Chris Hanoski

My works are the engagement, exploration and celebration of stolen institutions, cultural practices and lost knowledge. They reflect my personal engagement as a Canadian with a diverse background; often conflicted between opposing cultural values. They explore the basis for political power within the nations of the Haudenosaunee. They celebrate personal discovery of lost, stolen or destroyed culture, by elevating icons of Haudenosaunee culture through the technology specific to the traditions of European or colonial nations.
My current work is a series of paintings that celebrate and bestow a degree of heroism to the clan totems of the Six Nations. The clan totems represent both the basis for spiritual as well as secular belief within the culture of the Longhouse. They are a people whose violent past impelled them to create the world’s first representative democracy – the model for present day federalism.
When Europeans first encountered the Haudenosaunee their minds were set free. It was the first time they had encountered freedom, democracy, or sexual equality. Here was a great nation yet there were no prisons or courts. And briefly, these people were happy. It was a state of mind encountered by Europeans ...

Education 1991- 1994 The Ontario College of Art
Drawing and Painting

2003 – April 2005 The Ontario College of Art and Design
BFA/Drawing and Painting
2006-Apr 2008 The University of Windsor
MFA/Drawing and Painting

Solo Exhibitions

May 2008 MFA Oral Defense Show, Mackenzie Hall. Windsor, ON.
April 2016 Cedar Ridge Creative Centre, Toronto, ON.

Group Exhibitions

1993 Sonic Garden Show, Toronto, Ontario
1993 Sonic Garden II, Toronto, Ontario
2004 The 16th Annual Aboriginal Exhibition, Transit Space, Ontario College of Art and Design
July 2005, Oh, Canada! Propeller Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.
September 2006, Fall In University of Windsor Graduate Student Exhibition, Windsor, Ontario.
January 2007, Not for Sale (Unless it’s a Good Offer), Lebel Gallery, Windsor Ontario.
April 2008, Five Fold MFA Graduate Exhibition, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario.

Juried Shows

2004 Go West OCAD Thesis Show, Bracket Gallery. Toronto, Ontario
2005 OCAD Graduate Show, OCAD, Toronto, Ontario