Tsēmā Igharas

Tsēma Igharas, formerly known as Tamara Skubovius, is an interdisciplinary artist and member of the Tāłtān First Nation based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Igharas uses Potlatch methodology in making art, to assert the relationships between bodies and the world, and to challenge colonial systems of value and measurement of land and resources.

Early life and education Igharas was raised in Smithers, British Columbia and on Tāłtān territory. Igharas earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2011, and went on to receive an Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media, and Design from OCAD University in 2016, receiving the OCADU President’s Scholarship. For her graduate thesis, Igharas presented LAND | MINE, a materials library which linked bodies and mining sites to the land.

Art Igharas’ practice can be understood through the methodology of Potlatch, a ceremony rooted in reciprocity and nation building. For Igharas, artmaking becomes a “ceremony that affirms and solidifies relationships to every thing and body”. Igharas' practice is influenced by Indigenous resistance strategies, familial and embodied knowledge, and acts of decolonization, in order to understand the Canadian imaginary and the impacts of its industrialization; Igharas also aligns with Indigenous Futurisms as a way of understanding our relationship with time and the land. In the workshop, participants build and engage with Igharas’ “riot rocks” – rocks imbued with materials of cultural, industrial, and resistive significance – in order to communally practice Indigenous methodologies and gain an awareness of the connections between body and land. Notable exhibitions include Interweavings, which featured emerging First Nations artists who had won the YVR Art Foundation scholarship; the Contemporary Native Art Biennial: Culture Shift in Montreal; and the Luminato Festival in Toronto.

Solo exhibitions

2008 Originated, Aboriginal Student Exhibit, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver BC 2011 Please Do Not Touch, Ceramic Exhibition, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC 2015 Where are you (really) from?, Nuit Blanche, Toronto ON 2016 LAND|MINE, MFA Thesis Exhibition, OCADu Student Gallery, Toronto, ON 2016 Ore Body, ImagiNative Film and Media Festival, Gallery 44, Toronto ON, Canada 2017 Your Indigenous Tour Guide, FUSE Performance; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada 2017 Feminist Art Museum, Leslie Spit, Evergreen Brickworks and The Gardner Museum, Toronto ON, Canada 2019 future generations, Artspace Peterborough, ON, Canada 2019 La Biennale d'art Contemporain autochtone (BACA) The Contemporary Native Art Biennial- 4th editio níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | ma sœur | my sister, Art Mur, Montreal, QU, Canada

Group exhibitions 2009 Art Hamlet, The Old Church Venue, Smithers BC 2015 Coming to the Fire, Roundhouse, Vancouver, BC 2015 Make Re|make Un|make: Repetition and the Artistic Process Group Exhibit, Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver, BC 2015 México es una Fosa Común (Mexico is a Mass Grave), Public Group Performance directed by Jesusa Rodríguez as part of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics course, “Art, Migration and Human Rights” San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico 2016 OMEGA: I Am Woman, Windsor Gallery, Vancouver, BC 2016 Reflections, OCADu Student Gallery, Toronto, ON 2017 There is Bread and Salt Between Us, Open Space Gallery, Toronto ON, Canada 2017. What is Left? / What is Right?, Forrest City Gallery, London, ON, Canada 2017 Woodland School, Drawing a Line from January to December, SBC Gallery for Contemporary Art Montreal, QU, Canada 2018 INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB Canada 2018 Crafted Strangers, Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, Asheville, NC USA 2019 qaʔ yəxʷ, Bill Reid Gallery, Vancouver, BC Canada

Awards 2006, '08. YVR Art Foundation Scholarship / YVR Art Foundation Scholarship Emily Carr University Collaboration Scholarship

2010. Alberta Centennial Award