Nayana LaFond: Portraits in Red, Missing & Murdered Indigenous People
February 17, 2023 - April 16, 2023
Beacon Gallery and ShowUp are honored to have Nayana Lafond (an enrolled card-carrying citizen and member of the Metis Nation of Ontario) share highlights of her ongoing series of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/People Project with the Eastern Massachusetts community and beyond. Her monochromatic paintings honor those lost to violence as well as portraits of activists struggling to stem the tide of loss and erasure in Indigenous communities across North America.
Lafond speaks of her work, saying: "Often these families and survivors and activists are not heard...I do not seek to speak for another person or family and their individualized experience with this horrific crisis so when you look at the paintings I ask you to listen to what they tell you. I am seeking to provide a space and facilitation for those silenced to be heard."
-
This project is about awareness and fundraising for families devastated by loss. Prints are available to support Nayana Lafond's artwork and Beacon Gallery's overhead, but catalog sales and profits are dedicated to the nonprofit National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (NIWRC). We invite your support through sales and direct donations.
Join us for an opening on February 17th at 6 pm, and a conversation with Nayana LaFond and Associate Curator of Native American Art at The Trustees, Terese Lukey on March 3rd starting at 6 pm (light reception, followed by program at 7).
-
Nayana LaFond (b.1981) is an enrolled card-carrying citizen and member of the Metis Nation of Ontario. She has been verified to have connections to Canadian Government recognized historic Metis communities including the Red River settlement in Manitoba, and communities in Alberta & Ontario. She is a full-time multidisciplinary artist and mother who resides in Massachusetts with her daughter Adelaide. She attended Greenfield Community College and Massachusetts College of Art for photography but left before graduation to independently pursue her passions for art and curation. LaFond has been a curator and community arts organizer for over 20 years including her 8 years as the founding Chief Curator for The Whitney Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, MA. She sits on several arts organization boards, including Artist Organized Art, and is an advisor for The Native Youth Empowerment Foundation.
LaFond’s work can be found in private collections and institutions worldwide. Her work often deals with issues related to trauma and violence including her experiences as a domestic violence and leukemia survivor. She began the MMIW/G People Project in 2020. In addition to being a painter and photographer, Nayana is also a sculptor. Her sculpture Zoongide’e (about domestic abuse), a metal, plexiglass, and concrete wetu (Wigwam) was on display in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood as part of the Be The Change public art initiative for the summer and fall of 2022.
