VALUE: Rebecca Belmore at the Museum of Anthropology highlights selected works by the Anishinaabe artist that confront colonial silencing, alienation, and violence inherent in the commodification of land, Indigeneous bodies, and material culture. Each work represents Belmore’s response to colonial dynamics of specific places and events. Detached from their original circumstances these objects present the possibility of insight into the present context of the colonial legacy of the Museum.

As part of this exhibition, four works, from different periods in Belmore’s career, will be displayed throughout MOA’s galleries and existing exhibitions. Taken together, these installations critically engage with dominant understandings of value as defined by contemporary social structures and colonial institutions such as MOA.

The exhibition speaks to Belmore’s assertion of a relational system of value within her Indigenous community, prompting visitors to consider and, perhaps, redefine “value” in terms of their own relations to land, water, objects, colonialism, and, ultimately, to each other.

A member of the Lac Seul First Nation on traditional Anishinaabe territories in Northwestern Ontario, Belmore roots her work in the political and social realities of Indigenous communities. She lives and works in Vancouver. The artist’s work has been exhibited locally at the Polygon Gallery, Audain Art Museum, Grunt Gallery, and Vancouver Art Gallery; nationally at the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada; and internationally in the United States, Mexico, Cuba, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Greece, Japan, and Australia. A recipient of many accolades, she was most recently recognized with the 2024 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts.

Curator: Jeffrey Boone | Curatorial staff liaisons: Karen Duffek, Jordan Wilson