Alexandre Simeon Janvier

1935 -

Alex Janvier’s work reflects his connection to the land and his observations of its seasonal changes. His unique style combines traditional iconography seen in Dene quillwork and beadwork patterns with Western influences and techniques such as modernist abstraction and automatic drawing. Janvier works across mediums and is most celebrated for his large-scale oil paintings and site-specific murals.

Janvier was born in 1935 on the Le Goff Reserve of the Cold Lake First Nations, in Alberta. When he was eight, he was sent to an Indian residential school, where, against all odds, his artistic talent was noticed and encouraged. From 1953 to 1955, he was tutored in art by Carlo Altenberg. Janvier wanted to pursue his education at the Ontario College of Art and Design but was forbidden from doing so by the Indian agent on his reserve. Instead, he enrolled in art classes at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, in Calgary, where he received his BFA in 1960, and he began teaching soon after. In the early 1970s, Janvier and six other Indigenous artists founded Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., one of the first independent, self-managed artists’ collectives dedicated to promoting Indigenous art in Canada. Around this time, Janvier also decided to devote himself to painting full time. He soon received several large-scale commissions (the Morning Star mural, created in 1993 for the Canadian Museum of History, earned him the nickname “Alexangelo”), and his works have been shown in many notable group and solo shows over the years. The exhibition “Alex Janvier: Modern Indigenous Master” was organized by the National Gallery of Canada in 2016 and circulated to museums across the country. 

Janvier has received several awards and distinctions throughout his career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (known today as Indspire, 2002), the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2008), and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013). He is a Member of the Order of Canada and holds several honorary degrees from Canadian educational institutions. He still lives in Cold Lake, Alberta, where he and his family manage an art gallery.