Shelley Niro

Shelley Niro is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Brantford, Ontario. She is a member of the Six Nations Reserve, Bay of Quinte Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, Turtle Clan. Her practice consists of a range of media, including photography, beadwork, film, installation, and painting. Her work challenges the expectations and stereotypes of Indigenous peoples, often using friends and family as subjects in order to celebrate and highlight the resiliency and individuality of the Indigenous women surrounding her.

Her prolific and artistic legacy has been aptly recognized by many organizations across Canada and internationally. Shelley Niro debuted her video work The Shirt, at the Venice Biennale in 2003. In 2012, Shelley was the inaugural recipient of the Aboriginal Arts Award presented through the Ontario Arts Council. She was the winner of the 2017 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts and in the same year she recieved the Scotiabank Photography Award. In addition, as of March 2020 she has received the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award, bestowed annually by the Ontario Arts Foundation. Niro has also released and directed a number of critically-acclaimed feature length films, including Kissed by Lightning and The Incredible 25th Year of MITZI BEARCLAW.

In October of 2020, she participated in the inaugural digital exhibition hosted by the Embassy Cultural House, Hiding in Plain Sight. For more information and details on her work, please visit her website: http://shelleyniro.ca

Works by Shelley Niro

"Abnormally Aboriginal", 2014

"Cherry Picker"

"This Land", 1992 - Love Me Tender

"This Land", 1992 - Survivor

"La Pieta #1", 2007

"The Wild Ones and The Colonized", 2015

Shelley Niro on the Web

EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS
Jamelie Hassan & Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,   JoAnna Weil

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson.

OUR STORY

Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website.

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.

Thank you to our partners

E M B A S S Y C U L T U R A L H O U S E . C A

London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.