Keynote: Faye HeavyShield
About this Event
We are honoured to announce Faye HeavyShield as the keynote speaker for the 2026 BUMP Urban Art Conference, taking place this August in Calgary.
One of Canada's most respected contemporary artists, HeavyShield has spent decades creating work that unfolds through intentional gestures, material sensitivity, and deep relationships to land, language, memory, and community. Through sculpture, installation, drawing, and site-responsive practice, her work invites us to slow down, pay attention, and consider the forces that shape us before they become visible.
Born in Treaty 7 Territory and a member of the Kainai Nation (Blackfoot Confederacy), HeavyShield has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally, representing Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Her practice is rooted in Blackfoot knowledge systems while engaging universal questions of care, presence, belonging, and transformation. Working with repetition, accumulation, and subtle interventions, HeavyShield reveals how meaning is built over time through sustained attention rather than spectacle.
At BUMP 2026, HeavyShield will open the conference with a keynote reflecting on this year's theme, Of Simmering, and the Surge. As we explore the unseen currents that shape culture before they erupt into public consciousness, her perspective will set the tone for the next three days.
Thursday, August 13, 2026
1:00 PM
Contemporary Calgary
701 11 St SW, Calgary, AB T2P 2C4
Free entry, RSVP required
This keynote marks a remarkable opportunity to hear from one of Canada's most significant artists. RSVP to reserve your spot.
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