{{Short description|Ligwilda'xw Kwakwaka'wakw contemporary artist}} {{Infobox artist | name = Sonny Assu | image = Enjoy_Coast_Salish_Territory_by_Sonny_Assu.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1975|05|09|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Richmond, British Columbia, Canada | death_date = | death_place = | known_for = painter, printmaker, installation artist, sculptor | training = Emily Carr University of Art and Design | movement = Kwakwaka'wakw art | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = | website = http://sonnyassu.com }} '''Sonny Assu''' (born 1975 in Richmond, British Columbia)<ref name="Sonny Assu">{{cite web|title=Sonny Assu|url=http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=42793|website=National Gallery of Canada|accessdate=28 September 2014}}</ref> is a Canadian contemporary artist. Assu's paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and interventions are all infused with his wry humour which is a tool to open the conversation around his themes of predilections: consumerism, colonization and imperialism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rynor |first=Becky |date=June 8, 2015 |title=An Interview with Sonny Assu |url=https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/artists/an-interview-with-sonny-assu |access-date=February 11, 2023 |website=National Gallery of Canada}}</ref>
== Career== Assu was given a suburban upbringing by his grandparents in North Delta, British Columbia, and didn't learn of his own Kwakwaka'wakw heritage until he was eight years old. He studied painting at Kwantlen College and then at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where he combined his interests in pop art with traditional drum-making and cedar bark weaving.<ref name="thom">{{citation|last=Thom|first=Ian M.|title=Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast|pages=12–15|year=2009|contribution=Sonny Assu|publisher=Douglas & McIntyre}}.</ref>
Assu was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2012, 2013, and 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/artists/an-interview-with-sonny-assu|title=An Interview with Sonny Assu|website=www.gallery.ca|language=en|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref> In 2017 he was the recipient of a REVEAL Indigenous Art Award / Prix en art autochtone from the Hnatyshyn Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rjhf.com/programs/indigenousawards/2017/ASSU.php|title=Indigenous Awards {{!}} The Hnatyshyn Foundation|website=www.rjhf.com|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref>
Assu is an author in the graphic novel anthology "This Place: 150 Years Retold."<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://highwaterpress.com/product/this-place/|title=This Place {{!}} Highwater Press|website=highwaterpress.com|access-date=2019-04-23}}</ref> His story, 'Tilted Ground,' follows Assu's great-great-grandfather<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.portageandmainpress.com/blog/2018/12/20/sonny-assu-thisplaceretold/|title=An Interview with Sonny Assu about "This Place: 150 Years Retold"|date=2018-12-20|website=Portage & Main Press / Highwater Press - The Exchange|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-23}}</ref> as well as the Potlatch Ban in Canada.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.portageandmainpress.com/blog/2019/01/24/honouring-the-indigenous-tradition-of-potlatch/|title=Honouring the Indigenous tradition of potlatch|date=2019-01-24|website=Portage & Main Press / Highwater Press - The Exchange|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-23}}</ref>
== Art== Assu series Breakfast series, Personal Totem series, and Urban Totem series all reflect on how consumer items and icons of pop culture define individual lineage and relate to the idea of totemic representation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Keavy |date=2010 |title=<i>Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations</i> (review) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/esc.2010.0050 |journal=ESC: English Studies in Canada |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=137–140 |doi=10.1353/esc.2010.0050 |s2cid=161670524 |issn=1913-4835|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In his 2006 Breakfast series, Assu appropriates the form of the cereal box and subverses it with commentaries on First Nations issues such as the environment, treaty rights and land claims.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 11, 2023 |title=Breakfast Series |url=https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/34247/breakfast-series?ctx=3038dffe-0c9e-458b-99fb-cc2ac999baa8&idx=0 |access-date=February 11, 2023 |website=Seattle Art Museum}}</ref>
== Selected exhibitions == * ''Ready Player Two: Sonny Assu and Brendan Tang,'' organized and circulated by The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford (2017), and touring to the Yukon Art Centre, Whitehorse (2018), Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art & History, (2018), Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catherines (2018), the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (2019), and Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary (2020).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thereach.ca/exhibition/sonny-assu-brendan-tang/|title=Ready Player Two – The Reach|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref> * ''We Come to Witness: Sonny Assu in Dialogue with Emily Carr,'' Vancouver Art Gallery (2016–17)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_assu.html|title=Vancouver Art Gallery|website=www.vanartgallery.bc.ca|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref> * ''The Paradise Syndrome'' (solo)'','' Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver, BC (2016)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.malaspinaprintmakers.com/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibition-sonny-assu/|title=The Paradise Syndrome {{!}} Malaspina Printmakers|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref> * ''Home Coming'' (solo), [http://crartgallery.ca/ Campbell River Art Gallery], Campbell River, BC (2016)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://crartgallery.ca/exhibitions/past/|title=Past {{!}} Campbell River Art Gallery|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref> * ''1UP'' (solo), Surrey Art Gallery [https://www.surrey.ca/culture-recreation/7315.aspx Urban Screen] (2016)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.surrey.ca/culture-recreation/18798.aspx|title=Sonny Assu: 1UP|last=Surrey|first=City of|website=www.surrey.ca|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref> * ''Continuum'' (solo), Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario (2015)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theag.ca/sonny-assu-talks-live-and-in-person-thursday/|title=SONNY ASSU TALKS LIVE AND IN PERSON THURSDAY » Thunder Bay Art Gallery|access-date=2019-03-11}}</ref>
== Public collections == A work of Assu spoofing the Coca-Cola logo and replacing it by the words "Enjoy Coast-Salish Territory" is in the collection of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.<ref name="thom" /><ref>{{citation|last1=Mayer|first1=Carol Elizabeth|title=The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-UcJJhUYx4C&pg=PA37|page=37|year=2009|publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|isbn=9781553654155|last2=Shelton|first2=Anthony}}.</ref> He also has works in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada,<ref>[http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=42793 National Gallery of Canada: Sonny Assu], retrieved 2014-08-12.</ref> the Vancouver Art Gallery,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/pdfs/VAG_Annual_Report_2015-16.pdf|title=Vancouver Art Gallery Annual Report 2015–16}}</ref> Seattle Art Museum,<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/search/Sonny%20Assu |website=art.seattleartmuseum.org |publisher=SAM |access-date=15 September 2022}}</ref> the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://audainartmuseum.com/collection/|title=Collection – Audain Art Museum|work=Audain Art Museum in Whistler |language=en-CA|access-date=2019-03-12}}</ref> and Burnaby Art Gallery,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.burnabyartgallery.ca/ListDetail?src_facet=&q=sonny+assu&p=2&ps=1|title=There Is Hope, If We Rise #1 {{!}} Art Gallery Collections|website=collections.burnabyartgallery.ca|access-date=2019-03-12}}</ref> amongst others.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://sonnyassu.com/ Home page]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Assu, Sonny}} Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century First Nations artists Category:Artists from British Columbia Category:Emily Carr University of Art and Design alumni Category:Kwakwaka'wakw people Category:Kwantlen Polytechnic University alumni Category:People from Richmond, British Columbia