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Description

Serigraph print by LesLIE (Leslie Robert Sam) titled 'Salmon Eggs', 2005. Edition: artists proof (museum remarque 1/1). Condition: excellent

Context

Presented by The Art Fund and the Esme Fairbairn Foundation. An acquisition project to build a collection of modern and contemporary work on paper from Australia, Canada and South Africa was undertaken over 2011-13 with the support of a grant under The Art Fund's RENEW programme. The collection was developed with the expert advice and generous assistance of Annie Coombes and Norman Vorano in relation to South African and Inuit artists respectively. Khadija Carroll, Anita Herle and Diana Wood Conroy also contributed to the selection process. Leslie Robert Sam (1973-) known by his artist's name LessLIE, has developed a distinctive Coast Salish graphic style that explores and extends the traditional Northwest Coast form-line design principles found on objects such as spindle-whorls and boxes. Trained in graphic arts as well as history and art history, his work references both western and indigenous artistic developments on the Northwest Coast of Canada. His print 'Salmon Eggs' symbolizes the graphic development and perpetuation of Coast Salish art. At first glance, it does not appear to be a Northwest Coast design, yet the subtle appearance of a salmon head within the eggs references its Coast Salish origin. 'Salmon Eggs' also alludes to an archaic, traditional medium utilized by First Nations of the northern Northwest Coast. In pre-contact times, a traditional paint medium for northern Northwest Coast artists was chewed salmon eggs mixed with human saliva and natural pigments (a mediational medium which has a cultural commonality with the egg tempera used by Western artists). LessLIE's artwork is rapidly gaining national and international recognition. He has participated in numerous exhibitions over the last decade and is currently preparing new material for an exhibition of contemporary Coast Salish Art at the Victoria Art Gallery.