Nadia Myre is a renowned contemporary visual artist from Quebec and Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg First Nation. Her artwork has been inspired by participant involvement as well as recurring themes of identity, language, longing and loss. Myre pushes the boundaries of how craft and Indigenous histories are understood and positioned within wider Canadian context. Extensively exhibited and collected, Myre’s work can be found in prominent collections across North America. Myre is the recipient of numerous awards, notably the Louis-Comtois Prize (2021), Sobey Art Award (2014) for Canadian artists under 40, and in 2019 was inducted into the Order of Arts and Letters of Québec.

Canadian Art Magazine writes of the artist, “Nadia Myre’s work weaves together complex histories of Aboriginal identity, nationhood, memory and handicraft, using beadwork techniques to craft exquisite and laborious works.” Through her work, Myre is interested in having conversations about collective identity, resilience, and the politics of belonging. Temporal (2012) was part of the Meditations on Black Lake exhibition in 2020; the exhibition featured large photographs of circular beaded tondos that engulf the viewer in muted blues, blacks and greys, and our work is an excellent example. Myre uses scanning and photography to increase the size of the beadwork and remove the physical objects from their materiality. The viewer is then presented with a digital universe of interconnectedness and meditation; a chance to gaze upon the dark pools, gaining insight through reflection and seeing themselves reflected back. There is a single thread that binds the beads together, perhaps insinuating that as the viewer, we too are connected to a larger global consciousness that binds us together, reminding us of what we owe to each other.