Jim Logan (Cree/Sioux-Métis) has changed Canadian cultural landscape through a profound contribution in visual arts and culture through his practice as a visual artist, curator, and arts administrator over the last 35 years.
Logan’s dynamic narrative paintings portray Indigenous survivance by depicting the realities of dealing with colonial trauma. They have been included in seminal exhibitions that initiated the Indigenous Art movement in Canada and his work has also been included in important touring national and international overviews of contemporary Indigenous art.
His distinguished career includes many firsts: in 1999, Logan became the first Indigenous curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; the first three Indigenous solo exhibitions occurred at the National Gallery of Canada (also curated by Indigenous curators) as a result of Logan’s leadership; in 2002, Logan became the first Indigenous Visual Arts Officer at the Canada Council for the Arts and served and shaped Indigenous art until 2018. In 2021 Jim received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Ontario College of At and Design University, the first Metis visual artist to receive such an honour in the schools 143-year history.
From the Yukon, to British Columbia, to Nova Scotia, to the nation’s capital, Jim Logan has advanced Indigenous rights through the arts in service and leadership. He has been a trailblazer in illuminating a path for Indigenous arts and culture.