Shelley Niro | Silent, waiting, moving, LOUD

Stephen Bulger Gallery is pleased to present “silent, waiting, moving, LOUD,” our first solo exhibition of work by Shelley Niro (b. 1954, Niagara Falls, New York, USA). Niro is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory. This exhibition is concurrent with her major retrospective organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Hamilton (on view from February 10 until May 26, 2024) with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, New York, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; this travelling exhibition will also appear at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Remai Modern, Saskatoon.

Our exhibition is comprised of multiple series that are not included in the AGH’s retrospective, including examples of Niro’s painting practice, as well as her multi-media sculptural objects, featuring her beadwork. The photographic components include the genre of portraiture and landscape, created with analogue methods and digital tools. Her subject matter incorporates observations of the moon, fossils, and appropriated images. Presented as single panels, as well as diptychs and triptychs, the individual series seen together offer insights into Niro’s Indigenous heritage, as well as the concerns and fascinations shared with contemporary citizens of planet Earth.