Sonny Assu Art
Canadian, b. 1975
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn’t until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu’s artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver’s art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back “home” in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art in 2011 and was thrice long-listed for the Sobey Art Award. He received his MFA from Concordia University in 2017 and was one of the Laureates for the 2017 REVEAL – Indigenous Art Awards.
His work has been accepted into the National Gallery of Canada, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Burke Museum at the University of Washington, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Hydro Quebec, Lotto Quebec and in various other public and private collections across Canada, the United States and the UK.(Biography provided by Art Mûr)
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Artist: Sonny Assu
They're Coming! Quick! I have a better hiding place for you. Dorvan V
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
Making a b-line to HaidaBucks, Salmonberry Frap #ftw #starbucksFAIL #lol
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze.
These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
We shall reassert our inherent rights
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze.
These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
The Away Team Beams Down to What Appears to Be an Uninhabited Planet
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze.
These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
"The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians...
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
It was, like, a super long time ago that ppl were here, right?
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #11, #12
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
First Contact
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
You mess with me, you mess with my cousins
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
#fangasm, Pabs was TOTALLY inspired by meeeeeeeee111!
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Digital
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #32
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
PRESERVER ONE: Well, looks like we got them all. See, don’t you feel GREAT...
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #9
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #4
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Ink
The Value of Comic Sans
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze.
These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
There is Hope, If We Rise (Resist)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #38
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart maps, covers from Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, and science fiction television programs, this exhibition continues Assu’s exploration around the intersection of Indigenous Peoples and North American pop culture.
In the Star Trek episode The Paradise Syndrome, Captain Kirk suffers from amnesia when he arrives on an alien planet, which is inhabited by a society of people who resemble Indigenous Peoples in North America. Kirk is found by a group of women who believe that he is a god and then take him back to their community. At the end of the episode, he is attacked when they realize he is not a god. Spock and McCoy are transported to his rescue, but in the midst of the conflict, a tribal priestess who Kirk developed a relationship with, is killed.
In this exhibition, Assu presents two series of digitally altered prints inspired by fact and fiction. The first series depicts ovoids superimposed onto digital scans of paintings by Emily Carr and A.Y. Jackson, framed by gamebook covers. The prints feature alien forms descending, referencing a Star Trek: Voyager episode titled Tattoo.
In this episode, Chakotay meets the Sky Spirits, aliens who visited Earth thousands of years ago. They met nomadic humans who had great respect for the land and other animals. The Sky Spirits were so impressed that they gifted the nomads with an inheritance that would allow them to thrive and protect their world.
When the Sky Spirits returned thousands of years later, they found that the weapons and diseases of invaders from other lands had decimated the nomadic ‘Inheritors’. Chakotay’s tattoo was the mark of an Inheritor and signaled to the Sky Spirits that some of the Inheritors had survived.
Assu’s gamebook prints expand on this fictional story, incorporating aspects of our colonial history in the Pacific Northwest. This exhibition is a playful investigation of challenging issues. By incorporating nostalgic gamebooks from the 1980s, Assu alludes to the discovery of his Kwawaka’wakw heritage, which has recently led him back to living in his ancestral land.
The second series of Assu’s prints in this exhibition depict digital illustrations, inspired by Indigenous copper shield symbols, that are superimposed onto navigational marine maps...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
8bit
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Tell Chakotay that we'll brb
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #36
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
Well, that was unexpected
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #37
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart maps, covers from Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, and science fiction television programs, this exhibition continues Assu’s exploration around the intersection of Indigenous Peoples and North American pop culture.
In the Star Trek episode The Paradise Syndrome, Captain Kirk suffers from amnesia when he arrives on an alien planet, which is inhabited by a society of people who resemble Indigenous Peoples in North America. Kirk is found by a group of women who believe that he is a god and then take him back to their community. At the end of the episode, he is attacked when they realize he is not a god. Spock and McCoy are transported to his rescue, but in the midst of the conflict, a tribal priestess who Kirk developed a relationship with, is killed.
In this exhibition, Assu presents two series of digitally altered prints inspired by fact and fiction. The first series depicts ovoids superimposed onto digital scans of paintings by Emily Carr and A.Y. Jackson, framed by gamebook covers. The prints feature alien forms descending, referencing a Star Trek: Voyager episode titled Tattoo.
In this episode, Chakotay meets the Sky Spirits, aliens who visited Earth thousands of years ago. They met nomadic humans who had great respect for the land and other animals. The Sky Spirits were so impressed that they gifted the nomads with an inheritance that would allow them to thrive and protect their world.
When the Sky Spirits returned thousands of years later, they found that the weapons and diseases of invaders from other lands had decimated the nomadic ‘Inheritors’. Chakotay’s tattoo was the mark of an Inheritor and signaled to the Sky Spirits that some of the Inheritors had survived.
Assu’s gamebook prints expand on this fictional story, incorporating aspects of our colonial history in the Pacific Northwest. This exhibition is a playful investigation of challenging issues. By incorporating nostalgic gamebooks from the 1980s, Assu alludes to the discovery of his Kwawaka’wakw heritage, which has recently led him back to living in his ancestral land.
The second series of Assu’s prints in this exhibition depict digital illustrations, inspired by Indigenous copper shield symbols, that are superimposed onto navigational marine maps...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #20
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart maps, covers from Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, and science fiction television programs, this exhibition continues Assu’s exploration around the intersection of Indigenous Peoples and North American pop culture.
In the Star Trek episode The Paradise Syndrome, Captain Kirk suffers from amnesia when he arrives on an alien planet, which is inhabited by a society of people who resemble Indigenous Peoples in North America. Kirk is found by a group of women who believe that he is a god and then take him back to their community. At the end of the episode, he is attacked when they realize he is not a god. Spock and McCoy are transported to his rescue, but in the midst of the conflict, a tribal priestess who Kirk developed a relationship with, is killed.
In this exhibition, Assu presents two series of digitally altered prints inspired by fact and fiction. The first series depicts ovoids superimposed onto digital scans of paintings by Emily Carr and A.Y. Jackson, framed by gamebook covers. The prints feature alien forms descending, referencing a Star Trek: Voyager episode titled Tattoo.
In this episode, Chakotay meets the Sky Spirits, aliens who visited Earth thousands of years ago. They met nomadic humans who had great respect for the land and other animals. The Sky Spirits were so impressed that they gifted the nomads with an inheritance that would allow them to thrive and protect their world.
When the Sky Spirits returned thousands of years later, they found that the weapons and diseases of invaders from other lands had decimated the nomadic ‘Inheritors’. Chakotay’s tattoo was the mark of an Inheritor and signaled to the Sky Spirits that some of the Inheritors had survived.
Assu’s gamebook prints expand on this fictional story, incorporating aspects of our colonial history in the Pacific Northwest. This exhibition is a playful investigation of challenging issues. By incorporating nostalgic gamebooks from the 1980s, Assu alludes to the discovery of his Kwawaka’wakw heritage, which has recently led him back to living in his ancestral land.
The second series of Assu’s prints in this exhibition depict digital illustrations, inspired by Indigenous copper shield symbols, that are superimposed onto navigational marine maps...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
King Tide
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #6
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Ink
Fresh Prince
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
There is Hope, If We Rise (Idle No More)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
Longing #29
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Four years ago, I stumbled upon the site of a log-home developer on the traditional territory of the We Wai Kai Nation, my reserve on northeastern Vancouver Island. I found it comica...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
There is Hope, If We Rise (Confront)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
There is Hope, If We Rise (Challenge Stereotypes)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your ev...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
There is Hope, If We Rise (Learn)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
Saved by the bell
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Yeah... shit's about to go sideways. I'll take you to Amerind. You'll like it...
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
Melody
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
There is Hope, If We Rise (Teach)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
Skinny dipper
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Longing #28
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Four years ago, I stumbled upon the site of a log-home developer on the traditional territory of the We Wai Kai Nation, my reserve on northeastern Vancouver Island. I found it comica...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
Heron
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Cutting Edge
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Ink, Archival Paper
Cutting Edge
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Ink, Archival Paper
Beware of the intentions of well meaning Aliens
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix culture—as digital interventions onto works that contain the colonial gaze.
These interventions participate in the growing discourse of decolonization, acting as “tags” to challenging the colonial fantasy of terra nullius and confronting the dominant colonial culture’s continued portrayal of Indigenous peoples as a vanishing race...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
It was, like, a super long time ago that ppl were here, right?
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The title "Interventions On The Imaginary" is a clear reference to Marcia Crosby’s essay, "The Construction of the Imaginary Indian", and situates itself within the realm of remix cu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Digital
There is Hope, If We Rise (Round Dance)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
The paradise Syndrome, Voyage #30
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Titled after an episode of Star Trek, The Paradise Syndrome features new work by Sonny Assu. Combining Indigenous content with appropriated images and text from marine chart...
Category
2010s Abstract Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
Roswell
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Wheezing the Juice
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Coming out of Sonny Assu's artist residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they have created a new body of work called the Santa Fe series. The artwork is filled with flui...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
There is Hope, If We Rise (Never Idle)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your ev...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
There is Hope, If We Rise (Rise)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday average suburbanite, it wasn't until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildax̱w/Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point that helped launch his unique art practice.
Assu's artistic practice is diverse: spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. Sonny negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Having cut his teeth in Vancouver's art scene, Assu packed up and moved to Montreal to be with the love of his life. Five years later, along with his wife and beautiful daughter, Sonny moved back to BC, eventually settling back "home" in unceded Liǥwildaʼx̱w territory (Campbell River, BC.).
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
There is Hope, If We Rise (Idle Know More)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your ev...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
There is Hope, If We Rise (Lead)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your ev...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
There is Hope, If We Rise (Decolonize)
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Sonny Assu (Liǥwildaʼx̱w of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his home ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your ev...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Screen
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #3
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Acrylic, Archival Paper, Paper
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #7
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Ink, Archival Paper
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #1
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Paper, Archival Paper, Acrylic
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #5
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Ink, Archival Paper
The Treasury Edition: Spidey Spectacular #2
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Paper, Acrylic, Archival Paper
Cutting Edge
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
As a kid, comic books were a form of entertainment and escape. The ideal of future monetary value in these objects was far from my kid mind. I'd crease the pages, handle the covers w...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Ink
Longing #2
By Sonny Assu
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Four years ago, I stumbled upon the site of a log-home developer on the traditional territory of the We Wai Kai Nation, my reserve on northeastern Vancouver Island. I found it comica...
Category
2010s Contemporary Sonny Assu Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
Sonny Assu art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Sonny Assu art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Sonny Assu in archival pigment print, pigment print, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Sonny Assu art, so small editions measuring 7 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Michel Piquette, Patrick Beaulieu, and David Halliday. Sonny Assu art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $700 and tops out at $6,400, while the average work can sell for $3,000.