Neal McLeod

Neal McLeod – Artist Biography

Neal McLeod is a recent addition to Gallery Gevik and we are thrilled to have his work at our gallery.

Neal McLeod received his PhD from the University of Regina and is currently a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, ON. His research focuses on Cree culture and history, Canadian Indigenous Literature and Creative Writing, Western Canadian Indigenous history, Indigigenous Research Methodologies, oral history research methodologies, Indigenous political history and treaties, and Indigenous art (theory and practice).

He is half Cree (having grown up on the James Smith reserve in Saskatchewan) and half Swedish lending a fortunate opportunity to study abroad at the Swedish Art Academy at Umea. Neal has exhibited his art work throughout Canada, including the 2005 exhibition au fil de mes jours (in my lifetime) at Le Musee National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec was remounted at the Museum of Civilization in 2007. In addition to being a painter, he is also a curator: his latest proiject was as co-curator of the exhibition James Henderson: The Man who Paints the Old Men which was organized by the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Neal's first book of poetry entitled, Songs to Kill a Wîhtikow, was nominated for several Saskatchewan book awards including Book of theYyear in 2005. It was nominated for Book of the Year at the Anshkohk McNally Aboriginal LIterature Awards, and won the Poetry Book of the Year by a unanimous decision of the jurors. In 2007, he also published Cree Narrative Memory which was nominated for Book of the Year at the Anskohk McNally Aboriginal Literature Awards. In the fall of 2008, he published his second book of poetry entitled Gabriel's Beach.

He is currently editing a volume entitled Indigenous Poetics with Randy Lundy, working on a novel entitled Dreaming Blue Horses and writing another academic work entitled A History of Cree Warfare and Diplomacy. He teaches Indigenous Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, ON.