Kent Monkman is an interdisciplinary Cree visual artist. A member of ocêkwi sîpiy (Fisher River Cree Nation) in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba, Canada), he lives and works between New York City and Toronto.
Known for his provocative interventions into Western European and American art history Monkman explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience—the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences—across painting, film/video performance, and installation. Monkman’s gender-fluid alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle often appears in his work as a time-travelling, shape-shifting, supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze to challenge received notions of history and Indigenous peoples.
Monkman’s artworks are held in the permanent collections of numerous institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Denver Art Museum; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum; the New York Historical Society; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; the Glenbow Museum; the National Gallery of Canada; and macLYON and other various private collections such as Art Bridges; the Gochman Family Collection; the Sobey Art Foundation; and the Walker Youngbird Foundation. His works have been exhibited at institutions such as Louvre-Lens; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; SITE Santa Fe; Museum of Arts and Design; Palais de Tokyo; and the Royal Ontario Museum.
In 2025, Monkman’s first internationally touring large-scale solo exhibition History is Painted by the Victors opened at the Denver Art Museum and the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, two museums part of the FRAME network.
Monkman was also the recipient of numerous prizes and distinctions, such as the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (2017), the Indspire Award (2014), and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award (2014), to name a few. In 2023, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada—Canada’s highest civilian honour—and in 2025, he received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
To read this bio in French, please click here.
