About Urban Shaman

MISSION STATEMENT
Urban Shaman is an Aboriginal artist-run centre dedicated to meeting the needs of artists by providing a vehicle for artistic expression in all disciplines and at all levels by taking a leadership role in the cultivation of Indigenous art.

VISION
Urban Shaman presents contemporary Indigenous Aboriginal art with integrity while remaining rooted in our diverse Aboriginal cultures.

MANDATE
Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art is a nationally recognized leader in Aboriginal arts programming and one of the foremost venues and voices for Aboriginal art in Canada. Our focus on developing new programming and new ways of presenting it have resulted in increased exposure and the expansion of our activities. Urban Shaman is dedicated to the Aboriginal arts community and arts community at large.

• Committed to serving the needs of emerging, mid-career, and established Aboriginal artists through exhibitions and associated programming, workshops, residencies and curatorial initiatives.
• Dedicated to contributing to art historical and cultural critical discourses on a local, national, and international level.
• Committed to facilitating artistic production, education, and appreciation of contemporary art as an important and empowering tool for Aboriginal peoples.

Admission to the gallery is free.

Home=Land Surveys (And Other Atrocities)

Artist Statement
This much-anticipated solo exhibition by local Winnipegger, Roger Crait, is an assault on the senses, mostly known for his incredibly volatile paintings, his practice has now developed to include found material sculptures and sound work. Much of his inspiration is based in popular culture and Indigenous cultural ideas. These images are gritty, hyper infused paintings that generate an explosion of thick, resplendent colours onto large-scale panels that embody painterly renditions of local city characters, Winnipeg’s urban cityscape, and Indigenous cultural iconography. His found assemblages include the modification of household tools, like that of axes and wheelbarrows, that are reinterpreted into weapons about to incur fatalistic moments upon unsuspecting targets.

Biography
Roger Crait studied Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. Crait has had solo exhibitions in Canada, including Winnipeg MB, Thunder Bay ON, Fort MacMurray AB, Moncton, NB, Edmonton AB, Ottawa and a performance in Vancouver, BC. He has shown in group exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally, including Winnipeg Art Gallery MB, Glensbow Museum AB, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles USA, and Boomali Art Centre, Australia. Crait has received awards for painting, including the Molly Hyman Award in Art for two consecutive years. He has worked with a group of ten artists in Cranberry Portage on a sculpture for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. His artwork has appeared in The Manitoban, The Uniter, Winnipeg Free Press, Uptown Magazine, BorderCrossings, Borderline, and twice was on the cover of Canadian Dimension Magazine. He currently lives and works in Winnipeg, MB.

Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery acknowledges the support, throughout the year, of our friends, volunteers, community and all our relations, NCI FM, Wawanesa Insurance, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.