Rosalie Favell's Retrospective 'Belonging' Traverses 40 Years of Identity and Archive

Métis artist Rosalie Favell, based in Ottawa, is the subject of a traveling retrospective, "Rosalie Favell: Belonging (1982–2024)," currently at the Art Gallery of Algoma through June 20, 2026, and opening at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery on August 8, 2026. The exhibition spans four decades of her practice, which uses autobiographical photography, digital collage, and text to explore her identity as a lesbian Métis woman. Favell began photography in her teens, later studying at the University of New Mexico and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her series include "Portraits in Blood" (1990–93), "Living Evidence" (1994), "Plain(s) Warrior Artist" (1999–2003), and "Facing the Camera" (2008–18; 2023), which documents Indigenous artists across Canada, the US, and Australia. She came out as a lesbian in the 1970s–80s before publicly embracing her Métis heritage, which she traced through Hudson's Bay Company records. Her work often incorporates family archives and rewrites personal history, as seen in "From an Early Age I Loved Women" (1996). The interview is part of Hyperallergic's 2026 Pride Month series.