About

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My name is Carrie Allison (nêhiýaw/Métis/mixed European descent) I am a multidisciplinary visual artist based in K’jipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). My Métis and nêhiýaw family names are: Beaudry, Surprenant, Noskeye, and Payiw; my maternal roots and relations are based in and around maskotewisipiy (High Prairie, Alberta), Treaty 8. I grew up on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

I hold a Master in Fine Art, a Bachelor in Art History, and a Bachelor in Fine Art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. My work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. I was the 2020 recipient of the Melissa Levin Award from the Textile Museum of Canada and was long listed for the 2024 and 2021 Sobey Art Award. My work has been shown in Canadian Art, Elle Quebec, Esse and Visual Arts News.

I am a multidisciplinary artist, mother, and community organizer. My practice responds to my maternal nêhiýaw/Cree and Métis ancestry, thinking through intergenerational cultural loss and acts of reclaiming, resilience, resistance, and activism, while also thinking through notions of allyship, kinship and visiting. The work I make is rooted in research and pedagogical discourses with the intent to share knowledge and garner understanding for complex histories, concepts, and possible futures. My work seeks to reclaim, remember, recreate and celebrate my ancestry through visual discussions often utilizing beading, embroidery, handmade paper, watercolour, websites, QR codes, audio, video and animation. Old and new technologies are combined to tell stories of the land, continuance, growth, and of healing.

My practice is time self-reflexive, intensive, repetitive, durational, and thoughtful; I work with beading to connect with histories, narratives, relatives, ancestors and kin. I am fascinated by Mother Earth’s living beings. They (living beings – plants, fungi, animals, bodies of water) often become the subjects of deep contemplation and interaction in my work. In every land-based piece I situate myself as a visitor to the land, whether in K’jipuktuk, Coast Salish Territory or my ancestors territory, maskotewisipiy, enacting respectful actions of being a guest; honouring the fact that I am still building relationships with my homelands and the community situated there.

I am inspired by anti-colonial, anti-racist and anti-patriarchical work; critically engaging in these concepts whenever possible. Concepts and critiques of labour are often threaded into my work, either physically, conceptually, or critically. My art practice looks to Indigenous and European artistic canons to draw upon histories to engage with and tell stories from. Using media and a variety of different materials to symbolize these histories and narratives.

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