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English
Aperture
18 May 2023
A Kind of Prayer presents the first-ever survey dedicated to the late Cree artist Kimowan Metchewais and his singular body of work on Indigenous identity, community, and colonial memory.

After his untimely death at age forty-seven in 2011, Metchewais left behind a wholly original and expansive body of photographic and mixed-media work. At the center of his practice is an extensive Polaroid archive, which addresses a range of themes-including the artist's body, performative self-portraiture, language, landscapes, and everyday subjects-and served as the source material for works in other media, such as painting and collage. Metchewais's exquisitely layered works offer a poetic meditation on his connection to home and land, while challenging conventional narratives and representations of Indigeneity.

Metchewais was a contemporary artist of stunning originality, and until now, his work has been woefully understudied and underexposed. A Kind of Prayer is a comprehensive overview that showcases this essential artist's astonishing vision.
Photographs by:  
Text by:   , , ,
Imprint:   Aperture
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 260mm,  Width: 209mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   1.270kg
ISBN:   9781597115322
ISBN 10:   1597115320
Pages:   224
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Kimowan Metchewais (1963–2011; born in Oxbow, Saskatchewan, Canada) was a multidisciplinary Cree artist who began his artistic career working as an illustrator and editor at the Native newspaper Windspeaker. He later received his bachelor of fine arts at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, before completing his master of fine arts at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. In 1995, Metchewais received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship to spend the summer at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1996, a national award from the Canadian Native Arts Foundation. At the time of his death, he was associate professor in the art department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Christopher Green is a writer and art historian whose research focuses on modern and contemporary Native American art and material culture. His work has appeared in Aperture, Artforum, Art in America, and Frieze, among other publications. Emily Moazami is assistant head archivist at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. Jeff Whetstone is professor and head of photography at Princeton University, New Jersey.

Reviews for Kimowan Metchewais: Some Kind of Prayer

“Kimowan is a gift – an important voice for Native artists and the contemporary art world. He left us before he got the recognition he so deserved, but we can continue to learn and gain inspiration from the work he left behind.” —Wendy Red Star, The New York Times. “A Kind of Prayer presents the first-ever survey dedicated to the late Cree artist Kimowan Metchewais and his singular body of work on Indigenous identity, community, and colonial memory.” —Photo London “The Photographer 2000, a mixed-media artwork by Kimowan Metchewais, whose monograph A Kind of Prayer was published in January by Aperture. Metchewais’s work is on view this month as part of the exhibition Native America: In Translation at the Milwaukee Art Museum.” —Laena Wilder, Harper’s Magazine “A Kind of Prayer is an exploration of Indigenous identity and community, as seen through photography and multi-media work of the late Cree artist Kimowan Metchewais.” —International Center of Photography “A monograph that is both a photobook and a scholarly publication but, as its subtitle suggests, also an expression of something that lies beyond analysis of the physical world.” —Maymanah Farhat, The Brooklyn Rail


  • Winner of Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship 1995 (United States)
  • Winner of National Aboriginal Achievement Award 1996 (Canada)

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