Manuel Axel Strain
Manuel Axel Strain is from the lands and waters of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Simpcw and Syilx peoples, based in the sacred homelands of their q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) and qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen) relatives. Strain’s parents are Tracey Strain (Simpcw and Syilx) and Eric Strain (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm). Strain’s grandparents are Marie Louis (Syilx) from a place called nk̓maplqs, Harold Eustache (Simpcw) from a place called Chu Chua, Helen Point (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) and John Strain (Irish). Strain’s great grandparents are Rose Louis (Syilx), Ben Louis (Syilx), Christine Eustache (Simpcw), Manuel Eustache (Simpcw), Valentina Cortez/Cole (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), and Tony Point (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm). Strain’s great great grandparents are Emma Macdonald (Syilx), Frank Gottfriedson (Stó:lō), Pierre Louis (Syilx), Catherine Haynes, Helen(Ellen) Fortier (Simpcw), Eddy Fortier (Simpcw), Celena (Simpcw), Justin Phillip Súkwelst(Simpcw), Eliza A. John Peters (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) Pascual Cortez Labarca(Chilean), Martha Bailey (q̓ic̓əy̓), and James Point(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm). Although they attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design, they prioritize Indigenous epistemologies through the embodied knowledge of their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and ancestors.
Creating artwork in collaboration with and in reference to their relatives, their shared experiences become a source of agency that resonates through their work with performance, land, painting, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installation. Their artworks often envelop subjects in relation with ancestral and community ties, Indigeneity, labour, resource extraction, gender, Indigenous medicine and life forces. Strain often perceives their work as confronting and undermining the imposed realities of colonialism, proposing a new space beyond its oppressive systems of power. They have contributed work to the College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan, Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, UBC Okanagan Art Gallery and were longlisted for the 2022 Sobey Award as well as a recipient of the 2022 Portfolio Prize.
News
current solo exhibition, Waking Ground, The ACT Arts Centre, until 11 May 2024
Exhibitions
CV
Why does this land seem so small?, 2023 installation view University of Saskatchewan Art Gallery
Why does this land seem so small?, 2023 installation view University of Saskatchewan Art Gallery
Water Will Fly If We Let It, 2022, chair, pillow with my grandma printed on it, homeharvested scent in diffuser, wool, deer hide, fur, tourniquet, fake grass, dimensions variable
Why does this land seem so small?, 2023 installation view University of Saskatchewan Art Gallery
installation view Unit 17
installation view Unit 17
installation view Unit 17
installation view Unit 17
It’s time to wake up, 2022, wood, photo, acrylic paint, leather, beads, sinew, shells, dimensions variable
Cutting through a sickly white child to show my nephew and my brother, 2022, oil on canvas, 152.4 x 121.9 cm
qné7e says tá7a, 2022, stolen white picket fence, fake grass with bricks and a red skirt underneath, Indian Status application, braided deer hide, belt buckle, snake skin, pigeon feathers, cedar bark, dimensions variable
It’s gunna fall, 2022, bricks from Maple Ridge Museum & Community Archives, mortar, fake grass, crow feathers, elk hide, horse hair, dandilion dyed fabric with image transfers, beads, sinew, porcupine quills, wool, candles, hemlock, dimensions variable
puti kʷu‿aláʔ, 2022 installation view UBC Okanagan Gallery
puti kʷu‿aláʔ, 2022 installation view UBC Okanagan Gallery
puti kʷu‿aláʔ, 2022 installation view UBC Okanagan Gallery
puti kʷu‿aláʔ, 2022 installation view UBC Okanagan Gallery
we go to the mountains, we go to the big water, 2022 installation view Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art
we go to the mountains, we go to the big water, 2022 installation view Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art
we go to the mountains, we go to the big water, 2022 installation view Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art
qné7e says tá7a (great grandma says no in Secwepemctsin), 2021, stolen white picket fence, fake grass with a full deer hide underneath gifted to me by my mother Tracey Strain prepared by Molly Toodlican, photo my great grandma lazor etched into birch and acrylic, braided deer hide, pigeon feather, dimensions variable
qné7e says tá7a (great grandma says no in Secwepemctsin), 2021 (detail)
A white Girl with Small Pox and Heroin, 2020-21, oil on canvas, turniquets, horse hair and elk hide on rocks harvested with Kalli VanStone and Lannie Houle, audio with Quintasket Strain, Angela Hill, Amanda DawnSeymour, Laverne Seymour
Revisions, 2021 installation view Art Gallery at Evergreen
The Perpetual Runnings of the Intercessors, 2021 installation view Seymour Art Gallery
installation view Vancouver Art Gallery