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Treats for Coyote: Visions of Arcadia in the New World

A brief survey of the artistic practice of Mary Anne Barkhouse and how it relates to the human and natural history of Canada, with a special focus on the Indigenous perspective of both.

Mary Anne Barkhouse was born in Vancouver, BC and belongs to the Nimpkish band, Kwakiutl First Nation. She is a descendant of a long line of internationally recognized Northwest Coast artists that includes Ellen Neel, Mungo Martin and Charlie James. She graduated with Honours from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and has exhibited widely across Canada and the United States.

Working with a variety of materials Barkhouse examines environmental concerns and Indigenous culture through the use of animal imagery. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Barkhouse’s work can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Mendel Art Gallery, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts, UBC Museum of Anthropology, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Banff Centre for the Arts and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. In addition she has public art installations at The Canadian Museum of History (Gatineau, QC), Carleton University (Ottawa, ON), Toogood Pond (Markham, ON), Thunder Bay Art Gallery, McMaster Museum of Art (Hamilton, ON), University of Western Ontario (London, ON), McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinberg, ON), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON), Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (Guelph, ON) Haliburton Sculpture Forest (Haliburton, ON) and the Millennium Walkway in Peterborough, Ontario. 

Barkhouse currently resides in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario.

Mary Anne Barkhouse, 'Treats for Coyote,' 2017. From the exhibition 'Le reve aux loups' at Esker Foundation, September 16 to December 22, 2017. Photograph: John Dean.