Jordan Bennett is a Mi’kmaq visual artist from Stephenville Crossing, Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland). Jordan's ongoing practice utilizes painting, sculpture, video, installation and sound to explore land, language, the act of visiting, familial histories and challenging colonial perceptions of indigenous histories and presence with a focus on exploring Mi’kmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqamkuk. In the past 10 years Jordan has participated in over 75 group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally in venues such as the Smithsonian-National Museum of the American Indian, NYC; MAC-VAL, Paris; The Museum of Art and Design, NYC, NY; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM; Project Space Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, AUS; The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Power Plant, Toronto, ON; Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QC; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France and was one of two artists to represent Newfoundland and Labrador in the 2015 Venice Biennial at Galleria Ca’Rezzonico, Venice, Italy as part of the official Collateral Events.
He has been the recipient of several awards and honours most notably short listed for the 2018 Sobey Art Award, long listed for the 2016 and 2015 Sobey Art Award, and was a long list Sobey Art Award winner in 2020, a Hnatyshan Foundation REVEAL award and presented with the 2014 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Councils Artist of the Year. Bennett holds a BFA from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University and an MFA from The University of British Columbia, Okanagan. The artist is a 2019 recipient of the Van Houtte Masters’ Fund Program, is partnered with IOTA Studios, and has completed large-scale public art commissions including Zatzman Sportsplex (Dartmouth, NS), OCAD University (Toronto, ON), and Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton, NB). His 100-foot installation “Tepkik,” highlighted in the National Art Gallery of Canada for the 2019 exhibition “Àbadakone,” was the 2020 winner of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award.