Judy Chartrand


Judy Chartrand is a Cree artist from Manitoba, Canada. She is an artist and political activist who grew up in the Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. Her works frequently confronts issues of postcolonialism, social inequity and Indigenous knowledge expressed through the mediums of ceramics, found objects, archival photography and traditional Indigenous techniques of beadwork, moose hair tufting and quillwork.

Life and work

Chartrand is a self-taught ceramicist, she was initially inspired by the Pueblo San Ildefonso potter, Maria Martinez whose instructional videos she initially learned from. She was in her formative years influenced by trips to visit the Vancouver Museum located at the Carnegie Community Centre in downtown Vancouver where she developed an awareness of design and painting of ceramics.
Her series "If This is What You Call, ‘Being Civilized’, I’d rather go back to Being a ‘Savage’" currently exists in the private collection of contemporary art collector Bob Rennie and the permanent collection of the Surrey Art Gallery.
Works have also been collected by: Glenbow Museum, Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Her work has been included in anthologies on arts and crafts including, Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice.

Education

Chartrand studied in the Fine Arts Program at Langara College before being accepted to the Emily Carr University of Art and Design where she graduated in 1998. She continued on to finish her Masters in Fine Arts in Ceramics at the University of Regina.

Exhibitions

Charlene Vickers, Judy Chartrand : Two/many Tribulations. Vancouver, BC: Grunt Gallery, 2004 curated by Warren, Daina.