ARTIST BIO

Nadya Kwandibens

Nadya Kwandibens is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is an award-winning photographer, a Canon Ambassador, and the current Photo Laureate for the City of Toronto. Nadya’s artistic practice encompasses three key bodies of work: Concrete Indians, which explores contemporary urban Indigenous identity and decolonial resistance; Red Works Outtakes, which challenges the “stoic Indian” stereotype through uplifting portraiture; and emergence, another open-call series focused on acts of decolonization and Indigenous intelligence. Her latest project, The Red Chair Sessions, emphasizes the reclamation of Indigenous spaces and languages.