"Presence of Our Absence"
2000-02-04 until 2000-03-26
Walter Phillips Gallery
Banff, AB, CA Canada

The Presence of Our Absence is the first solo exhibition by acclaimed First Nations artist Richard Ray Whitman. The fourth in an annual series presented by the Walter Phillips Gallery and the Aboriginal Arts Program at The Banff Centre for the Arts, the exhibition features Whitman s video and photographic investigations of history, memory, and personal identity.

Richard Ray Whitman in best known for Street Chiefs, a series of black and white photographs of homeless Aboriginal men. Whitman‚s work often explores the twin contradictions of being a member of the Yuchi nation - declared by some historians to be extinct - and living in Oklahoma, a state that today boldly promotes itself as Native America. Most recently Whitman and other First Nations artists participated in the exhibition Ceremonial, a Native-organized show that took place concurrently with the 1999 Venice Biennial. His award-winning video Grand Circle has been screened widely at international festivals in the U.S. and Europe.

Assembled by Comanche author and critic Paul Chaat Smith, The Presence of Our Absence includes a selection of Whitman‚s most well-known pieces and more than a dozen new works that represent a striking new direction for this influential artist.

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