b. 1942, Fort Rupert, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
First Nations Affiliation: Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl)

Website: http://www.chieftonyhunt.com

Tony Hunt is active both as an artist and hereditary chief of the Kwakiutl nation, work which he sees as intertwined. His celebrated artistic family is distinguished for keeping traditions alive during the arduous period in which the potlatch was outlawed by the Canadian government. With his father Henry, Hunt apprenticed with Mungo Martin at Royal British Columbia Museum's Thunderbird Park from 1952 to 1962. He then followed his father to the British Columbia Provincial Museum, leaving in 1970 to establish the gallery The Arts of the Raven, in Victoria, British Columbia, where he implemented an extensive apprenticeship programme. Hunt also helped pioneer non-traditional forms of silkscreen printing, but it is his remarkable carving technique which has garnered numerous international commissions for totem poles. Hunt instructs at the Kitanmax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art in Ksan, British Columbia.

R E C E N T   E X H I B I T I O N S

S E L E C T E D   C O L L E C T I O N S

Canadian Catholic Conference Art Collection, Ottawa, Ontario
Canadian Embassy, Mexico City, Mexico
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Québec
Confederation Park, Hamilton, Ontario
Department of External Affairs, Bonn, Germany
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois
Government House, Victoria, British Columbia
Hamburg Museum of Anthropology, Hamburg, Germany
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
National Museum of Japan, Osaka, Japan
Park and Tilford Gardens, North Vancouver, British Columbia
Parks Canada, Friendly Cove, British Columbia
Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario
University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC
University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia

S E L E C T E D   B I B L I O G R A P H Y

"Artist Tony Hunt started early." Calgary Herald, 15 December 1983, p. F10.

Bayless, Alan. "The big money in West Coast Native art." Financial Times of Canada 82, no.4 (28 August 1993): 4-5.

Cardinal-Schubert, Joane. "In the red." In Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation, eds. Bruce Ziff and Pratima V. Rao, 122-133. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

Duffek, Karen. "Northwest Coast Indian art from 1950 to the present." In In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art. Hull, Québec: The Museum, 1993.

Hall, Edwin, Margaret Blackman, and Vincent Rickard. Northwest Coast Indian Graphics: An Introduction to Silkscreen Prints. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1981.

Holm, Denise. "Native dozen collaborate on furniture art for U.Vic." Victoria Times-Colonist, 26 October 1993, p. B1.

Macnair, Peter, Alan Hoover, and Kevin Neary. The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art. Vancouver, British Columbia: Douglas & McIntyre, 1984. Originally published: Victoria, BC: British Columbia
Provincial Museum, 1980.

Stewart, Hillary. Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1979.

"Totem-carver preserves Native art and traditions." Calgary Herald, 28 August 1986, p. C6.

Virgo, Sean. "Decoding Tony Hunt." Canadian Art 5, no. 1 (Spring 1988): 72-79.