Roy Thomas (1949-2004) - Artist Biography
Roy Thomas was born in December 29, 1949, near Pagwachuan Lake and grew up on the Longlac Reserve about 160 miles northeast of Thunder Bay. As a child he listened to his grandmother’s stories and sometimes would gently trace with his finger on her back the images that they brought to his mind. His grandparents named him Gahgahgeh (Crow) after he rescued and cared for an orphaned crow when he was a small boy. The crow monogram accompanies his signature. Thomas was among the most influential and prolific of the second generation of artists in the Woodland Art style. Norval Morrisseau, another Thunder Bay–region artist, is considered the founder of the style, which emerged in the 1960s and ’70s mainly among Ahnishinaabe artists in northwestern Ontario. Roy brought a unique vision to his work. Thomas began drawing at age 6. He attended a residential school and was 13 when his parents and grandparents were killed in a car accident. He traveled and worked odd jobs after leaving school at 15. In his youth he struggled with alcohol addiction, which he overcame. He was 16 when he met Morrisseau; both were in jail in Geraldton. Thomas watched Morrisseau, almost 20 years his senior, painting on birchbark. Thomas said he too was a painter. Morrisseau encouraged him to continue his painting; it was advice the teenager would follow. Thomas took on manual work but also focused on his art. By 1966, Thomas had his first solo exhibit at the Nightingale Gallery in Toronto. By 1977, the Pollock Gallery, also in Toronto, mounted a solo exhibit of Thomas’s work. He had annual exhibitions in that gallery until 1980. Louise Thomas met her future husband in 1985 in Alberta, where she was working for an organization that gave business assistance to provincial artists. At a dance, her friend who worked for an Edmonton rehabilitation and treatment center introduced her to Roy. Both the friend and Roy were from Longlac. After Roy and Louise married, they lived in Alberta but returned to Roy’s home area after the birth of their twin boys, Roy Jr. and Randy, in 1988. In 1997 Thomas opened his own studio, and soon Louise joined to do the business work that his art created. In 2001, Thomas was diagnosed with cancer. Through treatments, he continued painting at the studio. “Roy was just like a little kid loose in a candy store. That’s how Roy was at the studio,” Louise said. “Sometimes he would tell me, " Lovely, I feel my paintings hugging me.’” Since Roy’s passing, Louise has turned the studio into a gallery to promote the work of mainly aboriginal artists, like her son Randy and Andrew Machendagoos. Roy Thomas's life and work was highlighted in Vision Circle: The Art of Roy Thomas: A Retrospective Exhibition by the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, in 2012. SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 Vision Circle: The Art of Roy Thomas – A Retrospective, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON (traveling) 2001 Gallery Phillip, Toronto 1997 Gallery Indigena, Stratford, Ontario Mikinook Tribal Art, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 1993 Winds of Change, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario Ontario Institute to Studies in Education, Toronto, Ontario Johnson Heritage Post Gallery, Grand Marais, Minnesota Maslak-McLeod, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1990 Pow-Wow Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1989 Manfred Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1983 The Delta Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario 1982 Gallery Quan, Toronto, Ontario 1980 The Shayne Gallery, Montreal, Quebec Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1979 The Shayne Gallery, Montreal, Quebec Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1978 The Wah-Sa, Winnipeg, Manitoba Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1977 Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1974 Gallery 103, Toronto, Ontario 1970 University of Toronto, Robarts Library, Toronto, Ontario 1968 Mary J. Black Library, Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario 1967 Confederation College, Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario 1966 Nightingale Gallery, Toronto, Ontario GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2000 Keeping and Sharing Tradition, Siverston Gallery, Suluth, MN Sprits of Woodland Art, Siverston Gallery, Johnson Heritage Post, Grand Marais, MN 1996 Framing Experience, Thunder Bay, Ontario Whetung Gallery, Curve Lake First Nations, Ontario Siverstone Gallery, Duluth, MN The Art of the Ahishnawbek; Three Perspective, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario 1995 Geronimo’s Studio, Munich, Germany Assiniboia Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Maslak-McLeod Canadian Art, Toronto, Ontario Gallery Indigena, Stratford, Ontario Siverston Gallery, Grand Marais, MN Siverston Gallery, Duluth, MN 1994 Maslak-McLeod, Santa Fe, New Mexico Native Awareness Week (Ontario Hydro), Toronto, Ontario Firewood, Thunder Bay, Ontario Gallery Indigena, Stratford, Ontario 1993 Art in the Park, Thunder Bay, Ontario Undianische Kunstler Aus’Kanada, Galerie im Alten Kloster, “Anishnabe Art”, Universitatbibliothek Osnabruk, Alte Munse/Kamp, Native Awareness Week (Ontario Hydro), Toronto, Ontario 1993 Gallery Indigena, Stratford, Ontario Whisperings of Rainbow Song, Bahai Centre, Toronto, Ontario 1992 International Pow-Wow Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1991 Mizinatik, Pow-Wow Gallery, Toronto, Ontario Mizinatik, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario 1990 Touchstone Art Gallery, Hong Kong Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong New World Hotels, Ramada, Hong Kong Nigel Cameron, Hong Kong Land Corporation, Hong Kong Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong Definitely Superior, Thunder Bay, Ontario Kaikan Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Kabutoya Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Japan Art Publishing Incorporated, Tokyo, Japan International Festival of Native Art, Calgary, Alberta 1989 Woodlands Contemporary Art of the Ashishnabe, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario, International Tour 1987 International Child Welfare Conference, Calgary, Alberta Manu-Life Palce, Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton “Supporting the Lubicons”, Calgary, Alberta Celebration of Canadian Contemporary Native Art, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California 1986 Cameo Trade Show, Edmonton, Alberta Manu-Life Place, Edmonton, Alberta Oil Sands Museum, Fort McMurray, Alberta Native Business Summit, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto 1985 The Birchbark Sings, Centennial Gallery, Oakville, Ontario 1984 Norval Morrisseau and the Emergency of Imagemakers, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Provincial Tour 1983 Indian Art ’83, Woodland Cultural Educational Centre, Brantford, Ontario Last Camp, First Song. Indian Art from the ROM, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario 1982 The Second National Native Art Auction, Native Canadian Centre Gallery of Qu’an, Toronto, Ontario 1980 Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1979 Kinder des Nanabush, Hamburg, West Germany 1978 Nicholas Gallery, Toronto, Ontario Morrisseau/Thomas/Odjig, Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1977 Contemporary Native Arts of Canada, Museum of History, Ottawa, ON 1976 Contemporary Native Arts of Canada-The Woodland Indians, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada House Art Gallery, London, England, Aula Luisen Schule, Lahr, West Germany 1975 Contemporary Arts of Ontario, Centennial Gallery, Oakville, Ontario 1974 Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario 1967 Oakville Centre, Oakville, Ontario PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Alexander Educational Centre, Morinville, Alberta Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario Business Assistance for Native Albertans, Edmonton, Alberta Citicorps Canada, Toronto, Ontario Crown Life Insurance Company, Toronto, Ontario Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta Ermineskin Band, Hobbema, Alberta Esso Resources, Edmonton, Alberta Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ottawa, Canada Imperial Oil Collection, Toronto, Ontario Indian Art Centre, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Hull, Quebec Kewasin Casinos, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan Lakehead University, Health Sciences Resource Building, Thunder Bay, Ontario Lake Superior First Nation Trust Fund, Thunder Bay, Ontario Longlac #54 and Ginoogaming First Nations School, Thunder Bay, Ontario Mahmowenchike Family Development Centre of Thunder Bay Inc., Thunder Bay McMichael Canadian Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, Thunder Bay, Ontario Museum of Man and Nature, Winnipeg, Manitoba Nakoda Institute, Morely, Alberta National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Nigent Enterprises Incorporated, Thunder Bay, Ontario Ontario Hydro, Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Branch, Toronto, Ontario Peace Hills Trust, Edmonton, Alberta Primeau School, Morinville, Alberta Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario Sawridge First Nations, Slave Lake, Alberta Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario Thunder Bay Charity Casino, Thunder Bay, Ontario Thunder Bay Public Library, Thunder Bay, Ontario University of British Columbia, Fine Arts Department, Vancouver, British Columbia University of Regina, Department of Social Work, Regina, Saskatchewan Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia Whitesand First Nation, Armstrong, Ontario Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIONS Inuit Gallery, Manheim, West Germany National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan Turtle Art Gallery, Niagara Falls, New York
On viewing his work displayed in the AGO exhibition "Norval Morrisseau and the Image Makers" in 1985: "I walked into the AGO and it was a rainbow of colours. On the right there were six huge pieces by Norval Morrisseau. On the left there were six wonderful pieces by Daphne Odjig and in the center, there were my six pieces. I don't know who did the installation but when I walked in there and saw my paintings placed between the two of them I felt a lump in my throat. I always wondered if I would have a chance to show in the same gallery as Daphne and Norval. It was the answer to one of my dreams. The show was amazing. It was such an honour to be in a show with so many people I admired and cherished. Blake Debassige wore a handsome grey tuxedo. Saul Williams was there from Round Lake. Everywhere there were waiters pouring Seven-Up and handing out Benson & Hedges cigarettes. A three-piece band with a harp was playing music. Dressed up people everywhere. I lost Daphne in the crowd, then I noticed her up in the gallery and I went up there to see her. She told me she didn't care for this kind of thing. I looked down at all the people socializing and talking about the paintings. I felt very proud." — Roy Thomas
