Rosalie Favell | Belonging (1982-2024)
8 August - 22 November 2026
Curated by Ryan Rice
Organized and circulated by Onsite Gallery, OCAD University
Belonging is the first retrospective of renowned Red River Métis artist Rosalie Favell, showcasing a powerful curated selection of her lens-based works from 1982 to 2024. This exhibition celebrates Favell’s groundbreaking photographic practice—from seminal series like Living Evidence and Plain(s) Warrior Artist to her expansive archive Facing the Camera—which invites us to bear witness and explore the complex themes of identity, empowerment, same-sex desire, community and the nuanced search for belonging through a lens that is both deeply personal and subtly subversive.
Favell has deployed photography as a critical practice to navigate complex identities, personal and collective, that focus on strategies of empowerment, the archive and family ties, nationhood and making visible, public and private, issues of sexuality. Amassing her works from across her creative journey from her ground-breaking series Living Evidence (1993) to the ongoing comprehensive archive Facing the Camera, we bear witness to Favell’s photographic explorations that emulate the complex longing desires to locate a sense of autonomy to belong
amongst many.
Related Programs:
Opening Celebration
Friday, 7 August
7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
About Rosalie Favell
Rosalie Favell is a photo-based artist, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and living in Ottawa, ON. 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 Indigenous woman. To date Rosalie’s work has explored the relation of photography to issues of identity. A major critical body of work, Facing the Camera (2008-ongoing), is the largest documentation of Indigenous artists (450+), representative of different cities, nations and countries.
Over the course of her long career, Favell’s work has appeared in exhibitions in Canada, the US, Edinburgh, Scotland, Paris, France, Taipei, Taiwan and Melbourne, Australia. Numerous institutions have acquired her artwork including National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (Ottawa), Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.), and Global Affairs, Canada. She has received numerous grants and won prestigious awards such as the Ontario Arts Foundation – Paul DeHuek/Norman Walford Career Achievement Award, the Chalmers Fellowship, the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunten Award and the Karsh Award.
A graduate of Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, Rosalie holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico and a PhD (ABD) from Carleton University in Cultural Mediations. In 2022, she received an Honorary Doctorate (PhD) from OCAD University (Toronto, ON). In Ottawa, Rosalie has taught at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, and Discovery University.
About Ryan Rice
Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake, is a curator, critic and creative consultant. His curatorial career spans 30 years in community, museums, artist run centres, public spaces and galleries. He is currently the Executive Director of OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery in addition to his 2021 appointment as its Curator, Indigenous Art. Rice received a Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies from Bard College, New York; graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and received an Associate of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Rice’s writing on contemporary Onkwehón:we art has been published in numerous periodicals, journals and exhibition catalogues, and he has lectured widely. In 2022, he presented three solo exhibitions; Jordan Bennett: Souvenir at Onsite Gallery, Pageant: Natalie King at Centre |LS|3|RS| and Versification: January Rogers at daphne Art Centre and advanced two public art commissions as the Indigenous Public Art Curator with Waterfront Toronto. His contributions to community, leadership, and organizational experience includes co-founder of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, the Inuit Art Foundation Board, an advisory member of Longhouse Labs and AArtplace, participation on the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Education Advisory Council, and two terms on the Native American Arts Studies Association board.
Belonging (1982-2024) is possible due to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (an agency of the Government of Ontario), Terra Foundation for American Art, Toronto Arts Council, and The Delaney Family.
Image credits
Feature: Rosalie Favell, My first day of assimulation, 1996 (remastered 2024), from the series from an early age. Image courtesy of the artist.
Header: Rosalie Favell, #12, 1998, from the series Longing and Not Belonging. Image courtesy of the artist.
Gallery images:
1. Rosalie Favell, #12, 1998, from the series Longing and Not Belonging. Image courtesy of the artist.
2. Rosalie Favell, How could I go on as if it never happened, 1994, from the series Living Evidence. Image courtesy of the artist.
3. Rosalie Favell, #1, 1982, from the series Family Circle. Image courtesy of the artist.
4. Rosalie Favell, I Dreamed of Being a Warrior, 1999, from the series Plain(s) Warrior Artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
5. Rosalie Favell, Orange Dress / Red Poppies, 2011, from the series Wish You Were Here. Image courtesy of the artist.
6. Rosalie Favell, I Awoke to Find My Spirit Returned, 1999, from the series Plain(s) Warrior Artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
