Smithsonian Photography Exhibition Explores Work of Meryl McMaster

The National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center will feature its first exhibition devoted to Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree member of the Siksika Nation, British and Dutch), an emerging artist from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. “Meryl McMaster: Second Self” examines McMaster’s “Second Self” series, which was first exhibited in 2013 at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis as part of the RED: Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. The exhibition opens June 12 and runs through Dec. 11 in the museum’s Photo Gallery. Admission is free.

McMaster’s interest is based on using portraiture and self-portraiture to explore questions of how people construct their sense of self through lineage, history and culture. “Second Self” reconsiders identity through portraiture by incorporating drawing and sculpture. Representing the complexities of identity, the drawings and sculptures act like masks or personas to conceal and change the subject’s identity. Persona has come to define the individual for the public while concealing the real person. The mask, then, is like the second self.

McMaster holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from OCAD University and aside from the Eiteljorg Fellowship, has been the recipient of the Charles Pachter Prize for Emerging Artists, the Canon Canada Prize, the OCAD Medal and the Doris McCarthy Scholarship. Represented by the Katzman Contemporary gallery in Toronto, her work has been exhibited in Canada and the United States.

The National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park. The museum is free and open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until 8 p.m. By subway, the museum may be reached by the 1 to South Ferry, the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green or the R or W to Whitehall Street. The museum’s website is www.AmericanIndian.si.edu.

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SI-227-2015