Title

Ovoidism

Artist

Yuxweluptun, Lawrence Paul

Date

2019

Medium

steel

Type

sculpture

Owner

Amacon

Accession Number

NA

Location

Imperial, 5501 Imperial St., Burnaby

Category

Private Development Public Art

Collection

Public Art

Lat/Long

49.222102,-122.991996

View in Google Maps

http://www.google.com/maps?q=49.222102,-122.991996

The artist’s concept proposal states: "The Ovoid, made singular and independent from its traditional past, opens thoughts about self determination. The simplicity of the form gives time for contemplation, reflection, and new ways of thinking. The work is meant to be impactful both from a distance, and up close. The experience will be different from every perspective as the Ovoid is seen in profile, at various angles, and from the side. For those who don’t have an opportunity to learn about the work, and its history, it will appear as a different, yet familiar form, a pop of colour in the urban landscape, an easily described and remembered community meeting point. The effect will appear both substantial, and weightless at the same time. By “taking out of form and making it form” the sculpture represents Native philosophy, and its place in contemporary culture. Yuxweluptuns’ twenty-year investigation in to the ovoid, and his coining of the term Ovoidism, represents true innovation.”

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is a contemporary Canadian artist of Coast Salish and Okanagan descent. Yuxweluptun lives and works in Vancouver, BC and is an advocate for contemporary indigneous issues in Canda. Influential as both artist and activist, Yuxweluptun focuses on Canada’s ecology, the deconstruction of the environment, and the Indigenous injustices that have had a historic legacy throughout Canada. His paintings are a visual protest and a rejection of status quo as his art reveals his own commentary for social change. Yuxweluptun’s work has been included in numerous international exhibitions, such as SITEines.2018: Casa Tomada, at the Site Santa Fe Biennial in New Mexico (2018); Santa Fe Biennial in New Mexico (2018); Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950 to Now, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas (2018); Time Immemorial (You’re Just Mad Because We Got Here First) at the Candian High Commission at the Canadian High Commission in London, UK (2017); Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2017); Unceded Territories, a retrospective exhibition at at the Museum of Anthropology, UBC (2016); and has recently been honoured on the occasion of receiving his honorary doctorate from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019).