THE PROVENANCE 
Academic Demeanor & Ancestral Lineage

JOSY THOMAS

Onondaga Nation, Wolf Clan
Born: Ohsweken, Ontario | Lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia

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INHERITED LINEAGE & CULTURAL APPOINTMENT

• Faithkeeper, Onondaga Longhouse Traditional Leadership (Succeeded Chief Jacob E. Thomas)

ACADEMIC FOUNDATIONS & LINEAL APPRENTICESHIP

• 2006 | MA (Fine Arts), OCAD University, Toronto, ON

• 1989–1998 | Classical Apprenticeship under Chief Jacob E. Thomas, Trent University, ON

SELECTED INSTITUTIONAL & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

• The Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.

• The Metropolitan Museum, Permanent Archive, Chicago, IL

• The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, ON

• The Natural History Museum / Musée d'Histoire Naturelle, Montreal, QC

• The Canadian Canoe Museum, Permanent Collection (Two Traditional Birch Bark Vessels), Peterborough, ON

NOTABLE PRIVATE COLLECTIONS & HERITAGE TRUSTS

Works are held in prominent international private collections, estates, and foundations, including:

• The Jolie-Pitt Collection

• The Keanu Reeves Collection

• The Morgan Freeman Archive

• The Mick Jagger Art Trust

• The Estate of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

• The Estate of Senator Murray Sinclair

• The Collection of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• 2021–2022 | L’Esprit tortueux / Twisted Spirit, Musée Maison Amérindienne, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC (Traveling institutional exhibition to Leslie Grove Gallery, Toronto, ON)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & CURATED PRESENTATIONS

• 2025 | Heard Museum Guild Native Exposition, Phoenix, AZ

• 2025 | The Autry Contemporary Native Presentation, Los Angeles, CA

• 2023–2024 | Reno Tahoe International Art Show, Reno, NV

• 2023 | Elders: Our Connection to the Ancestors, Alton Mill Arts Centre, Alton, ON

• 2023 | Our Story: Past & Present, Museum of Dufferin, Mulmur, ON

• 2018 | The Autry Invitational Masters Presentation, Los Angeles, CA

• 2018 | Woodland Cultural Centre Invitational, Brantford, ON

• 2018 | Red Earth Native American Cultural Presentation, Oklahoma City, OK

• 2018 | Reconciliation Art Exhibition, Maison de Poivre, Picton, ON

• 2017 | Woodland Cultural Centre Native Art Survey, Brantford, ON

• 2017 | Artesian Fine Arts Festival, Sulphur, OK

CIVIC, CORPORATE & ARCHITECTURAL COMMISSIONS

• 2025–2026 | The Johnny Depp Atrium Architectural Commission, Global Design Finalist

• 2025 | Relief Sculpted Architectural Portals, South Niagara Hospital, Niagara, ON (Civic Commission)

• 2025 | Public Spatial Installation, Durham County Architectural Bureau, Toronto, ON (Civic Commission)

• 2024 | Permanent Site-Specific Sculpture Commission, Colle di Covignano, Italy

• 2023–2024 | Corporate Masterwork Series (Sculptural Installations), Telus Communications Corporate Collection

• 2023 | Haudenosaunee Monumental Narrative Installation, Seneca Niagara Resort, Niagara Falls, NY

• 2023 | Ishkwanidiwin: Strength, Resilience & Resistance, Specialized Vessel Fabrication

• 2023 | The Pioneer Village Historical Vessel Build, Toronto, ON

• 2021–2022 | One Dish, One Spoon (Suite I), Commissioned Polyptych Painting Cycle

• 2020 | One Dish, One Spoon (Suite II), Commissioned Polyptych Painting Cycle

• 2017 | Site-Specific Structural Panel Commissions, Oklahoma Corporate Infrastructure Corridors

• 2015 | Architectural Relief Sculptures, Pioneer Log Homes / HGTV Feature

• 2015 | Pan Am Games Legacy Monumental Installation, Toronto, ON

• 2011–2015 | The Oneida Spirit Vessel, Community Archival Monumental Build

MONUMENTAL FABRICATIONS & HISTORICAL REPRODUCTIONS

• Call of the Bison, Brookgreen Gardens Museum, Murrells Inlet, SC (Architectural high-density structural polymer installation)

• Indian and Eagle, Brookgreen Gardens Museum, Murrells Inlet, SC (Monumental formal synthesis of C. Paul Jennewein’s historic 1929 geometries)

• Three Bears, Brookgreen Gardens Museum, Murrells Inlet, SC (Scale expansion and fabrication of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s landmark masterwork)

INSTITUTIONAL RESIDENCIES & MEDIA ENGAGEMENTS

• 2024 | The Guardians of the Silent Canopy, Curated Asset Presentation & Philanthropic Gala, Munich, Germany

• 2024 | International Artist-in-Residence (28-Day), Mersch, Luxembourg

• 2023 | Master Sculptor Collaborative Project with Chief Jimmy Joseph, British Columbia

• 2022 | International Artist-in-Residence (63-Day), Colle di Covignano, Italy

• 2020 | Literary Illustrator, Owl Publishing Portfolio

• 2020 | Principal Host, Notre Culture et Notre Histoire (Cultural Media Archive)

• 2019 | Featured Master Sculptor, National Geographic Documentaries: The Story of God with Morgan Freeman

• 2019 | Cultural Architecture Consultant & Master Builder, Merchants of the Wild, APTN Broadcast

• 2019 | Cinematic Project Consultant, Kick Start Arts, Toronto, ON

• 2017 | Artist-in-Residence, The Dodem Project, Springwater Provincial Park, ON

PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE & CULTURAL ADVISORSHIPS

• 2023–2025 | Lead Cultural Advisor & Conceptual Architect, The Seven Generations Civic Public Art Project, Langton, ON

• 2023 | Strategic Cultural Advisor, Camp Raven, Canadian Armed Forces

• 2021–2022 | Director, Global Synchronous Wampum Weaving Seminars

• 2021–2022 | Curriculum Architect, Art of Turtle Island Academic Program (French-Language Medium)

• 2015–2019 | Master Vessel Fabrication Practicums, Delivered to regional secondary institutions and tribal councils internationally, including: Fletcher’s Meadow (Brampton), Oneida Nation (Green Bay, WI), École Secondaire Catholique Sainte-Famille (Mississauga), 3rd Canadian Rangers Group (Camp Loon), Simcoe County District School Board, and the Vision Quest Project.

DISTINGUISHED HONORS & LECTURES

• 2025 | Invited Sculptor, Alaska World Ice Art Exhibition, Fairbanks, AK

• 2024 | Laureate (3rd Place), Sapporo International Snow Architecture Exhibition, Japan

• 2023 | World Champion Laureate (1st Place), World Ice Sculpting Exposition, Alaska, USA

• 2018 | Featured Speaker, "The Red Chair," TEDx Platform

• 2015 | Keynote Presenter, The Great Canoe Symposium

• 2015 | Demonstrating Master Artist, Pan Am International Games, Toronto, ON

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Josy Thomas

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Onondaga Nation, Wolf Clan

Josy Thomas (b. Ohsweken, Ontario; lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia) is a contemporary master sculptor whose brutalist, high-concept visual practice interrogates the profound structural friction between sovereign Indigenous cosmologies and Western geopolitical architectures. Operating as a Faithkeeper for the Onondaga Longhouse, Thomas carries a lifelong spiritual responsibility that directly informs the conceptual gravity, historical memory, and monumental scale of his oeuvre.

Rather than engaging in historical pastiche, Thomas employs raw stone, native wood, and experimental multi-medium fabrications to confront the dualistic traumas, systemic displacements, and existential realities of 21st-century Indigenous sovereignty. His practice has established a highly exclusive international secondary market, with landmark masterworks preserved within elite public institutions globally.

Key museum holdings include the permanent collection of curated pieces in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.), The Metropolitan Museum (Chicago portfolio archive), the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle (Montreal) and The Canadian Canoe Museum (Peterborough, ON), which houses two of his masterfully constructed traditional birch bark vessels. Concurrently, his sculptures are preserved within prominent international private trusts, including the collections of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Mick Jagger, the estate of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the estate of Senator Murray Sinclair, and the official collection of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.

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Thomas holds a Master of Arts in Fine Arts from OCAD University, synthesising Western critical theory with a rigorous, decade-long traditional apprenticeship under his grandfather, the legendary traditional orator and Grand Chief, Jacob E. Thomas. This dual mastery positions his work uniquely at the global vanguard of contemporary curation and ancestral authority. Beyond his personal studio production, Thomas is a premier master fabricator for monumental civic spaces; he was the executing sculptor contracted to physically translate and scale the monumental outdoor public installations Call of the Bison, C. Paul Jennewein’s Indian and Eagle, and Anna Hyatt Huntington's landmark Three Bears for the permanent collection of Brookgreen Gardens (South Carolina).

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Artistic Philosophy: The Twisted Spirit & Conceptual Materialism

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At the forefront of North American contemporary sculpture, Thomas rejects the colonial categorization and commodification of Indigenous material culture. His studio practice functions as an ongoing architectural and psychological case study in spatial displacement. The celebrated Twisted Spirit series serves as an uncompromising, first-person critique of institutional erasure, replacing passive cultural exhibition with a tense, physical confrontation.

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By intentionally juxtaposing conflicting aesthetics—such as the fluid, ancient geometries of traditional Haudenosaunee cosmology against harsh, fractured brutalist cuts—Thomas materializes the existential fatigue of navigating the divergence between la voie traditionnelle autochtone and the Western apparatus. Thomas defines his methodology as an intensive, medium-led dialogue where the inherent stresses, seismic faults, and mineral memory of the stone dictate the final structural truth—a process of radical ontological subtraction.

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Artist’s Vision

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"My practice is neither an attempt to preserve history, nor the production of cultural artifacts. It is an active, ongoing interrogation of architectural and psychological friction. As a Faithkeeper for the Onondaga Longhouse, my work is anchored in a lifelong spiritual sovereignty, yet my lived reality is a constant negotiation with the modern Western framework.

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To exist as an Indigenous person in the 21st century is to occupy two distinct traces simultaneously—la voie traditionnelle autochtone ainsi que la voie du monde occidental. My work materializes the profound existential exhaustion, and the fierce resilience, born from that duality. Through the process of subtraction, I engage in an intensive dialogue with raw stone, native wood, and experimental multi-medium elements. I do not force an arbitrary form upon the material; instead, I listen to its inherent structural stresses, allowing the natural fissures and geological memory of the stone to dictate the final truth.

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By juxtaposing the fluid, ancient geometries of traditional Haudenosaunee cosmology against harsh, fractured brutalist cuts, I create a stark, first-person critique of institutional displacement. I disrupt systemic space not by looking backward, but by forcing a real, raw, and necessary confrontation regarding the geopolitical realities of modern identity.

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This philosophy directly dictated my approach to The People's Artist Architectural Commission Competition. For an exhibition of that magnitude, my intent was to challenge the public atrium space. I designed a structural ecosystem where ancient, unyielding geometries visually rupture the sterile linearity of modern Western design. Advancing to the global quarter-finals among hundreds of thousands of international entries was not a pursuit of individual validation; it was a calculated insertion of sovereign Haudenosaunee spatial authority into the absolute center of contemporary global architecture. True art cannot be passive. Whether carving an unyielding block of granite or executing a monumental public installation, my objective remains absolute: to challenge systemic complacency and force mainstream institutions to confront an uncompromised Indigenous future."

— Josy Thomas