Miss America, the latest show by Kent Monkman at Pierre François Ouellette art contemporain, is not to be missed. Monkman, famous for his works that re-write the (white) canon, has done it yet again. Monkman “indigenizes” European-Western art by taking inspiration from famous paintings and genres then ever so slightly (or sometimes overtly) changing them, remaking our perceptions of the “New World” in a variety of ways, by adding famous figures from another age, hinting at gay sex, placing Native Americans side-by-side with their European conquerors, and even inserting his own alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.

The work of honour at PFOAC this time round is Miss America. Taking inspiration from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Monkman has set out to rework the Italian artist’s ceiling cycle from the Treppenhaus Residenz at Würsburg in Germany in order to play with the racist stereotypes of today and yesterday.

Some of Monkman’s works subtly interject mislaid peoples or scenes, with the titles providing clues to what is going on. These pieces are sometimes so close to the original counterpart that curators will place a Monkman amongst eighteenth century landscape paintings (last I checked you can see this at the Musée des Beaux Arts here in Montreal). Miss America, however, is not subtle. This large painting (213 x 335 cm) is the first thing you see when you enter the gallery. In the centre are a large group of people hanging over a water’s edge. Behind them in the background are Mayan ruins, the sole clue that this is Central America. To the side two men are carrying a trunk implying pirate booty, although one is wearing tight jeans, Nike shoes and has a Fleur de Lys tattoo, not necessarily your typical Blackbeard garb. In the fray the Statue of Liberty points a yellow gun in one hand and holds an indigenous baby in the other; her dress is falling off her shoulders and there is a tattoo on her chest. To the other side a Chinese man is building a railway, a turbaned Muslim is taking pictures on his cellphone and a Native American man has his arm around a Jesuit priest.  Above them all Miss Chief Eagle Testickle sits astride a large alligator. This ambitious piece, loaded with iconic faces and familiar stereotypes, uses humour to make a serious point.

While there are many other works of Monkman’s on view at PFOAC. I won’t spoil it. Instead you should go for yourself and discover how Monkman has rewritten eighteenth century Canadian landscape painting and in turn indigenized it, turning phrases and ideas onto their heads in order to demonstrate how ludicrous they still are.

Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contamporain, space 216
Kent Monkman
Miss America
Vernissage 2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
www.pfoac.com