ADRIAN A. STIMSON is a member of the Siksika Nation, Treaty 7, Alberta.
Adrian has a BFA with distinction from the Alberta University of the Arts and MFA from the University of Saskatchewan. He has exhibited in three International Biennales, Photo Quai, Paris, France 2009, The Shoreline Dilemma, Toronto 2019 and Narin, Sydney 2020.
Adrian majored in painting, His paintings vary from abstract to realism, his bison paintings are melancholic, memorializing, political and sometimes whimsical.
His performance art looks at identity construction, specifically the hybridization of the Indian, cowboy, shaman and Two Spirit being. Buffalo Boy, The Shaman Exterminator and Lord of the Plains are reoccurring personas.
His installation work examines the residential school experience; he attended three residential schools in his life, works that speak to genocide, loss and resilience.
His public art includes; Spirit of Alliance, Saskatoon; Bison Sentinel healing gardens of the FNU Regina. Inii Bison Heart, Animals that Roam the prairie, Sweet Grass Bison, Past Present Future count in Calgary, National Monument to Canadas Mission in Afghanistan, In progress, Ottawa, From Earth to Sky in Airdrie and recently announced The Wandering Spirit, Indian Residential School Memorial, Calgary.
He was a participant in the Canadian Forces Artist Program, which sent him to Afghanistan in 2010.
Adrian was awarded the Alumi of Influence award by the University of Saskatchewan in 2020, the Governor General Award for Visual and Media Arts in 2018. REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award –Hnatyshyn Foundation 2017. He was awarded the Blackfoot Visual Arts Award in 2009, the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005 and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003.