Skennen’kó:wa ken? (Do You Carry Great Peace?), Canada Pavilion, 2026 Gwangju Biennale

Melissa General, Nitewakenon (the place where I come from), 2018/2025, digital image, 57.5″ x 160″

Skennen’kó:wa ken? (Do You Carry Great Peace?)

September 5 – November 15, 2026
Lee KangHa Art Museum
2026 Gwangju Biennale, Korea

OCAD University presents the Kanien’kehá:ka-led exhibition, Skennen’kó:wa ken? (Do You Carry Great Peace?), at the Canadian Pavilion during the 2026 Gwangju Biennale, one of the world’s leading contemporary art exhibitions and Asia’s most significant biennale.

Generously sponsored by former OCAD University Board member David Binet, the exhibition is being presented at the Lee KangHa Art Museum in Gwangju, South Korea and features works by acclaimed Kanien’kehá:ka artists and OCAD U alums Shelley Niro, Melissa General and Hannah Claus from Canada.

The exhibition coincides with OCAD University’s 150th year-long celebrations, being launched in October 2026.

Curated by Ryan Rice, the exhibition brings together interdisciplinary and lens-based works, including photography, video, sculpture and installation by the artists.

The artists’ practices are grounded in Kanien’kehá:ka teachings of peace, reflected in the daily greeting from which the exhibition takes its name. This greeting, an affirmation of mutual recognition and respect, reflects a foundational value of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (People of the Longhouse), recognized as the oldest continuous democracy in the Americas, predating Western colonization.

Centering the political, cultural, and spiritual roles of Haudenosaunee women, the pavilion emphasizes rematriation—Indigenous women-led efforts to restore sacred intergenerational relationships to ancestral lands, waters, and cultural knowledge—while exploring continuity and self-governance through contemporary artistic practice.

Positioned within Gwangju’s history of democratic resistance and collective action, the exhibition fosters dialogue between Indigenous governance philosophies, Haudenosaunee worldview and global movements for justice and renewal.

The exhibition is supported by OCAD University, Onsite Gallery, the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, and presented in collaboration with the Lee KangHa Art Museum in Gwangju.

About the Curator

Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake, is a Toronto-based curator, critic, and creative consultant. With a curatorial career spanning over 35 years, he has worked across communities, museums, artist-run centres, public spaces and galleries. Rice is the executive director and curator, Indigenous Art, at OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery. He is the 2025 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Margo Bindhardt and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award. With a deep commitment to fostering and advancing Indigenous artistic expression and visibility, Rice continues to be a vital figure in the arts and culture sector, championing Indigenous perspectives and contemporary art.

About the Korean Partner Curator

Lee Sun, chief curator at the Lee KangHa Art Museum, has curated exhibitions focused on contemporary art that connects the past and the present and breaks down the boundaries of cities and nations. She served as co-curator for the Gwangju Biennale special exhibition, Maytoday: Between the Visible and the Speakable, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, and as the executive curator for the Korea-Canada Arctic Research Project, a joint international arts fund project of the Korea Arts Council in 2023-24. She also managed Canadian Pavilion exhibitions at the 14th Gwangju Biennale.

About the Artists

Shelley Niro, a member of the Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, was born in Niagara Falls, New York. A multidisciplinary artist working in painting, photography and film, her work challenges colonial narratives while celebrating the resilience, strength, and beauty of Indigenous women and Mohawk culture. Niro’s art has earned national and international recognition. She received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2017), the Scotiabank Photography Award (2017), and the Ontario Arts Foundation’s Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award (2020). She has received honorary doctorates from OCAD University, Western University and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Melissa General is Mohawk/Oneida from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is a graduate of OCAD U and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from York University. She is a multidisciplinary artist working in photography, audio, video and installation. Her practice is focused on her home territory of Six Nations and the Grand River and the concepts of memory, language and land. She is a Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Award laureate and was named as the 2018 Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award Emerging Artist laureate.

Hannah Claus is a member of Kenhtè:ke | Tyendinaga Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, who engages with memory, identity and histories through material and cultural expressions in her artistic practice. Often working within Kanien’kehá:ka frameworks, her installations and two-dimensional artworks explore ways of understanding as active and transversal concepts. She is a recipient of the Eiteljorg Fellowship (2019) and the Prix Giverny (2020). She is an associate professor in the Studio Arts Department at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke | Montreal where she holds a Concordia University Research Chair in Onkehonwené:ha (2021-2026) and is co-director of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (2024-2027).

About the Organizations

The Lee KangHa Art Museum is a first-class public art museum located in Yangnim-dong, a modern history and culture village in Gwangju. It newly opened in 2018 after remodeling the Yangnim-dong community office building as part of an urban regeneration project. The museum honours the legacy of the late artist Lee KangHa, known as the “Painter of Mt. Mudeung” and a member of the citizen militia during the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. It connects this legacy internationally and introduces contemporary art from both Korea and abroad. The museum aims to be a hub for creative activities that fosters cultural communication, empathy, and knowledge by providing citizens with diverse artistic experiences.

OCAD University, Canada’s largest and oldest art and design university, is a world-famous hub for art, design, digital media, research, innovation and creativity. Students gain employable skills and benefit from hands-on practice-based learning with access to state-of-the-art shops and studios for both traditional and digital creation. Graduates work in different sectors such as urban planning, environmental design, gaming, film, animation, publishing, illustration, visual arts and arts administration.

Land Acknowledgment

OCAD University acknowledges the ancestral territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabeg and the Huron-Wendat, who are the original owners and custodians of the land on which we live, work and create.

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Image Descriptions:
1. Person wearing flowing red robe, walking on grass in forest of trees.