In Conversation: Theo Jean Cuthand & Wanda Nanibush

Please note: Due to the freezing rain advisory in Toronto this weekend, this program has been shifted from in-person to online. If you had previously registered, you have been sent a Zoom link. Please contact erin.peck@utoronto.ca if any questions or issues.

Theo Jean Cuthand and Love + Numbers curator Wanda Nanibush will provide insight into the development of the exhibition, exploring Cuthand’s groundbreaking thirty-year artistic practice.

This talk will be hosted on Zoom and is free and open to the public. Registration required. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca. After registering, attendees will be provided with a Zoom link to join the talk virtually.

Theo Jean Cuthand was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1978. Since 1995 he has made experimental narrative videos and performances which have exhibited in festivals and galleries internationally, including Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, the National Gallery in Ottawa, Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, and Berlinale and Oberhausen International Kurzfilmtage in Germany. He completed a BFA in Film and Video at ECUAD, and an MA in Media Production at TMU. He is currently developing a feature film and a video game, and is the current Indigenous-Artist-In-Residence at Western University. He is a trans man who uses He/Him pronouns. He is Plains Cree and Scots, and resides in Toronto. 

Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinaabe-kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer from Beausoleil First Nation, Canada. Based in Toronto, Nanibush is the founding director of aabaakwad, an international yearly gathering of over 80 Indigenous curators, writers and artists for talks and performances that last took place at Venice Biennale and is in Toronto Dec 5-7, 2024. She recently won the Toronto Book Award for her co-authored book Moving the Museum which chronicles some of her groundbreaking work at the Art Gallery of Ontario as the Inaugural curator of Indigenous Art. She has curated survey, group, and retrospective exhibitions including: Robert Houle, Red is Beautiful (NMAI, Smithsonian, Washington); Rebecca Belmore, Facing the Monumental (Canada and the U.S), and Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971 - 1989 (AGO). She will be the Helen Frankenthaler Visiting Professor in Curating in the Ph.D. Program in Art History at CUNY in the Graduate Department of Art History in 2025. She is also part of the curatorial team for Counterpublic 2026, St.Louis’ Triennial. She received her M.A. in Visual Studies from University of Toronto where she has also taught graduate courses. She is Adjunct Faculty at York University. Nanibush has published widely on Indigenous art, politics, history, feminism and sexuality.