2023 Artists in Residence
May 9 - June 3
Catherine Blackburn was born in Patuanak Saskatchewan, of Dene and European ancestry and
is a member of the English River First Nation. She is a multidisciplinary artist and jeweller,
whose common themes address Canada’s colonial past that are often prompted by personal
narratives. Inspired by her late Setsuné’s (grandmother) incredible talent of garment making,
hide-tanning and adornment, her work grounds itself in the Indigenous feminine and is bound
through the ancestral love that stitching suggests. Her work merges mixed media and fashion to
create dialogue between historical art forms and new interpretations of them. Through
stitchwork, she honors and challenges perspectives of contemporary Indigenous experience
while exploring Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization and representation. Her work has
exhibited in notable national and international exhibitions and fashion runways including;
Àbadakone, Santa Fe Haute Couture Fashion Show, Toronto Indigenous Fashion Week,
Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week and Radical Stitch. She has received numerous grants and
awards for her work, including the Saskatchewan RBC Emerging Artist Award, the Melissa Levin
Emerging Artist Award, publications in Vogue and In Style magazines, her inclusion on the 2019
Sobey Art Award longlist, the prestigious Eitlejorg Contemporary Art Fellowship and most
recently was 1/6 Forge Project Fellows.