TORONTO – First Nations artist Faye HeavyShield is the winner of the $75,000 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

HeavyShield, a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy from the Kainai (Blood) Nation in southern Alberta, is set to have a solo exhibition at the Toronto gallery as part of the prize.

Presented by the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation in partnership with the AGO, the annual award recognizes an artist who has made outstanding contribution to Canadian visual arts.

HeavyShield takes inspiration from her ancestors’ traditional ways of life to inform her minimalist artworks that explore themes of family, home and connection to the land.

In her more than three-decade career, HeavyShield has been featured in galleries across Canada, and her works are featured in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Alberta Foundation of Art.

More details about her 2023 exhibition at the AGO will be announced.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2022.