First Name: Stephen

Last Name: Snake

Full Name: Stephen Snake

Date of birth: 1966

Place of birth: Rama Reserve near Orillia, Ontario, Canada

Community / Heritage: Ojibwe

Sex: Male

Art Media: Acrylic, oil.

Bio:

Stephen Snake is an Ojibwe Canadian artist. He was born at the Rama Reserve near Orillia, Ontario, in 1966. Snake began to draw at an early age; his talents nurtured by his mother Carol, herself an artist. Snake’s first cousin once-removed was renowned Ojibwe artist Arthur Shilling, who mentored him and introduced him to the works of Norval Morrisseau.

After Snake’s family moved to Midland, Ontario, he continued to draw. Life in Midland was very different from life on the Reserve: Snake was to make images of grain elevators and rural life rather than traditional or symbolic images. 

In 1989, Snake held his first exhibition at The Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario. In the spring of 1991, Stephen met Norval Morrisseau, who became a great influence. In 2008, Snake painted an oil portrait of Morrisseau, which was part of an exhibition at the Maslak McLeod Gallery in Yorkville, Toronto.

Portraits of Indigenous chiefs, warriors and artists have become Snake’s signature. Notable subjects include Shilling, Richard Bedwash, Del Ashkewe, Hugh McKenzie and Floyd Kuptana. 

Snake’s work is housed in many private and public collections around the world, including the Orillia Chamber of Commerce in Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the Canadian Embassy in Hungary.

Exhibitions

• Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
• YMCA Art Auction, Orillia, Ontario, Canada
• Franklin Carmichael Tour of Galleries, Orillia, Ontario, Canada
• C’est What, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Rama Festival of Arts, Rama, Ontario, Canada
• Nimkiis Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• La Parete Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Owls Nest Gallery, Temagami, Ontario, Canada
• The Little Gallery, Haileybury, Ontario, Canada
• First Nations Cultural Art Auction, Ontario Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Gallery Louise Smith, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• ‘The Temagami 22’, The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• The Thomson Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Maslak Gallery, Toronto Ontario, Canada
• KBros Maroosis Art Centre, North Bay, Ontario, Canada

Collections

• Orillia Chamber of Commerce, Ontario, Canada
• Chippewa’s Rama Band Office, Ontario, Canada
• Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• The Canadian Embassy in Hungary

Articles

• http://artmatterstrg.blogspot.com/2009/07/artist-spotlight-summer-sizzle-with.html
• https://kmacart.net/steve-snake-bio/
• https://torontogarlicfestival.ca/stephen-snake/