Nico Williams, Zhi-biindiged gwaya (in foreground), 2022. Glass beads, thread, plastic, metal, river rocks, 365.7 × 365.7 × 80 cm. © Nico Williams. | Photo credit: Toni Hafkenscheid
“It fills me with immense joy to share this with Canada and the world,” says Nico Williams | Photo credit: Cory Hunlin
‘Being recognized in that space feels awesome’
Williams discovered his love for beads on Montreal’s St. Denis Street. “We walked into this bead shop, and I fell in love with the material. I grabbed a little basket and started filling it up, without any plan or prior knowledge,” he recalls. “I started beading in my backyard, and now, 10 years later, those creations are going to the National Gallery.”
Williams shares that his acceptance to the MFA Studio Arts program, based on his beadwork, was significant: “That was a moment for me — realizing things were changing within art practice and mediums.”
He notes the support shown by his advisor and 2014 Sobey Art Award recipient Nadia Myre, MFA 02, was critical. “She really helped to strengthen my practice, working with beads as a material.
“And it’s incredible just how far we’ve come, with exhibitions and the way people experience art,” says Williams. “Being recognized in that space — it feels awesome.”
Williams is one of 43 artists currently displaying their beadwork at the National Gallery of Canada as part of the historic exhibition, Radical Stitch, organized and circulated by the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
“It’s the largest beadwork exhibition that has ever been curated,” says Williams. “The impact of this will be incredible.”
Discarded, charged objects
Williams is often inspired by found objects. “We have so much material coming into our homes. People order things online and then they’re discarded,” he says. “There’s a conversation to be had there.”
Williams’s work, Zhi-biindiged gwaya (2022), highlights this throw-away culture.
“While on a visit to Ottawa, I saw these Canada and Quebec flag folding chairs on the side of the road. I took a photo and kept thinking about it,” says Williams. “Back in Montreal, I looked at that picture again and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there it is.’”
The chairs presented an opportunity to further explore the medium — even the tiny beverage holder nets are beaded — but they are also central to a discussion about colonialism.
“The chairs represent a celebration of nations,” he explains. “But they’re also excluding people, facing inwards.” Forming a giant beaded medallion, they are assembled on rocks collected from Anishinaabe territory — a reminder of the land on which these conversations take place.
Williams hopes viewers will formulate their own readings of the piece. He shared one that was especially meaningful to him, from a fellow Anishinaabe artist: “Christian Chapman noticed the rocks right away. He recognized them as representative of grandfather rocks — those that bore witness to colonialism.
“He became emotional.”
Zhi-biindiged gwaya and more of Williams’s work, will be on display at the National Gallery as of October. The exhibition of all six artists shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award will run until March 2025.
Williams and his team are currently finalizing details for the Nico Williams: Aaniin, I See Your Light exhibition that will be on display at The Brooklyn Museum until October 2024.
“Chi-miigwetch to all those who have worked in the studio — creatives from across the city, many of them Concordia MFA and undergrads,” says Williams, acknowledging Molly Chamagne, Ioana Dragomir, Virginie Fillion-Fecteau, MFA 21, Samuel Guertin, Alex Havenne, Elena Imari, Christy Kunitzky, MFA 24, Selina Latour, MFA 24, (Tata) Yuxin Liu, BFA 24, Emlyne Marchand, Hannah Materne, BFA 16, Caroline Moiny, Sonja Ratkay, Laurel H. Rennie, MFA 24, Lydia Risi, MA 22, Kuh del Rosario, MFA 24, and Aiden Thorne.