Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist, author with Art in public spaces and private collections. Major museum collections in North American and Europe include the British Museum, the Quai Branly Museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Humboldt Forum.

Yahgulanaas has a long history of community service supporting progressive financial and political developments involving Indigenous Peoples, philanthrophic organizations and Governments in North America and internationally. In 2026 He was invited by the German government to join an International Advisory Board on art institutions in Germany.

Early life Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas was born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia in 1954 and grew up alongside Delkatla, near the fishing village of Masset on Haida Gwaii, off the north coast of British Columbia. He is a descendant of the influential Haida artists, Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw and Delores Churchill

As a young artist, he covered the walls and ceilings of his bedroom with drawings.

Haida Manga blends Pacific Northwest Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. Haida Manga is committed to hybridity as a force that opens a third space for critical engagement. It offers a way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection, and action.

Sculpture Yahgulanaas's works in metal include commissions from the British Museum (2010), The City of Vancouver (2011) and the 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee. In 2015, his sculpture Sei, a 12 ton stainless sculpture depicting a sei whale, was unveiled at the Vancouver International Airport. In January 2016, his sculpture Yelthadaas from the Coppers From the Hood series joined the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This work was put on display in 2017. The piece hangs in Gallery 399, between the Modern and Contemporary Art wing and the Rockefeller Wing, where contemporary art borders Indigenous art.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions ‘’ Diaries after a Flood’’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada, 2024 Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas -- Traveling the Museum, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2007 Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2009 Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and Edward Burtynsky, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2009 Emily Carr and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2013 Old Growth, grunt gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2013 The Seriousness of Play, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2016 A Tale of Two Shamans, Haida Gwaii, Canada, 2018 Making Mischief, Gallery Jones, Vancouver, Canada, 2021 New Works, Madrona Gallery, Victoria, Canada, 2022

Group exhibitions Skung Gwaii Robe, Haida Gwaii Museum at Qay'llnagaay, Haida Gwaii, Canada, 2002 Raven Travelling, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2006 What Use Art History?, Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, Penticton, BC, Canada, 2008 Challenging Traditions, Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford, BC, Canada, 2010 Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2010 Haida Made: New Collaborations in Design, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2010 Continuum: Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2010 Beat Nation, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2012 Tokyo Design Week, Milan, Italy, 2015 , McCord Stewart Museum, Montreal, Canada, 2019 Comic Sans, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, 2022 Outsider Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York City, USA, 2023 Two Squares Equal One with Thomas Seligman at 35 Barlett, San Francisco, 2023 New Terrains: Contemporary Native American Art, Phillips, New York City, USA / From Coast to Coast, Canadian Comics on the Move, Angoulême International Comics Festival, Angoulême, France, 2024 XIÁM, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2024

Published works

JAJ: a Haida Manga, , (2023) Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga, , (2019) War of the Blink, , (2017) Old Growth: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Liz Park, ed., , (2012) The Canoe He Called Loo Taas (illustrator), , (2010) The Little Hummingbird, (2010) The Declaration of Interdependence (illustrator), (2010) The Canoe He Called Loo Taas, , (2010) Red: A Haida Manga, , (2009) Flight of the Hummingbird: a parable for the environment, , (2008) Hachidori (2005) A Lousy Tale (2004) The Last Voyage of the Black Ship, , (2001) A Tale of Two Shamans, , (2001) No Tankers, No T'anks (1977). Volume 1 of the Tales of Raven series. Two Canadian Opera companies commissioned Yahgulanaas to write a libretto based on his book Flight of the Hummingbird. In celebration of the potency of diversity which is a critical element in Yahgulanaas oeuvre, powerful new music was created by Maxime Goulet.

JAJ: A Haida Manga was shortlisted for the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes in 2024.