10/15/2026
Artist spotlight: KC Adams đź’«
ℹ️ Relational maker KC Adams, or Flying Overhead Eagle Woman, is of Ininew, Anishinaabe and British heritage. She is a registered member of Fisher River Cree Nation living on Treaty One Territory in Winnipeg. Adams has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University and a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies (Curatorial Practices) from the University of Winnipeg where she graduated with Highest Distinction. As a relational maker, she creates work that embeds Indigenous knowledge systems and explores relationships between technology and Indigenous culture. She works across diverse media including photography, film, traditional vessel making with locally sourced clay, VR, birchbark biting, among others. She is also an educator, activist, community member and mentor. KC has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and residencies across Canada and internationally. Adams has received several awards for her work, including the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award, Canada's Senate 150 medal, the University of Saskatchewan's Ohpinamake Prize for Indigenous Artists, and a Quill & Quire 2019 Book of the Year Award for Perception: A Photo Series, a project combatting anti-Indigenous racism. Her recent public art commissions at The Forks and Red River Polytech honour Indigenous ways of knowing and inspire Winnipeggers to pursue reconciliation. Her photo-portrait series of Indigenous youth, entitled “We Are Still Here” has been presented as a virtual exhibition with the Portrait Gallery of Canada and was shown as part of her solo exhibition “Seven Generations” at Gallery 1C03 in 2024. Several of these works are part of the University of Winnipeg art collection and are currently on view in the gallery foyer.
📷️ Featured artworks: KC Adams, Water Carrier, 2025, locally harvested clay, 20 x 24 x 24 cm. Collection of the artist. Photo by Sarah Fuller.
KC Adams, Birch Bark Technology: Gage-gajiwaan, 2020, digital print, 69.6 x 58 cm. Collection of the artist. Photo by Sarah Fuller.
See them in the current exhibit “Let Light and Truth Flourish”!
Statement from Artist’s website:
“Gage’gajiiwaan (Water flowing eternally brings people together), a solo exhibition by Cree-Ojibway artist KC Adams, reflects on the relationships between ancestral knowledge, memory and the sacredness of water. Using a variety of media, including copper, pottery and “birch bark technology,” the exhibition is a visual reminder of the knowledge bundles (traditional teachings) that are passed onto the next generation of life givers and water protectors. Mazes of digital circuit boards along swaths of birch bark reveal the dynamic relationship between nature and technology; copper and clay pottery, created using ancestral methods, reflect traditions of caring for water. The exhibition asks: How can traditional ways of being in relation with water guide relationships to water in the future? Can ancestral knowledge systems inform new technologies of caring for water in Indigenous communities? In the context of limited access to safe drinking water in too many First Nations communities, calling attention to the inherent sacredness of water is critically important. In this exhibition, KC Adams shares her ongoing personal endeavor to recall lasting pathways of blood memory and transmit knowledge of traditional relationships with water for future generations.”
Come see these artworks and many more in Gallery 1C03 current exhibition “Let Light and Truth Flourish” until November 13! The gallery is open weekdays between 12 and 4 pm.
ID: Slide 1; Water Carrier by KC Adams. A brown clay pot encircled by cedar, with floral beadwork designs on the pot. Slide 2; Birch Bark Technology: Gage-gajiwaan by KC Adams. A framed print of birchbark and circuit boards, blue beads form circles and connecting lines. Slide 3; KC Adams smiles at the camera. She has short black hair, is wearing a blue and white shirt and beaded blueberry earrings.
