JENEEN FREI NJOOTLI
How imminent is this: love n prayers

February 23rd - March 26th

Performance by the artist / opening Thursday Feb 23, 6:00 - 8:00

FIERMAN presents how imminent is this : love n prayers, a solo exhibition by Jeneen Frei Njootli. It is the artist’s second solo show with the gallery, following NDN BURN in 2018.  Frei Njootli is a member of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation living on sovereign land in the northern Yukon Territory of Canada. The  exhibition features new sculptures, primarily wall-based, comprised of synthetic tarps, animal hides, cardboard and other packing supplies, and ricrac and beaded cultural signifiers such as earrings.  

Frei Njootli’s sculptures are rooted in the Indigenous material world, evincing the meanness and ubiquity of industrial detritus alongside the spiritual and emotional potency of the aesthetics of culturally significant regalia.  Floral imagery recurs, both in commercially sourced colorful ribbons and in flowers rendered by hand with a staple gun, mimicking beadwork. Frei Njootli imbues the assemblages with an urgency both visceral and political, as delicacy abuts roughness and personal experience cannot untangle from considerations of power, sovereignty, and colonial violence.  The informal and poetic titling of the exhibition and works reify the quotidian directness of their making, as narrative ploys and specific personal references serve as both odes and calls to action.  

Jeneen Frei Njootli (they/them, b. 1988) is a Vuntut Gwitchin artist with Czech and Dutch ancestry who lives and works in Old Crow, Yukon. They have gotten to work with many mentors and knowledge holders over the years in addition to holding an MFA from the University of British Columbia and a BFA from Emily Carr University. Invested in Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization and concerned with the production, dissemination and embodiment of images, Frei Njootli’s practice takes the forms of performance, sound, textiles, images, collaboration, workshops and feral scholarship. 

Represented by Macaulay & Co. Fine Art in Vancouver, Frei Njootli’s work has been presented in many galleries, museums and artist-run centers around the world. Some recent exhibitions include the 12th Berlin Bienniale for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2022);  Soft Water Hard Stone, the New Museum Triennial, New York (2021); Listen Up: Northern Soundscapes, Anchorage Museum (2021); Where Do We Go From Here?, The Vancouver Art Gallery (2021);  Kunstverein Braunschweig in partnership with the Contemporary Art Gallery in Germany (2021); PLATFORM centre, Winnipeg (2020);  Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2019); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2018);  FIERMAN, New York (2018). Selection of group exhibitions, biennales, and conferences include Yukon Arts Center, Whitehorse (2016-2020); The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2019-2018); Vancouver Art Gallery (2018-2016); Anchorage Museum, Alaska (2020); Gallery TPW, Toronto (2018); Toronto Bienniale of Art (2020); MOMENTA Biennale de l’image and Galerie de l’UQAM, Montréal (2019); Encuentro, Mexico City (2019); Native American & Indigenous Studies Association, Hawaii (2016); among others. In 2017 they were recognized for their work by the Vancouver Contemporary Artist Society.