Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (1952-)
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is a contemporary Canadian artist of Coast Salish and Okanagan descent. He lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. His paintings and sculptures combine Coast Salish cosmology, Northwest Coast design, and Western landscape painting. Yuxweluptun’s paintings can be brutal critiques of issues affecting Canada’s First Nations. He broaches topics such as stolen land, residential schools, and the destruction of the environment by corporations. In addition to being an influential First Nations artist, Yuxweluptun is a strong advocate for Indigenous issues. Yuxweluptun merges traditional iconography with representations of the environment and the history of colonization, resulting in his powerful, contemporary imagery; his work is replete with masked fish farmers, super-predator oil barons, abstracted ovoids and unforgettable depictions of a spirit-filled, but now toxic, natural world.
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