Photo: Rita Taylor, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Lara Felsing is an interdisciplinary Cree Métis artist from Northern Alberta, Canada, and a registered member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. Her practice expresses the interconnectedness of all life on Earth and aims to bring awareness to the necessity of caring for the Earth and all living beings. Lara’s material practice and research are approached with ‘two-eyed seeing’, with one eye looking through a lens of Indigenous teachings and the other through a lens of Western knowledge. Traditional plant harvesting is at the core of her practice, and she gathers roots, leaves, berries, petals, spruce tips and pine needles to create compostable drawings, paintings, sculptures and blankets that speak to the necessity to honour and show gratitude for the gifts provided by Mother Earth.

Lara’s practice responds to the stories happening on the land where she lives and beyond. Her work investigates climate change, community, and kinship towards the land and more-than-humans. Lara’s practice addresses the increasing prevalence of wildfires, including sharing her experiences evacuating from her community twice in 2023. She creates an ecology of artwork that reflects the power and knowledge embedded in the land, and shares the message of acknowledging our connection to the natural world for our survival and the health of the land and more-than-human species with whom we coexist. Lara’s artwork is made with biodegradable and secondhand natural fabrics and plants harvested from the land, often combined with upcycled items from her community. She also leads eco-weaving workshops and loves getting out into the community to make baskets, rugs, and blankets from materials that might otherwise end up in the landfill.

Lara has exhibited internationally and attended residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE. Recent exhibitions include Somewhere We Have Travelled, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, what we take, what we leave, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Kinship Ecologies, solo exhibition, Art Gallery of St. Albert, St. Alberta, AB, Wildfire, The New Gallery, Calgary, AB, The Thread of the Wish, Art Gallery of Regina, Regina, SK, and Craft Perspectives, Alberta Craft Council, Calgary, AB, Woodland Gestures, two-person exhibition with David McGregor, Alberta Craft Council, Edmonton, AB, Hauntings, The Brewery Tap (University for the Creative Arts Project Space), Folkestone, UK, Touching/Reading, Malmö Artist’s Book Biennial, Victoriateatern, Malmo, SE, Too Much/Not Enough, Galerie Lewis, Quebec City, QC, The Living Library – A Pop-Up Exhibition of Eco Poetry; part of Being Human 2025 – the UK’s national festival of the Humanities, Landmark Arts Centre, Teddington, UK, and the 2025 Bemis Benefit Auction Exhibition, Omaha, NE.

Lara is grateful to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Rupertsland Institute, Native Women’s Association of Canada and Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting her practice. 

Contact: magpie3studio @ gmail.com