Painting the Horrors of Colonialism, Kent Monkman Gets Met Spotlight

THE OBSERVER 
By RM Vaughan

Kent Monkman with one of the paintings included in his current exhibition, “Shame and Prejudice.”

Kent Monkman is having a big year. A very big year. The Canadian multimedia artist, who is of Cree First Nations heritage, is still crisscrossing North America with his touring show of paintings, “Shame and Prejudice,” a journey which will continue well into 2020, and his new works are appearing in group shows from Duke University to Des Moines. But his next project catapults Monkman into monument-maker status: think Picasso’s Guernica monumental, or Tate Turbine Hall scale. On December 19, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art will unveil mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People), a massive diptych (both 22 feet long) that will fill the Met’s Great Hall. [More]