) and Okanagan (Syilx) descent, he lives and works on unceded Coast Salish territories in Vancouver, British Columbia. Yuxweluptun is Salish for “man of many masks,” a name given to the artist during his initiation into the Sxwaixwe Society at the age of fourteen.  Lets’lo:tseltun was given to Lawrence by Sto:lo artist Laura Wee Lay Laq in 2018 and means “man of many colours.”  His paintings and sculptures combine Coast Salish cosmology, Northwest Coast design, and Western landscape painting. Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun’s paintings can be brutal critiques of issues affecting Canada’s First Nations. He broaches topics such as land title, residential schools, and the destruction of the environment.

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun is an advocate for contemporary indigenous issues in Canada. This is evidenced by his exhibition history and reception of awards such as the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts (VIVA) award in 1998 and in 2019, Emily Carr University of Art + Design awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Fine Art.

Yuxweluptun has received numerous grants and awards, including the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts Award (1998), and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Fellowship (2013). His work has been the subject of over 25 solo exhibitions. Upcoming international exhibitions include the Hessel Museum (2023, New York). Yuxweluptun has participated in more than 24 pivotal group exhibitions at venues such as the 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.