Sonny Assu: A Selective History

Sonny Assu: A Selective History

Through large-scale installation, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and painting, Sonny Assu merges the aesthetics of Indigenous iconography with a pop-art sensibility. This stunning retrospective spans over a decade of Assu’s career, highlighting more than 120 full-color works, including several never-before-exhibited pieces.

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Sonny Assu
Legacy Format

Sonny Assu
Legacy Format

Sonny Assu recalls the transformative experience of visiting the Ottawa institution now known as the Canadian Museum of History with a letter in hand, written by his grandmother Mitzi Assu. In it she requests that her grandson be granted access to the Chilkat robe, dance apron, and frontlet that were the belongings of his great-great-grandfather, Hereditary Chief Billy Assu, which she and her husband Herbie Assu had sold to the museum decades before with the intention of their long-term protection and preservation. In the sterile space of the museum’s vast collections, curators placed the robe on Sonny’s shoulders. He describes feeling an energy transmitted through his body, the weight and materiality of the woolen garment, a spark conducting a direct connection to his Kwakwaka’wakw ancestors, and the knowledge, ceremony, and resilience woven into the regalia.
For more details or a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com
CLICK HERE to read Legacy Format, an essay by Kate Hennessy

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Sonny Assu
Omnibus

Sonny Assu
Omnibus

Equinox Gallery is delighted to present Omnibus, an exhibition of new works by Sonny Assu. In this exhibition, Assu is continuing to explore the way that language and myths can straddle multiple cultures and times by bringing together comics from his childhood and Assu’s classic pop culture sensibility with a Kwakwaka’wakw twist. The comics are all chosen for specific reasons — you can often find Indigenous references, for example Batman goes to Alaska and meets a Shaman, or a story focused on Warpath, an Apache Native American character and X-Men member. Assu has painted over the grid of comic books using bright colours and highlighting Indigenous ovoid and formline elements traditional to his culture. Assu’s conceptual influence for this body of work includes the work of Tim Rollins + K.O.S., Andy Warhol, and traditional Kwakwaka’wakw artists.
For a list of available works, please contact the gallery at (604) 736-2405 or info@equinoxgallery.com.

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Sonny Assu, Who Will Say It’s Done?, 2023

Sonny Assu, Who Will Say It’s Done?, 2023

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Sonny Assu, Live from the ‘Latch

Sonny Assu, Live from the ‘Latch

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Sonny Assu
Tlakwa

Sonny Assu
Tlakwa

T̓łakwa is engaged with copper as its main subject in material, concept, and form. While maintaining a profound connection to past traditions, Assu’s practice emphasizes the intersections and boundaries of traditional Indigenous art within the larger realm of contemporary practices, bringing to light a complex conversation between established practices and unconventional approaches.

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Sonny Assu, Sante Fe 10, 2023

Sonny Assu, Sante Fe 12, 2023

Sonny Assu, Embraced by the Ancestors, 2022

Sonny Assu, Embraced by the Ancestors, 2022

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Sonny Assu, Betamax, 2023