Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun (Cowichan/Syilx, b. 1957) is a Vancouver-based visual artist and activist of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) and Okanagan (Syilx) descent. Born in Kamloops, BC, he attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School as a child, but spent most of his adolescence in the Vancouver area. He documents and promotes change in contemporary Indigenous history through his paintings using Coast Salish cosmology, Northwest Coast formal design elements and the western landscape tradition. His work explores political, environmental and cultural issues and his own personal and socio-political experiences enhance this practice of documentation. Yuxweluptun has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group shows, including the Museum of Anthropology’s Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories (2016), the National Gallery of Canada’s Sakahán: International Indigenous Art (2013), and the Services Culturels de l’Ambassade du Canada’s Inherent Rights, Vision Rights: Virtual Reality Paintings and Drawings (1993). Yuxweluptun has received numerous awards, including the Vancouver Institute of the Visual Arts (VIVA) Award in 1998 and the Eitelijorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Fellowship in 2013. His paintings are held in the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Gatineau, GC), the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and the National Gallery of Canada.