Joseph Tisiga

Joseph Tisiga

The contents of which are unknowable to the human mind
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
Precocious instincts instrumentalized by need
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
It is not enough to possess, we must conquer, train and perform control, anything less is surely abject failure
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
Paralysis is an Abject Experience
2020
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 in.)
... but when I arrived I had something to do ...
2020
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 po.)
Enigmatic transformer
2021
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 in.)
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition View
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada)
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), photo : Maxime Brouillet
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), photo : Maxime Brouillet
inertia of spiritual purpose extolled
2023
Oil paint and rabbit skin glue on wall tent canvas
60.96 x 45.72 cm (24 x 18 in.)
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), Photo: Maxime Brouillet
It was God the whole time
2024
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada)
A joy to eat one's own tongue
2022
Plaster, watercolour and synthetic turf over wood panel
76.2 x 76.2 cm. (30 x 30 in.)
Untitled
2013
Oil on canvas
121.9 x 91.5 cm (48 x 36 in.)
The Benevolence of Nomadic Ancestors: 3 Masks, 3 Maps, 2 Camps (Map 3 of 3)
2019
Artificial grass and various objects
152.4 x 152.4 cm (60 x 60 in.)
Somebody Nobody Was
2020
Exhibition view
Musée d'art de Joliette, Canada
No Home in Scorched Earth IV & II
2014-2019
Digital print on wood panel, watercolour and plastic packaging
152.5 x 213 cm (60 x 84 in.)
Artist Project Series: Joseph Tisiga
2022
Exhibition view
MSU Broad Art Museum, Michigan, United-States
In Lieu of Monuments Honour
2020
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 po.)
You are your ancestors’ wildest dream 2
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
Salpetre Beta Blocker

Watercolor, acrylic and oil on paper
132 x 132 cm (52 x 52 in.)
The contents of which are unknowable to the human mind
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
Precocious instincts instrumentalized by need
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
It is not enough to possess, we must conquer, train and perform control, anything less is surely abject failure
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
Paralysis is an Abject Experience
2020
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 in.)
... but when I arrived I had something to do ...
2020
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 po.)
Enigmatic transformer
2021
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 in.)
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition View
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada)
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), photo : Maxime Brouillet
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), photo : Maxime Brouillet
inertia of spiritual purpose extolled
2023
Oil paint and rabbit skin glue on wall tent canvas
60.96 x 45.72 cm (24 x 18 in.)
A voice emerged from an empty room saying “get up”, telling me to “get up”. The apparition was paralyzing…
2020
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), Photo: Maxime Brouillet
It was God the whole time
2024
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada)
A joy to eat one's own tongue
2022
Plaster, watercolour and synthetic turf over wood panel
76.2 x 76.2 cm. (30 x 30 in.)
Untitled
2013
Oil on canvas
121.9 x 91.5 cm (48 x 36 in.)
The Benevolence of Nomadic Ancestors: 3 Masks, 3 Maps, 2 Camps (Map 3 of 3)
2019
Artificial grass and various objects
152.4 x 152.4 cm (60 x 60 in.)
Somebody Nobody Was
2020
Exhibition view
Musée d'art de Joliette, Canada
No Home in Scorched Earth IV & II
2014-2019
Digital print on wood panel, watercolour and plastic packaging
152.5 x 213 cm (60 x 84 in.)
Artist Project Series: Joseph Tisiga
2022
Exhibition view
MSU Broad Art Museum, Michigan, United-States
In Lieu of Monuments Honour
2020
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm (27.5 x 27.5 po.)
You are your ancestors’ wildest dream 2
2022
Watercolour on paper
70 x 70 cm. (27½ x 27½ in.)
Salpetre Beta Blocker

Watercolor, acrylic and oil on paper
132 x 132 cm (52 x 52 in.)

Biography

Rooted in painting and drawing, but also pulling from performance, photography, sculpture, and installation, Joseph Tisiga’s assembled scenes are rich in detail and scope, often showing stories of figures in fantastical settings nuanced with humour and obscurity. A member of the Kaska Dena Nation, his work reflects on notions of identity and what contributes to this construct—community, nationality, family, history, place, and both real and imagined memories. Tisiga’s works examine cultural and social inheritance, the mundane, the metaphysical and the mythological, often all at once and on the same surface. This conflation of interests and perspectives plays itself out in the artist’s narratives, which are distinctly non-linear, cross-cultural and supernatural.

 

Joseph Tisiga (b. 1984, Edmonton, Canada), lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Solo exhibitions have been presented at the Musée d’art de Joliette, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (East Lansing), the Audain Art Museum (Whistler), and Bradley Ertaskiran (Montreal). Notable group exhibitions have been staged at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Esker Foundation (Calgary), Blackwood Gallery (Toronto), the Winnipeg Art Gallery, MASS MoCA (North Adams), the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (Santa Fe), West Vancouver Museum, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Tisiga’s work is collected by the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Forge Project (New York), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Audain Art Museum (Whistler), among others. Tisiga is the recipient of The Yukon Prize for Visual Arts (2021), the Sobey Art Award (2020), and the REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017).

Born 1984, in Edmonton, CA

Lives and work in Montreal, CA

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