Marianne Nicolson

Marianne Nicolson (‘Tayagila’ogwa; born 1969) is a Dzawada’enuxw visual artist whose work explores the margins at which public access to First Nations artifacts clashes with the preservation of indigenous cultural knowledge.

Marianne Nicolson was born in 1969, in Comox, British Columbia to a Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations mother of the Dzawada'enuxw descent, and a Scottish immigrant father from Stornoway.

She decided to become an artist when she was five years old.

She was trained by a master carver in traditional Kwakwaka’wakw design in the early 1990s.

Nicolson is an outspoken advocate for Indigenous land rights, and integrates this in her artwork.

Nicolson is involved in her community, both as a Nunwakola Cultural Society board member and through artistic projects.

She currently lives in the Kwakwaka’wakw community of Kingcome Inlet, BC (Dzawada’enuxw people), after moving there in the 1990s.

She utilizes painting, photography, mixed-media, sculpture, and installation to create modern depictions of traditional Kwakwaka’wakw beliefs, and has exhibited in Canada and throughout the world since 1992.

In 1996, Nicolson graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

These pictographs were not only community building but they also played off her cliff painting from 1998.

Marianne Nicolson's artistic career was established after the completion of her Cliff Painting in her traditional homeland of Kingcome Inlet in 1998.

The pictograph, which covers a surface of 28 by 38 foot on 120 foot cliff makes reference to the history of the Dzawada‘enuxw tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations.

It is the first mural to be completed in sixty years, celebrating the strength of her community of Gwa’yi.

A copper design represents wealth, and the Kawadilikala, the Dzawada'enuxw ancestor is also depicted while carrying a treasure box with the sun on it.

She continued her education at the University of Victoria (UVIC) in 1999, receiving her Master of Fine Arts.

In 2005, after returning to UVIC, she graduated with a Masters in Linguistics and Anthropology.

Later on, she received her PhD in Anthropology and Art History, also from UVIC.

She also studied the Kwak’wala language and directed research investigating the link between indigenous language and indigenous worldview.

Her practice is multi-disciplinary encompassing photography, painting, carving, video, installation, monumental public art, writing and speaking.

All her work is political in nature and seeks to uphold Kwakwaka’wakw traditional philosophy and worldview through contemporary mediums and technology.

Marianne Nicolson has exhibited in many countries.

This instillation was held at Artspeak, in Vancouver, BC from January 7 to February 11, 2006, and later held from October 19 to November 18, 2006, at Gallery 101, in Ottawa, ON.

Nicolson's piece, a light box that casts shadows on the surrounding walls of a raven, owl and two girls — the artist's aunt and mother as young women, took up the entire gallery.

Viewers become part of the work and part of the history it tells.

The box holds the possibility for purification and healing for a landscape ravaged by the visitor, carrying the memories of Aboriginal life and community.

Nicolson transformed the Vancouver Art Gallery into a Northwest Coast Ceremonial House for the exhibition.

This site-specific projection ran from October 4 to January 11, 2009.

The gallery used to be a former Provincial courthouse, through this piece Nicolson gives hope to the survival of Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations cultures and communities, despite active efforts to suppress and eradicate them.

Exhibited at Equinox Gallery from April 6 to May 4, 2013, Nicolson's sculptural installation Walking on Water (Thin Ice) features a myriad of blue glass sculptures inserted into wooden supports.

These glass shapes take the form of killer whale fins which, in Kwakwaka’wakw tradition, signify healing.

Other Northwest Coast symbols are featured, such as owls, which carry the spirits of the deceased according to Kwakwaka’wakw principles, and also are becoming extinct as a result of habitat loss.

The installation addresses issues of global warming through responding to a devastating flood that occurred in Kingcome Inlet.

The title Walking on Water (Thin Ice) touches on this, inferring collective social denial and the repercussions they will inevitably face.

This major installation consisted of a 6'x35' lit blue glass wall, which bears the carved image of a sinking killer whale being ridden by figures.

The whale looks strained and it is not clear whether the figures are the source of the whale drowning or if they are drowning with the whale.

This installation was commissioned by the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan, in 2013

Such galleries and exhibitions include the 17th Biennale of Sydney, The Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Museum of the American Indian, Nuit Blanche in Toronto, Museum Arnhem and many others.

Major monumental public artworks are situated in Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan and the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France.

One community project in 2019 gathered over 55 participants, young and old, connected to the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw (part of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations).

As part of a fish farming protest, Nicolson and the participants created a pictograph series.