The late designer of one of three “Aboriginal Art” Christmas stamps, issued by Canada Post in November 2002, will be honoured in a Northern Ontario museum exhibit this fall.
The Timber Village Museum Art Gallery in Blind River, Ont., is set to honour local Ojibwa artist Cecil Youngfox sometime this fall, when he would have celebrated his 80th birthday. Born in Blind River to Ojibwa and Métis parents, Youngfox attended a theological college in Alberta before opening an art studio in Toronto.
Before his untimely death in 1987 at age 45, Youngfox’s paintings highlighted “his Metis heritage and his Christian upbringing,” Canada Post quoted an Ojibwa gallery as saying, adding his works “often recall ceremonies and symbols of spirit and spirituality.” After his death, some of Youngfox’s paintings were left to the Municipality of Blind River while others were donated throughout the community, including to the city’s public library.
This fall, his work will be displayed at the Timber Village Museum Art Gallery, which focuses on “ items of historical relevance to the industries and social histories of Blind River and immediate areas of the North Shore from Spanish to Dean Lake,” according to its website.