Belmore has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally since 1986. Her work focuses on issues of place and identity, and confronts challenges for First Nations People.[5] Her work addresses history, voice and voicelessness, place, and identity. Her work, be it sculpture, video, or photographic in nature, is performance-based.[1] To address the politics of representation, Belmore's art strives to invert or subvert official narratives, while demonstrating a preference for the use of repetitive gestures and natural materials.[1] Belmore's art reveals a long-standing commitment to politics and how they relate to the construction of identity and ideas of representation.[6][7] She has exhibited across Canada, the US, Mexico, Cuba and Australia.
Belmore was born on March 22, 1960, in Upsala, Ontario, Canada.[8] Until the age of 16, Belmore spent her summers in Northwestern Ontario with her grandparents. During these summers, her grandmother taught her about harvesting native foods from the land.[9] Author Jessica Bradley describes Belmore's adolescence as difficult due to "the custom ingrained through the [Canadian] government imposed assimilation, she was sent to attend high school in Thunder Bay and billeted with a non-Native family." Bradley adds that as a result of her experience as an adolescent, notions of displacement and cultural loss are "reformed into acts or objects of reparation and protest [within her various works]."
[10] Belmore attended the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in 1988.[5]
Belmore's mother was born on a small island in Northern Ontario and her journey to visit her mother's birthplace has had a significant impact on her work.[11]
Belmore has presented work in biennial exhibitions throughout her career. In 1991, she exhibited at the IV Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba.[1] She has twice represented Canada at the Sydney Biennale; in 1998 in the exhibition Every Day, and in 2006 in the exhibition Zones of Contact. In 2005 her work Fountain was shown at the Canadian Pavilion of the 51st Venice Biennale, as the first aboriginal artist ever to represent Canada at the event.[12][13] In the same year she exhibited as part of Sweet Taboos at the 3rd Tirana Biennale, Tirana, Albania.
As a First Nations or Aboriginal person, Belmore's homeland is now the modern nation of Canada; yet, there is reluctance by the art world to recognize this condition as a continuous form of cultural and political exile. The inclusion of the First Nations political base is not meant to marginalize Belmore's work, but add depth to it. People think of Belmore as both Canadian and Anishinabe—l think of her as an Anishinabe living in the continuously colonial space of the Americas.[14]
Belmore has had two major solo touring exhibitions, The Named and the Unnamed, a multi-part installation that commemorates women missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2002); and 33 Pieces, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga (2001).[15][16]In 2008, the Vancouver Art Gallery hosted Rising to the Occasion, a mid-career survey of Belmore's artistic production.[1] In 2014, Belmore was commissioned to create an original work for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights[17] The work consists of a blanket of hand pressed clay beads, engaging the community in Winnipeg to help produce them.[18]
In 2010, Belmore was involved in a legal dispute with the Pari Nadimi Gallery of Toronto, that sued her for punitive damages and for lost future revenues to $750,000.[19][20] The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2013; however, inspired her 2010 performance WORTH.[20][21]
In 2017, Belmore's work was exhibited at documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and in Kassel, Germany.[22]
In 2018, the Art Gallery of Ontario staged a touring retrospective of Belmore's work, Facing the Monumental.[23][24][25] Curated by Wanda Nanibush, Facing the Monumental incorporates sculptures, installations, photography and videos spanning 30 years of Belmore's career.[26] It has been the largest exhibition of her work to date, and shown at galleries in Canada and the United States.[26][27]
Belmore participated in the 2022 Whitney Biennial in New York. Her sculptural installation ishkode (fire) (2021), a clay sculpture of a figure shrouded in a sleeping bag and surrounded by empty bullet shell casings, was included in the exhibition. Journalist Gabriella Angeleti described the piece
in The Art Newspaper as "a critique of the historic genocide and ongoing disproportionate violence against Indigenous people," calling the work "a centerpiece" of the exhibition.[28][29]
Belmore's interactive installation Mawa-che-hitoowin: A Gathering of People for Any Purpose (1992), featured a circle of chairs from Belmore's kitchen and kitchen chairs owned by other women close to her, arranged in a circle. Each chair had a pair of headphones resting on it. Visitors were invited to sit in each chair, put on the headphones, and listen to the stories of the struggles and triumphs of different indigenous women in Canada, told in their own voices. The work was commissioned for an exhibition of Indigenous art on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in Hispaniola. As such, it used Indigenous traditions of storytelling and passing on wisdom from elders as a way to push back against Native stereotypes and victimization.[30]
Twelve Angry Crinolines (1987), parade and video performance, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Collaboration with Ana Demetrakopoulos, Kim Erickson, Lori Gilbert, Joane Lachapelle-Bayak, Glenn McLeod, Karen Maki, Sandy Pandia and Lynne Sharman; organized by Lynne Sharman
Artifact #671B (1988), protest in support of the Lubicon Cree and against the Olympic Flame celebrations, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
High-tech Teepee Trauma Mama (1988), performance installation, Indian Days Native Student Association Winter Carnival, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada
HOWUH! (1988), music based performance project with Allen De Leary, Definitely Superior Art Gallery and Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Nah-doe-tah-moe-win: Means an Object That You Listen To (1989), Niagara Artists Centre, Saint Catharines, Ontario, Canada; Galerie SAW Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Multi-media Works: A Native Perspective, AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
August 29, 1990 (1990), performance, Première Biennale d'art actuel de Québec, Le Lieu, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991), performance, Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada; toured to numerous locations across Canada (1991-1996)
Creation or Death: We Will Win (1991), performance, IV Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba
Mawa-che-hitoowin: A Gathering of People for Any Purpose (1992), mixed-media installation, "Land/Spirit/Power" exhibition, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
I am not a Fucken Squaw! (1993), performance, Distance education program student graduation banquet, Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada
Affiliation/Affliction (1994), collaboration with Reona Brass, Rencontre internationale d'art performance (RIAP) de Quebec, Le Lieu, Quebec, Canada
Interview with the Ghost of Luna(1997), performance, "Apocalypso" artist's residency, The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada
Garden of Eden (1998), performance, Five New Works (untitled), Canadian Performance Art Tour, Germany
Manifesto (1999), performance, TIME TIME TIME performance art festival, Fado Performance, Inc., Zsa Zsa Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Indian Factory (2000), performance making an installation, High-tech Storytellers: An Interdisciplinary Aboriginal Art Project, Tribe/AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Wild (2001), House Guests: Contemporary Artists in the Grange, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Vigil (2002), performance, Talking Stick Aboriginal Art Festival, Full Circle First Nations Performance, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tongue River (2003), performance collaboration with Bently Spang, Fado Performance, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Back to the Garden (2006), performance, Urban Shaman/ Ace Art, Inc., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
"Freeze" with Osvaldo Yero (2006), Nuit Blanche, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Private Collection (2001), Pari Nadimi Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
33 Pieces (2001), organized by Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; toured to Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (2002); Parry Sound Station Gallery, Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada (2002); Definitely Superior Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada (2003); W.K.P. Kennedy Public Art Gallery, Capitol Centre, North Bay, Ontario, Canada (2003)
The Named and the Unnamed (2002), organized by Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; toured to Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2003); Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada (2004); Confederation Art Centre, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada (2004); McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (2006)
Extreme (2003), Pari Nadimi Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Belmore, Rebecca . "Five Sisters." In Indian Princesses and Cowgirls: Stereotypes from the Frontier. Burgess, Marilyn and Guthrie Valaskakis, Gail, Montreal: Oboro, 1995. ISBN2-9800725-9-31
Augaitis, Daina; Ritter, Kathleen (2008). Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery. ISBN9781895442687.
Bradley, Jessica; Jolene Rickard; Scot Watson (2005). Rebecca Belmore: Fountain. Kamloops Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Biennale di Venezia. Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. ISBN9780888656346.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Blondeau, Lori, et al.『On the Fightin’ Side of Me: Lori Blondeau and Lynne Bell in conversation with Rebecca Belmore.』Fuse Magazine, Vol. 28, No. 1. pp. 25–34.
Luna, James; Townsend-Gault, Charlotte (2003). Rebecca Belmore: The Named and the Unnamed. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. ISBN0-88865-628-9.
Bradley, Jessica. "Rebecca Belmore: Art and the Object of Performance." In Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women. Tanya Mars and Johanna Householder, eds. Toronto: YYZ Books, 2004.
Bailey, Jann LM Bailey; Watson, Scott (2005). Rebecca Belmore: Fountain. Kamloops Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. ISBN0-88865-634-3.
Enright, Robert. “The Poetics of History: An Interview with Rebecca Belmore”, Border Crossings, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2005.
Burgess, Marilyn. "The Imagined Geographies of Rebecca Belmore." Parachute, No. 93, Jan/Feb/March, 1999. pp. 12–20.
Fisher, Barbara (2001). 33 Pieces. University of Toronto at Mississuaga, Blackwood Gallery. ISBN0-77278203-2.
Hill, Richard William. "It’s Very Interesting if it Works: In Conversation with Rebecca Belmore and James Luna." Fuse Magazine, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2001. pp. 28–33.
"Built on Running Water: Rebecca Belmore's Fountain." Fuse Magazine. Vol. 29, No. 1, 2006. pp. 49–51.
Martin, Lee-Anne. “The Waters of Venice: Rebecca Belmore at the 51st Biennale.” In Canadian Art, vol. 22, 2005.
Mayrhofer, Ingrid (2006). Ephemeral Monuments: The Interventions of Rebecca Belmore and César Saez. Ottawa: Galerie SAW Gallery.
Townsend-Gault, Charlotte and James Juna (2002). Rebecca Belmore: The Named and the Unnamed. Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. ISBN9780888656285.
Laurence, Robin (August 2002). Racing Against History: The Art of Rebecca Belmore. Canada: Border Crossing Magazine, Volume 21, Number 3. Figures and Faces (#83). Pages 42-48.
Nanibush, Wanda (2018). Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario; Fredericton, Goose Lane Editions. ISBN978-1-988788-03-6.
Belmore, Florene ed. (2019). Wordless: The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore Vancouver, Grunt Gallery; Whistler, Audain Art Museum. ISBN978-1-988860-06-0
Ahlberg, Yohe J, and Teri Greeves. Hearts of Our People. Native Women Artists. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019. Print. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1105604814
Beard, Laura. "Playing Indian in the works of Rebecca Belmore, Marilyn Dumont, and Ray Young Bear." American Indian Quarterly, no. 4 (2014): 492-511. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.38.4.0492.
Kalbfleisch, Elizabeth. "Women, House, and Home in Contemporary Canadian Aboriginal Art: Hannah Claus, Rebecca Belmore, and Rosalie Favell." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 33, no. 3 (2012): 1-30. https://doi.org/10.5250/fronjwomestud.33.3.0001
^ abcdefgAugaitis, Daina and Kathleen Ritter, ed. (2008). Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery. ISBN9781895442687.
^Augaitis, Daina, and Kathleen Ritter (2008). Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery. p. 14. ISBN9781895442687.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Bradley, Jessica (2006), "Rebecca Belmore: Art and the object of performance", in Tanya Mars; Johanna Householder (eds.), Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, Toronto, ON: YYZ Books, pp. 120–129, ISBN0-920397-84-0
^Besaw, Mindy N. (October 2018). Art for a new understanding : native voices, 1950s to now. Hopkins, Candice., Well-Off-Man, Manuela. Fayetteville. ISBN9781610756549. OCLC1059450735.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Hearts of our people : Native women artists. Ahlberg Yohe, Jill,, Greeves, Teri,, Silver, Laura (Editor),, Feldman, Kaywin,, Minneapolis Institute of Art,, Frist Art Museum (Nashville, Tenn.). Minneapolis, Minnesota. 2019-05-17. ISBN9780295745794. OCLC1057740182.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
