SK Arts | Holly Aubichon

February 2023 marks the beginning of SK Arts' 75th anniversary year. On February 3, 1948, the Saskatchewan Arts Board opened its doors, supporting artists across the province. As we celebrate this milestone, we look to honour the past, the present and the future of the province's vibrant arts community with the We Celebrate You campaign. SK Arts asked 75 established artists to nominate one strong, emerging artist, program or training opportunity that makes the future of Saskatchewan arts exciting.

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David Garneau - Older man with black and grey hair and beard. He is wearing glassed and a black shirt.

Photo credit: Mika Abbott

David Garneau

David Garneau (Métis) is the Head of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. He is a painter, curator and critical art writer interested in creative expressions of Indigenous, contemporary ways of being. Garneau curated Kahwatsiretátie: The Contemporary Native Art Biennial (Montreal, 2020) with assistance from Faye Mullen and rudi aker; co-curated, with Kathleen Ash Milby, Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound, National Museum of the American Indian (New York, 2017); With Secrecy and Despatch, with Tess Allas, an international exhibition about massacres of Indigenous people and memorialization for the Campbelltown Art Centre (Sydney, Australia, 2016); and Moving Forward, Never Forgetting, with Michelle LaVallee, an exhibition concerning the legacies of Indian Residential Schools, other forms of aggressive assimilation, and (re)conciliation, at the Mackenzie Art Gallery (Regina, 2015). His paintings are in numerous public and private collections.

Holly Aubichon - The painting shows six women sitting in a living room. The women appear to be listening to one woman with her arms outstretched.

Photo title: Nelda, Sandy, Churchy, Missy, Babs, Wege, Me, Holly Aubichon, 2021.

Holly Aubichon

Holly Aubichon investigates topics of urban Indigeneity and how ancestral knowledge reaches urban Indigenous people through memory, land, and body, using forms of painting, writing and curation. She identifies as Métis, Cree from her paternal side, and Ukrainian, Irish, and Scottish ancestry from her maternal side.

Holly was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. Her Indigenous relations come from Green Lake, Meadow Lake and Lestock, SK. Her practice is laboriously reliant on retracing familial memories and connections. She uses painting as a way to foster personal healing. Since July 1, 2021, as an extension of her practice, she has been in a traditional Indigenous tattoo mentorship with Stacey Fayant.

Holly believes tattooing, as a practice, acknowledges the memories that bodies hold and supports healing, grieving and the revival of traditional tattoo methods. She graduated from the University of Regina in 2021 with a BFA, minoring in Indigenous art history. Aubichon was the Saskatchewan recipient of the 2021 BMO 1st Art! Award. Holly Aubichon is the current Artistic Director for Sâkêwêwak Artists’ Collective Inc and has been since 2021.

“…catching the imagination of generations to come.” – David Garneau

Holly (Métis/Cree) is a recent graduate of the University of Regina’s visual arts program. She is a fine painter who makes ambitious yet intimate scenes of Indigenous family life. Her work won the BMO 1st Art! regional prize. Like a scene from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, Holly intended to head west after graduation to a lovely job on the coast. Instead, she was coaxed to take on the leadership of the Sâkêwêwak Artist-Run Collective (Regina), which was in crisis. The collective likely would’ve collapsed without her diligent and creative efforts to stabilize and renew the organization. While it is her strong leadership that she is best known for currently, I think it is her painting that will endure by catching the imagination of generations to come.