Greg Staats

Greg Staats (born 1963) is a photographer, video, and installation artist, known for examining his Mohawk roots in his work. The landscape images in his photography have symbolism such as his images of the white pine, which was used as a symbol of the unity of the Hodinöhsö:ni' Confederacy. Through his work, he hopes to document a return towards a complete Onkwehón:we neha [our original ways] worldview. In 2024, he was awarded the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Career Staats was born on the Ohsweken, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and studied Applied Photography at Sheridan College, Ontario. His art work involves oral transmission, text works, embodied wampum, photography, sculpture, installation and video. and as an artist-in-residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2014-2015. He is a founding member of the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers' Association (NIIPA). the Kelowna Art Gallery, 2008; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, ON, 2021. Two person or Group exhibitions include shows at Gallery 44, Toronto, 1992;

Selected public collections National Gallery of Canada;

Awards and honours Staats was awarded the 1999 Duke & Duchess of York Prize in Photography from the Canada Council for the Arts; the 2021 Toronto Arts Foundation’s Inaugural Indigenous Artist Award; and was shortlisted for the 2021 Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at Harvard University. In 2024 he was awarded the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.