Robert James Houle

Robert Houle was born in 1947, and grew up on a Salteaux reserve near Saint Boniface, Manitoba. Educated at the University of Manitoba (B.A. History and McGill University (B. ED), Houle became acutely aware of the incongruities of social and cultural life vis a vis First Nations and “other” Canadians. He began a sustained examination of modern art as well as the history and traditional culture of First Nations peoples. Houle is now considered one of Canada’s most important contemporary artists and has been instrumental in bringing First Nations issues to a fuller expression with contemporary Canadian culture not only as an artist but as a curator, educator and teacher. In 1992, he was the co-curator with Diana Nemiroff and Charlotte Townsend Gault of Land, Spirit Power at the National Gallery of Canada. This exhibition was arguably the first important overview of Canadian First Nations artists which placed their production within the sphere of contemporary art rather than the “ghettoized” category of “native art” within which much of this work had been marketed. Houle quickly became known not only for his considerable skills as a painter and printmaker but for his critical interventions, writing and teaching. He currently is on Faculty at the Ontario College of Art and Design and has sat on the Board of Directors of the Art Gallery of Ontario. His work has been exhibited in major exhibitions worldwide. Selected solo exhibitions include those at the McMichael Canadian Gallery; the Winnipeg Art gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Selected group exhibitions include those in the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France; National Gallery of Canada; Museum of contemporary Art, Sydney Australia; the Jordan National Gallery, Aman, Jordan and the Stedelijk Museum, amsterdam, Holland. His work is in major public collections worldwide including the AGO, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Southwestern Museum, Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia.