Krista Belle Stewart

Stewart is from the Upper Nicola Band in the British Columbia interior region. Stewart's mother Seraphine was the first First Nations public health nurse in British Columbia; she was the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary in 1967.[1]

Stewart works with combinations of archival items, such as photographs and video, and various types of collage techniques and fiber art.[2] One of her earlier projects, Self Portrait on a Canning Lid, worked with older photographic techniques, such as tintype, to create images referencing her cultural history and ethnography practices.[3]

Her 2014 installation piece, Motion and Moment Always, reproduced a historical image of chiefs from the Nisga'a First Nations on the British Columbia coast as a weaving, working with Vancouver weaver Ruth Scheuing. This piece is combined with items such as a bucket containing soil from Douglas Lake, where Stewart was raised, as well as other archival items highlighting women's roles in First Nations cultures.[4]

Stewart has had solo exhibitions at the SFU Galleries, Burnaby (2018–19),[5] Nanaimo Art Gallery (2019),[6] Kelowna Art Gallery (2016),[7] and Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2015).[8] Group exhibitions include In Search of Expo 67, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montreal (2017),[9] Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2016–17),[10] Where Does it Hurt?, at Artspeak, Vancouver (2014),[11] Music from the New Wilderness, Western Front, Vancouver (2014),[12] and Fiction/Nonfiction, Esker Foundation, Calgary (2013).[13]

In 2019, Stewart's work Earthbound Mnemonic was featured on the BC Hydro Dal Grauer Substation in Vancouver as a feature of the Capture Photography Festival.[14] Also in 2019, she was the recipient of the VIVA Award from the Jask and Doris Shadbolt Foundation.[15]