rosalie favell Biography

Rosalie Favell is a photo-based artist, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Drawing inspiration from her family history and Métis (Cree/English) heritage, she uses a variety of sources, from family albums to popular culture, to present a complex self-portrait of her experiences as a contemporary aboriginal woman. To date Rosalie’s work has explored the relation of photography to issues of identity. A major body of recent work, Facing the Camera (2008-2018), is a large document of 500 Aboriginal artists and community. During her residency in Australia in 2016, she met renowned Aboriginal artist Maree Clarke. This key encounter inspired her to initiate a new project, Wrapped in Culture, which brought together 10 Indigenous artists from Australia and Canada. Collaboratively the artists created a contemporary version of a possum skin cloak and a buffalo robe, drawing from culturally distinct yet similar artistic traditions that historically have sacred and practical uses.

Her work has appeared in many exhibitions in Canada and Internationally. Numerous institutions have acquired her artwork including: National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), National Gallery (Ottawa), Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) (Ottawa), and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.). She has received numerous grants, and won prestigious awards such as the Chalmers Fellowship, the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunten Award and the Karsh Award and the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Awards. A graduate of Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, Rosalie holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico. In Ottawa Rosalie has taught at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa and Discovery University.