David Hannan

David Hannan (born 1971) is a Métis Canadian who is a painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and a mixed media artist and currently lives in Toronto, Ontario. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art with a diploma in 1995. Most of Hannan's work have been based around his cultural heritage, the history and events of indigenous rights, and the ideas change and metamorphosis.

Early life and education Hannan was born in 1971 in Ottawa, Ontario, to a mother with Miꞌkmaq and Algonquin ancestry from and to a non-native father. His maternal grandmother was of family was of mixed Mik'maq ancestry from Richibucto, New Brunswick, while his maternal grandfather family was of mixed Algonquin ancestry from northeastern Ontario. /> Due to his father's work at a survey company, he often stayed with his maternal grandmother for months intermittently who encouraged his interest in art and provided him the supplies and drawing materials. In 2000 Hannan created works based on Louis Riel, The coin was revealed in the summer in Batoche of that year to the public and was made to honor the Métis festival which was held in Batoche every year. The obverse side of the coin featured an engraving of Elizabeth II with the word Canada at the top, Elizabeth II at the bottom, and to the side of the engraving of Elizabeth II said 50 cents. The pieces displayed in Faunamorphic were either sculptures or paintings of animals with contorted or distorted features. A wolves thigh of one of the pieces displayed is detailed well with its muscle tone however, the thigh is distorted and entwines upwards and transforms into something that is neither human or animal. Hannan mentioned that the artworks deal with his traditional heritage with the perspective of his urban sensibility, however he does not know what exactly his works are transforming into, it was also his first work that used wolves, in past works he had generally only used deer and coyotes which are more prevalent in Toronto.

Untitled, 2004 and Untitled, 2009 The two works featured in this Faunamorphic, Untitled, 2004 and Untitled, 2009, were sculpted as isolated limbs or bodies and reference vulnerability.

Pile, 2009 Pile, featured in Faunamorphic, uses taxidermy deer-head forms that had been aged and arranged into a delicate stack, the outside of the artificial heads have corrosion while in the inside there is small green stems on the inside referencing the idea of outside decay and internal.

List of exhibitions

Solo exhibitions "DOUBLEcurve", Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, 2005

"WILDness", The Station Gallery, Whitby, 2004

"David Hannan new works", Galerie St. Laurent+Hill, Ottawa, 2004

"Cross Fire", Indian and Inuit Art Gallery, Gatineau, and Urban Shaman Gallery, Winnipeg, 2000

"Hidden Heroes", Gallery 101, Ottawa, 1998.

Group exhibitions "Remix: New Modernities in a Post Indian World", Heard Museum, Phoenix, 2007

"Everyday Light", Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, 2005

"Transitions", Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 1999, Waikato Museum of Art, Hamilton, New Zealand, 1997, and the Canadian Cultural Centre at the Canadian Embassy, Paris, 1997

"Traces of Colour", McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, 2001

"Comfort Zones: textiles in the Canadian landscape", Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto, 2001

"Rielisms", The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, and The Dunlop Gallery, Regina, 2001.