Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Born 1954 (age 61–62)
Nationality Haida
Known for Painting, sculpture, carving
Notable work Hachidori
Coppers from the Hood
Pedal to the Meddle
Movement Indigenous art, Haida manga
Website http://mny.ca

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (born 1954) is a visual artist, and creator of Haida manga, from Delkatla in Masset on Haida Gwaii.

Early life

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (MNY) was born in 1954 in Masset, Haida Gwaii. He is a descendant of the influential artists, Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw. MNY was a prolific young artist who soon covered the walls and ceilings of his bedroom with drawings. When those spaces were filled he found the fingernails of schoolmates to be an interesting platte for intricate multicoloured paintings. His artistic passion was curtailed somewhat in the decades that he in elected and volunteer public work including the creation of an multicultural community endowment, the Gwaii Trust.

Art career

Yahgulanaas's work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries, and private collections across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. His visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms including: large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of identity, environmentalism, and the human condition he uses art to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii, his ancestral North Pacific archipelago, is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience.

The original five–meter long mural that was published in 2009 as RED: A Haida manga is on a multi-year exhibit tour. Another book, Hachidori has sold over 100,000 copies in Japan with a single-day record sale of 20,000 copies. Flight of the Hummingbird, first published in North America and now available in five languages, is also a bestseller and includes essays contributed by the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai. Declaration of Interdependence by Dr David Suzuki was illustrated by Yahgulanaas.[1][2]

Yahgulanaas's works in metal include commissions from the British Museum (2010), The City of Vancouver (2011) and the 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee. In 2015, his sculpture of a sei whale was unveiled at the Vancouver International Airport.[3]

Since 2009, Yahgulnaas has been a member of the board of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

Haida manga

Although Yahgulanaas trained under master carvers, his brief exposure to Chinese brush techniques with Cai Ben Kwan encouraged a departure from the typical expressions of the Haida art form and the development of a new genre of narrative art called "Haida manga."[4]

Haida Manga blends North Pacific Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. Haida Manga is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement. It offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection, and action.

Published works

Notes

  1. ↑ The Declaration of Interdependence's web site, retrieved 2013-01-11
  2. ↑ Author bio at his publisher's web site, ISBN 1553653726, retrieved 2013-01-11.
  3. ↑ "Michael Yahgulanaas's new art piece SEI unveiled at Vancouver airport". CBC News. 2015-07-09. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas Graphic Art Production", about Yahgulanaas's "Old Growth" gallery showing, at Grunt Gallery. retrieved 2013-01-11.
  5. ↑ "Michael Nicoll: Artist Profile." Virtual Museum Canada. Retrieved 1 April 2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.