SAND LAKE CREE ARTIST CARL RAY BORN—FAMED “INDIAN GROUP OF SEVEN” ARTIST
Born on Sandy Lake First Nation (SLFN), Ontario (ON), Ray left residential school at 15 working as a trapper, logger & miner. Contracting tuberculosis, he used painting as therapy. In 1966, he became an apprentice to Ojibwe artist Norval Morrisseau adopting his Woodlands School of art style. Together, they did a mural for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo ’67. In the early ‘70s, they and fellow Woodlands artists Jackson Beardy, Alex Janvier, Daphne Odjig, Eddy Cobiness, & Joe Sanchez formed the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., AKA “The Indian Group of Seven.” Collections: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Royal ON Museum (ROM) & National Gallery of Canada. Exhibitions included: Canadian Indian Art ’74, ROM (1974); Norval Morriseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers, Art Gallery of ON (AGOO) (1984); and Before & after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes, AGOO/Nat’l Museum of the American Indian (2014). Ray died at Sioux Lookout, ON, Sept. 26, 1978.
Source: Mary E. Southcott, “Carl Ray,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1/30/2006. Retrieved 2/20/2021, Carl Ray | The Canadian Encyclopedia Photo: Padraic Ryan, 11/11/2007. Aboriginal War Veterans Monument, Ottawa, Canada. Permissive Use.
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