On April 5, Remai Modern had the honour of hosting two of Canada’s most celebrated artists—Shelley Niro and Ruth Cuthand—for a public conversation moderated by Tarah Hogue, Adjunct Curator, Indigenous Art. This special event marked the opening of Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch, a major retrospective now on view at Remai Modern.
With decades of boundary-pushing work between them, Niro and Cuthand brought humour, history, and heart to a resonant dialogue about artmaking, friendship, resistance, and Indigenous womanhood. Here are seven takeaways from their conversation.
1. A Sisterhood Rooted in Art and Shared Experience
Niro and Cuthand met in 1989 during the landmark Changers: A Spiritual Renaissance exhibition, curated by Shirley Bear (Tobique First Nation). Despite working in different geographies—Six Nations and the Prairies—their shared birth year and career trajectories have kept them closely connected. Their bond is grounded in mutual understanding, a shared sense of humour, and the occasional collaboration.
2. Concurrent Retrospectives
Both artists reflected on the emotional experience of staging retrospectives in 2024. For Cuthand—whose show Beads in the Blood/Mīgisak Mīgohk at the MacKenzie Art Gallery recently closed—it was an opportunity to see the breadth of her practice through curator Felicia Gay’s eyes. “I was proud of her, and I was proud of myself,” she shared. Niro described it as “like reading a diary,” with the chance to see her own works anew decades later, prompting memories of the circumstances surrounding their creation.
3. The Personal is Political—and Artistic
From beadwork to photography, both artists use materials and imagery to challenge systems of oppression. Cuthand’s Indian Portraits: Late 20th Century responds to 19th-century photographic depictions of Indigenous people as a “disappearing race.” For the series, she invited sitters to interact with a paper headdress, and the resulting photocopied and hand-coloured portraits affirm the vitality of contemporary Indigenous life, capturing friends and community members with boldness and humour.
Niro’s This Land Is Mime Land series—with the artist inhabiting the guise of various pop culture figures—repositions Indigenous identity within a visual culture that has long misrepresented Indigenous people, claiming space not originally meant for her. Their works both uplift their communities while biting back at the systems that seek to do the opposite.
4. Matriarchy, Feminism, and the Drive to Persist
Cuthand recalled her early feminist awakening in watching her mother consistently tend to her father’s needs without prioritizing her own—a pattern she knew she didn’t want to repeat. In art school, she encountered similar dynamics, facing condescension from male colleagues. Looking back on that time, she reflects, “I just persisted. I was very stubborn about being an artist.
Niro spoke about the contrast between the matriarchal ideals taught in her community and the realities she observed growing up. Though Mohawk society is often described as highly matriarchal, the structures around her didn’t always reflect that authority. In early exhibitions she was part of, glaring gender disparities were evident—one show that Niro participated in had only 3 women among 55 artists. This sparked a lifelong commitment to centring Indigenous women’s voices and perspectives in her work.
5. The Sacred and Subversive Power of Beads
Beadwork is a powerful through-line for both artists, not only in their practices but in their philosophies. Cuthand described teaching beadwork as a method to decolonize and sharpen the mind. Her series of beaded viruses transforms microscopic agents of harm into visually captivating reflections on colonial violence and survival, challenging perceptions of beauty, danger, and the historical role of beads as both decorative and transactional objects.
Niro, meanwhile, spoke of beads as “precious objects” connected to cosmology and ancestral memory. For her, beadwork becomes a sculptural and symbolic act, where even the moon or the stars can be seen as beads. She often incorporates bead-like forms into photographic frames or lightboxes, drawing connections between the material and the place, story, and spirit.
6. Multidisciplinary Minds
Both artists work across media not for novelty, but necessity. Cuthand, who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, explained that shifting between materials—beads, paint, video—mirrors the way her mind moves. Niro echoed this sentiment: “We’re sisters. I too have ADHD.” She explained that each idea carries its own energy and demands a distinct form. Photography animates her in one moment, painting in the next. “It has to be exciting,” she said—otherwise, she moves on.
7. Art and Joy
Despite the weight of the topics they engage—colonialism, cultural survival, systemic inequality—both Niro and Cuthand emphasized their joy in artmaking. “Art is about not being so serious,” Niro said, recounting a recent impromptu photo session with Cuthand, complete with borrowed shirts and belly laughs. Their practices are rooted in care, humour, and an enduring love for community.
This conversation offered a rare glimpse into the minds of two artists whose work has reshaped the landscape of contemporary art in Canada. The conversation was a celebration of a friendship that continues to ripple through every bead, brushstroke, and frame.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch, is on view until September 21, 2025. The exhibition honours not just Niro’s decades of artistic brilliance, but the relationships and resistance that have fueled it.
Curated by Melissa Bennett, Greg Hill and David Penney. Remai Modern’s organizing Curator is Sally Frater.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Hamilton with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and with curatorial support from the National Gallery of Canada. Major support for this project is provided by the Canada Council for the Arts and Terra Foundation for American Art. The Art Gallery of Hamilton would like to thank PACART for supporting this exhibition as the exclusive transportation provider, and acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch at Remai Modern is funded in part by the Government of Canada. We would also like to acknowledge local support from Maurice Law.
