duane linklater
1976, Omaskêko Ininiwak from Moose Cree First Nation, Ontario, Canada
Duane Linklater’s practice explores and questions the conventions of the museum in relation to the current and historical conditions of Indigenous peoples, their objects, and approaches to materials. Strategically working across a range of media, including sculpture, installation, painting, and video, he addresses the contradictions of contemporary Indigenous life within and beyond settler systems of knowledge, representation, and value.
Linklater was featured in the 2022 Whitney Biennial: Quiet as It's Kept, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2018, he installed pêyakotênaw—a public artwork comprising three large teepee sculptures—along the High Line in New York. He received a BA in Native Studies and Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and an MFA in Film and Video from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He was the 2016 recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Media Art, and the 2013 Sobey Art Award winner. In 2017, Linklater was awarded a public commission for the Don River Valley Park, Toronto.
Linklater lives and works in North Bay, Ontario.
duane linklater, teŝipitâkan_cache_1, 2024, scaffolding, scrim, 7 paintings, 5 sculptures, performance
duane linklater. they have piled the stone as they promised without syrup 4, 2023. digital print on linen, cochineal, tea, sumac, charcoal, wool and blanket
duane linklater, porcupines for the soul, 2022, canvas, tarpaulin, industrial strap, cochineal, tea, porcupine quills, thread, steel
duane linklater. bugjuice, 2021. digital print on linen, cochineal dye, yellow ochre, honey, charcoal, nails
duane linklater, winter in america_no door_âkamenimok, 2020. digital print on hand dyed linen, black tea and sumac dye, charcoal, cup and saucer ochre, iron red pigment, dandelion, nail
duane linklater, primaryuse, 2020. lcd screens, television stands, media players, spray paint, stones, 3 super 8mm film transfers to 2k video with audio, score by eagles with eyes closed
duane linklater. dislodgevanishskinground, 2019. 12 tipi poles, steel cable, white paint, charcoal, rope, digital print on linen, black tea, blueberry extract, sumac, charcoal
duane linklater. boys don't cry, 2017. digital print on hand dyed linen
duane linklater. the place I seek to go, 2014. coyote fur, garment rack, hanger, flat screen TV, mac mini, HD video loop, cables
He has presented solo exhibitions such as 12 + 2, Dia: Chelsea, New York (2025); akâmi–, Camden Art Centre, London (in collaboration with Ethel (Trapper) Linklater, Tobias Linklater and Grey Plumes) (2025); mymothersside, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (2021), traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2023); and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California (2023); they have piled the stone / as they promised / without syrup, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (2023); Field Station: Duane Linklater, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University (2017); Apparatus for the circulation of Indigenous voices and ideas into the air, Western Front, Vancouver, Canada (2017); From Our Hands, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada (2016); salt 11: Duane Linklater, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City (2015); It means it is raining, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2015), among others.
installation view akâmi-2025, duane linklater with ethel (trapper) linklater, tobias linklater and grey plumes, camden art centre, 2025. photo: rob harris
installation view akâmi-2025, duane linklater with ethel (trapper) linklater, tobias linklater and grey plumes, camden art centre, 2025. photo: rob harris
installation view akâmi-2025, duane linklater with ethel (trapper) linklater, tobias linklater and grey plumes, camden art centre, 2025. photo: rob harris
installation view duane linklater: mymothersside, berkeley art museum and pacific film archive (bampfa), 2023. photo: whit forrester
installation view duane linklater: mymothersside, berkeley art museum and pacific film archive (bampfa), 2023. photo: whit forrester
installation view duane linklater: mymothersside, berkeley art museum and pacific film archive (bampfa), 2023. photo: whit forrester
installation view duane linklater: mymothersside, mca chicago, 2023. photo: tom van eynde.
installation view duane linklater: mymothersside, mca chicago, 2023. photo: tom van eynde.
installation view duane linklater: mymothersside, mca chicago, 2023. photo: tom van eynde
installation view quiet as it's kept, whitney biennial, 2022
installation view quiet as it's kept, whitney biennial, 2022
installation view quiet as it's kept, whitney biennial, 2022
installation view duane linklater: mymotherside, frye art museum, 2021. photo: jueqian fang
installation view duane linklater: mymotherside, frye art museum, 2021. photo: jueqian fang
installation view duane linklater: mymotherside, frye art museum, 2021. photo: jueqian fang
installation view soft power, san francisco museum of modern art, 2019.
installation view soft power, san francisco museum of modern art, 2019.
installation view soft power, san francisco museum of modern art, 2019.
Linklater has been featured in group exhibitions including the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2023); Of Mythic Worlds: Works from the Distant Past through the Present, The Drawing Center, New York (2023); 2022 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Native America: In Translation, Princeton University Museum of Art, New Jersey (2022); SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) (2019); Danica Barboza, Jason Hirata, Yuki Kimura, Duane Linklater, Artists Space, New York (2019); 10th Liverpool Biennial, United Kingdom (2018); In Search of Expo 67, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada (2017); SeMa Biennale, Seoul (2016); Many things brought from one climate to another, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (2015); Residue: The Persistence of the Real, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada (2015); and Modest Livelihood, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Alberta, Canada, as part of dOCUMENTA (13) (2012).
