Shelley Niro is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford. She was born in Niagara Falls, New York in 1954, and has studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts, is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and received her MFA from the University of Western Ontario.

Working in a variety of media, including beadwork, painting, photography, and film, Niro challenges stereotypical images of Aboriginal peoples through strategies of masquerade, parody, and appropriation. Often using herself, friends, and family members as subjects, the artist creates depictions of Aboriginal peoples in counterpoint to those generated by centuries of colonization. Through her often direct yet humorous approach the artist proposes numerous possibilities for lived experience, presenting identity as a fluid and complex state, not one that is fixed and singular. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada and her award-winning films have been screened at festivals worldwide. Her art can be found in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank and the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and now here in NAICA online’s Spring edition!