Kent Monkman – Welcome to the Studio

Discover the work of internationally renowned contemporary artist Kent Monkman, Welcome to the Studio: An Allegory for Artistic Reflection and Transformation (2014). The work comprised of more than 30 portraits, from the McCord Stewart Museum’s Photography collection, immerses you in the worlds of  William Notman, painting and Indigenous cultures.

Kent Monkman, Welcome to the Studio: An Allegory for Artistic Reflection and Transformation, 2014, M2014.110.1.1-3, McCord Stewart Museum

In 2014, as part of the McCord Stewart Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, Kent Monkman explored the Photography collection’s Notman Photographic Archives. The photographs that intrigued him most were portraits, which he reproduced in a painting inspired by the work by Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) titled The Artist’s Studio. A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life (between 1854 and 1855). Like Courbet, Monkman represented himself in an imaginary studio to convey ideas on art within the social context of his time.

Kent Monkman

Kent Monkman is a world-renowned Nêhiyawak artist. In his paintings, installations, videos, and performances, Monkman depicts various power relationships that he enjoys reversing or completely upending.

At the heart of his practice is the representation of identities, notably Indigenous identities, and the construction of historical narratives. His use of irony and many visual references to art history create a new visual order where reality and fiction are in dialogue.

Notman Photographic Archives

In addition to the work of Kent Monkman, thirty portraits from the Museum’s Notman Photographic Archives are on digital display.

In April 2025 the Notman Photographic Archives are inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register. The register serves to safeguard and promote access to documentary heritage of global significance: archives that chronicle the history of the world and the heritage of humanity.