BEAVER & HUMAN painting by Levi Nelson

"I paint these magnificent carved figures from my visit to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, as an attempt at understanding volume and depth as it translates from a physical space into a painted world. Much in the traditional sense of the painter who visits the masterpieces in the museum, it is an extension of process and research. What I am finding in these sacred poles is the attention paid to balance and symmetry, leading me to believe in the perfect balance of a lifestyle lived long ago by the Ancestors."

"This balance is offset by my Slices Series, which is somewhat the metaphor of a shattered world, put back together through paint." - Levi Nelson 

Levi Nelson is an Indigenous artist of the Lil’wat Nation, British Columbia, Canada. His chosen medium is oil paint and mixed media work on canvas which can best be described as Contemporary First Nations Art. Levi Nelson is a Masters graduate of Columbia University MFA Visual Arts New York, NY, and received his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, Canada, and was awarded the 2021 John C. Kerr Chancellor Emeritus Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts. Nelson’s work can best be described as contemporary First Nations art, where he fuses Indigenous elements and ideas concerning Indigeneity, with pop culture imagery through the traditional Western practice of oil painting, in addition to mixed media; integrating silkscreen, paint, and collage on canvas.