Michel Dumont, Little Spotted One (Gidagaakoons) (2025)

Michel Dumont
Little Spotted One (Gidagaakoons)   
2025 
vintage polyurethane form, vintage 1960s wall tile, grout  
12 x 7 ½ x 16 inches
 
 
“This is a response piece in protest of American Trans erasure in law. March 4th, President Trump signed an executive order that there are only 2 genders, and is working to eliminate all DEI “woke initiatives”. The growing LGB movement repels me as I believe we
can’t sell out one group to save another. In solidarity with my wonderful trans friends, I made this piece to indicate innocence and to celebrate their very existence. This is a love letter to the trans community, to say “I see you, and I stand with you.” 
--Michel Dumont, 2025
 
 
Michel Dumont is a queer, Métis, Two-Spirit, disabled artist and trauma survivor based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He studied Visual Arts and Psychology at Lakehead University (1986 -1992).

In his words, Dumont “specializes in breathing new life into discarded vintage tile in striking mosaic pieces. I also create wearable art using packing tape, cellophane and LED lights, as well as exploration in installation art. As a survivor of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Day School, my work often explores emerging themes in anti-colonial urban indigenous and queer identities.”

Dumont has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. In 2018 he was recognized as Visual Artist of the year by Thunder Bay Arts & Heritage. He has received two residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts & Creativity (2018, 2021), an artist fellowship at the Leslie-Lohman Museum, NYC (2022), and was chosen as the 2022 Indigenous Artist in the Park, a residency at Allen Gardens, Toronto (2022).