Bio
About
Brittney Bear Hat is a Mohkinstsis/Calgary-based artist, whose Blackfoot and Cree/Dane-zaa ancestors have lived on the lands that are now part of Treaty 7 and 8, for many millennia. Her work explores this cultural lineage through installation, photography, text and collage. Bear Hat graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2011, where she majored in painting. Her work explores identity, and adds to the rich stories of her home territories. Within her work, Bear Hat is exploring that which ties her to these unique landscapes.
Bear Hat’s most recent work, These Gifts, was on display in Contemporary Calgary’s exhibition, Planetary, in January of this year. Other recent exhibitions include Visions of the Hunt (2018), The Esplanade, Medicine Hat; níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | ma soeur | my sister, Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA), Art Mûr, Montréal; I Believe in Living (2018), Untitled Arts Society, Calgary, and Lineage (2018), Latitude 53, Edmonton. Bear Hat has also been awarded the Joane Cardinal Schubert Memorial Scholarship in 2011and the Sonia de Grandmaison Scholarship in 2013.
curriculum vitae
Education
BFA 2011 Alberta University of the Arts
Major: Painting
Work-Related Experience
2019 Board Member, The Bows (formerly known as Untitled Arts Society), Calgary, AB.
2018 Adjudication member, The New Gallery, Calgary, AB.
2013 Research assistant, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary AB.
2012 Summer Intern, Truck Gallery, Calgary AB.
2011 Summer Intern, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary AB.
Workshop Experience
2019 What does Mohkinstsis/Calgary mean to you?, Esker Foundation Youth Workshop,
Esker Foundation, Calgary, AB.
2012 Works Festival – Short workshops for Alberta Culture Days, Calgary AB.
2012 Red Cross – Art workshop for Aboriginal Youth, Calgary AB.
Exhibitions
2020 Planetary, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2018 Vision of the Hunt, Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, Medicine Hat, AB.
2018 níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | ma sœur | my sister, Art Mur, Montreal, QC.
2018 I Believe In Living, Untitled Arts Society, Calgary, AB.
2018 Lineage, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB.
2017 Horse Camp, Emily Murphy Park, Edmonton, AB.
2017 Maps and Dreams, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, BC.
2017 Camp, Arts Commons, Calgary, AB.
2017 Kokum, Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna, BC.
2016 Cream, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2016 Little Cree Women, RBC Project Space, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
2015 Future Station, Alberta Biennial, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
2015 Atlas Sighed: 2014-2015 Calgary Biennial, Calgary, AB.
2014 Ours, Latitude 53, Edmonton AB.
2014 Deadly Lady Art Triumvirate, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary AB.
2013 That's What She Said, Truck +15 window space, Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts, Calgary, AB.
2012 Indigeneity, The Works Festival, Edmonton, AB.
2011 So On and So Forth, Alberta College of Art and Design and Ant Hill, Calgary, AB.
Permanent Collections
2018 Aitskaitsiiwa | She Is Reminiscing, Indigenous Placemaking initiative, The New Central Library, Calgary, AB.
Residency
2019 Collider, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2016 The Things we carry with us, Stride Gallery, Calgary, AB.
2014 Deadly Lady Triumvirate, Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2013 26 Woodland School, The Banff Centre, Banff AB.
Publications
2017 $5 Handshake: Art on Treaty 8 Territory, published catalogue for Maps and Dreams, edited by Melanie O’Brian.
2016 Cree thoughts on identity, family, home, and land…, catalogue for Little Cree Women (Sisters, Secrets and Stories), essay by Angela Marie Schenstead.
2015 ‘Providing for our communities’ interview with Steven Cottingham, newspaper edition made for 'Atlas Sighed, Calgary Biennial', Calgary, AB.
2014 Deadly Lady Art Triumvirate, published catalogue from Contemporary Calgary in collaboration with the New Gallery, Calgary, AB.
Talks and Lectures
2020 Art Now Series, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB.
2019 Artist Talk, Bishop Grandin High School, Calgary, AB.
2019 Artist Talk followed with Workshop, Esker Foundation, Calgary, AB.
2018 Art Now: Visiting Artist & Scholar Series, Department of Art, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2018 Contemporary Calgary’s Lunch Hour Artist Talk Series, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2018 Panel Discussion: The Power of Art to Influence Social Change, Art Gallery of Alberta,Edmonton, AB.
2017 Red Deer College Visiting Artists Lectures, Red Deer College, Red Deer, AB.
2017 Artist Talk, Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective, Edmonton, AB.
2017 Artist Talk with Curators, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, AB.
2016 Artist Talk with Curator, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, AB.
Awards
2021 - Longlisted - The New Generation Photography Award
2013 Sonia de Grandmaison Scholarship
2011 Joane Cardinal Schubert Memorial Scholarship
