Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, of Coast Salish descent, graduated from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in British Columbia. In combining his own experiences with a political perspective, he paints landscapes with vivid, acidic colours, merging Native iconography with a surrealist influence to address West Coast Native issues (*with searing and unapologetic detail)
[…]Yuxweluptun has chosen art as a way to voice his political concerns, exposing environmental destruction and the struggle of Native people. He believes that his artwork stimulates dialogue between Native and non-Native people.
Fucking Creeps They’re Environmental Terrorists, 2013Â
THE IMPENDING NISGA’A DEAL. LAST STAND. CHUMP CHANGE.1996
Scorched Earth, Clear-cut Logging on Native Sovereign Land. 1991
MONEY, POWER, GREED, Â 2012
THE DIRECTION OF LAND CLAIM NEGOTIATIONS 2013
Burying Another Face of Racism on First Nations Soil,1997
INDIAN WORLD MY HOME AND NATIVE LAND 2012
Yuxweluptun is Salish for “man of many masks,” a name given to the artist during his initiation into the Sxwaixwe Society at the age of fourteen. It is Cowishan Salish belief that the Sxwaixwe is a supernatural being who came down from the sky to live at the bottom of a lake. There is a dance associated with this creature in which the mask plays an important role. Yuxweluptun explains, “You carry the mask that belongs to your family and you identify with the animal on the mask.” (Robin Laurence, “Man of Masks,” Canadian Art, Spring 1995).
