Untitled [The Solar System]

Carl Beam (1943–2005) confronted stereotypes and prejudices throughout his career, challenging Canadian institutions to recognize contemporary Indigenous artwork. Beam was born on the M’Chigeeng First Nation (West Bay) in Ontario and was of both Indigenous and settler descent. He spent his childhood from age 10–18 attending the Garnier Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. He went on to attend the Kootenay School of Art, eventually graduating with a BA from the University of Victoria and then pursued graduate studies at the University of Alberta.  
 
Beam worked across painting, printmaking, ceramics, and performance. Although he emerged around the time of the Woodland School, established by Ojibwe artist Norval Morrisseau, Beam resisted the aesthetic specificities of their style. Instead, he developed his own creation methods influenced by American modernists including Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. Beam is best known for his photo collages—which used screen processing, photo-etching, Polaroids and solvent transfer. His innovative use of mixed-media materials juxtaposed ideas and images, exploring identity, spirituality, and colonial violence.   
 
After fighting for years to not be pigeonholed into the genre of "Indian Art," Beam became the first Indigenous artist to have an artwork purchased by the National Gallery of Canada as legitimate contemporary artwork. He was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts in 2000 and received the General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2005. A posthumous exhibition of his work was mounted by the National Gallery in 2011 and later travelled to Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.