Six Girls Choir, 1981

Kelowna Art Gallery, British Columbia Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg Private Collection, Winnipeg

“Celebrating Canadian Women Artists”, Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg, 1-18 March 2023

Daphne Odjig was born in Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Her grandfather Jonas Odjig, a stone carver and storyteller, was an early artistic influence. At the age of 13, Odjig was forced to withdraw from school due to illness, and her grandfather instructed her in drawing, carving and the oral traditions of her family. Odjig became a key figure among the movement of Indigenous artists that gradually gained recognition in the Canadian art world of the 1970s. In 1973, she co-founded the Professional Native Indian Artists Association (colloquially called the “Indian Group of Seven”). The following year, she opened the Warehouse Gallery in Winnipeg. Odjig also taught at the Manitou Arts Foundation on Schrieber Island in Georgian Bay. These varied projects helped place Odjig at the forefront of cultural activity supporting and promoting Indigenous visual artists during a crucial period. Six Girls Choir demonstrates Odjig’s idiosyncratic mature style. Odjig’s simplified figures are portrayed with the use of flowing lines and flat planes of colour. The singing figures overlap one another yet remain on the same plane. The artist has used her preferred colour palette at the time, consisting of earth tones and teal. With her distinct and personal aesthetic, Odjig powerfully incorporated her Odawa-Potawatomi culture and histories into the visual culture of Canadian art.