The past four years have revealed the fragility of our institutions and their (in)ability(ies) to protect and nurture our communities. Through this exhibition, we offer a minor critique that distills the turbulence of the political and social turmoil that we have and continue to experience. Six artists demonstrate visual strategies that expose the violent power structures and ideologies of national and global institutions, confronting colonial, imperial, and heteropatriarchal forces.

The artistic responses deployed in Looking at Us: Examining Institutional Critique act as an interrogation of institutions, governments, and structures. Working with artists from various backgrounds, the exhibition is a form of institutional critique; investigating Indigeneity through a disparate global perspective. 

As colonized and dispossessed people working and exhibiting within institutions, our discomfort is infrequently explored. Audiences remain unchallenged and un-confronted. The institution remains comfortable and unquestioned. Institutions have a responsibility to their artists and communities to self-reflect, invite criticism and transform as a result.

Institutional transformation provides avenues for healing and resurgence. Art acts as the catalyst, imbuing inherent themes of family, community, and home–galvanizing the artist and the viewer towards collective action.