A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis Siblings
Curated by Lisa Deanne Smith September 2, 2026 to January 30, 2027
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 9 , 2026 5 to 7 p.m.
Returning to Ourselves presents over forty years of transformative work by Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird. The exhibition spans sculpture, painting, and traditional material practices, alongside interior design, film art direction, graphic design, and public art commissions.
Emerging from their Cree Métis histories and ways of knowing, the Bairds approach creative practice through multiple cultural perspectives, bringing together diverse forms of making grounded in lived experience, collaboration, and community-centred practice.
Click here to view the Returning to Ourselves: Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird—A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis Siblings Exhibition Publication
Image Credit: Artist: Rebecca Baird, Designers: Kenny Alvin Baird, Mike Mansor, North Star (Woodbine Casino), 2022, stainless steel, aluminum and custom powder, 15x15x2 feet. Fabrication by Eventscape Inc. Photo by Luca Dichio.
About the Artists Rebecca Baird Born 1954, Edmonton, Alberta
First Nations Affiliation: Status Cree Métis, Michel Callihoo Nation Society
As a Cree Métis (Scot/German) artist, my practice engages Indigenous histories, identity, and cultural memory through installation, sculpture, Super 8 film, painting, printmaking, and animation.
Working with materials such as sweetgrass, porcupine quills, and glass seed beads, I draw upon Indigenous knowledge systems and material traditions while engaging contemporary visual language. Through these layered processes, inherited forms become expressions of cultural continuity, relational knowledge, and self-determination.
Over several decades my work has been exhibited widely across Canada and internationally, with pieces held in significant public and private collections. Early landmark exhibitions include From Sea to Shining Sea at The Power Plant (1987) and the groundbreaking exhibition INDIGENA: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples of 500 Years (1992–1995) at the former Museum of Civilization, developed in collaboration with my sibling, artist Kenny Baird. Projects such as Cree Star Blanket (2014) and Looking Hawk and the Buffalo Nation (2016) continue this work across moving images. In 2022, the Museum of Toronto presented Punk, Creed & Cree Métis, a recording and walking tour of Queen Street West narrated by Kenny and myself, reflecting on our formative artistic experiences within Toronto’s late-1970s and early ‘80s cultural landscape.
Public artworks—The Great Mystery (1996), All My Relations (2018), Star Blanket (2019), North Star (2022), and The First Treaty Was Between the Earth and the Sky (2023)—and recent commissions for South Niagara Hospital (2024) and the George Street Revitalization Project (2025) continue to explore relationships between land, community, and collective experience.
Kenny Alvin Baird Born 1956, Kirkland Lake, Ontario
Kenny Baird is a multidisciplinary artist and designer whose work spans illustration, costume, set, interior design, and film art direction. Together with his sister, artist Rebecca Baird, he shares a history of collaborative projects exhibited at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Walter Phillips Gallery, and MOCCA.
Baird’s creative practice extends to film, music, and hospitality design. He has collaborated on projects with David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Lisa Marie Presley, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. He was a creative director at AREA (an art installation nightclub in New York City) and designed and illustrated principal character wigs for Milos Forman’s Amadeus, earning Paul Leblanc and Dick Smith an Academy Award for best makeup in 1985. He worked with Tony King on the Rolling Stones private media rooms during two major North and South American tours. He designed Madonna’s Music record release event, created costumes for the Pee-wee’s Playhouse television series, and designed and fabricated interiors for Toronto venues including the Drake Hotel, CiRCA Nightclub, INK entertainment, the Boa Café, and Cameron Public House.
Baird has received multiple Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council awards, as well as a residency scholarship at Banff Centre for the Arts. In addition to a Juno Award and nominations for several MTV and Much Music art direction awards, he was honoured with a Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017).
About the Curator
Lisa Deanne Smith is Senior Curator of Onsite Gallery at OCAD University. Her curatorial practice examines voice, embodied knowledge, non-human–centred worldviews, and the processes through which knowledge is created and shared. As part of this inquiry, Smith became a certified Forest Therapy guide, deepening her engagement with land-based learning.
Recent curatorial projects include The Sunshine Eaters, How to Breathe Forever, power, and How will we be with you? These multidisciplinary exhibitions included works by Mary Anne Barkhouse, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Shary Boyle, Nick Cave, Rocky Dobey, John Greyson, Brian Jungen, Jessica Karuhanga, Natalie King, Qavavau Manumie, Ekow Nimako, Alanis Obomsawin, Ebony G. Patterson, Rajni Perera, Pejvak, and Winnie Truong, among others.
FREE PUBLIC EVENTS
Opening Reception – Wednesday, September 09, 2026, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Join us for the launch of Returning to Ourselves: Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird—A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis Siblings + Mike Massie | now and then
Beaded Rosette Workshop with Rebecca Baird – Friday, October 16, 2026, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Discover the art of beadwork in our engaging Beaded Rosette Workshop facilitated by exhibition artist Rebecca Baird. During this hands-on, three-hour session, you'll design and create your own unique beaded rosette while learning traditional beading techniques. Each participant receives all the materials needed, including three beading needles, a piece of black cloth, and an assortment of beads to complete their project. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced beader, you'll leave with a beautiful, handcrafted piece and new skills to inspire your creativity.
In Conversation | Rebecca Baird and Kenny Baird with Lisa Deanne Smith – Saturday, October 24, 2026, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Join us for an engaging conversation and exhibition tour with artists Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird, alongside exhibition curator Lisa Deanne Smith, as they explore the stories, creative processes, and lived experiences behind Returning to Ourselves.
Spanning more than four decades of artistic practice, Returning to Ourselves showcases the transformative work of Rebecca and Kenny Alvin Baird through sculpture, painting, traditional material practices, interior design, film art direction, graphic design, and public art commissions. Together, the artists and curator will reflect on the exhibition's themes of identity, family, creativity, and Cree Métis cultural continuity, offering unique insights into the evolution of their multidisciplinary practices and the enduring impact of their work.
Visit Registration Page
Bracelet Making Workshop with Rebecca Baird – Friday, November 20, 2026, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Join exhibition artist Rebecca Baird for a hands-on 3-hour workshop where you'll design and create your own beautiful bracelet from start to finish. Perfect for beginners, this workshop provides step-by-step instruction in essential jewellery-making techniques, along with plenty of time to work at your own pace. With personalized guidance throughout the session, you'll leave with new creative skills and a handcrafted bracelet to wear, treasure, or gift.
Returning to Ourselves: Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird—A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis Siblings Curatorial Tour with Lisa Deanne Smith – Wednesday, December 02, 2026, 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Onsite Gallery, 199 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Join exhibition curator Lisa Deanne Smith for an in-depth curatorial tour of Returning to Ourselves: Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird—A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis Siblings
Past & Present: Lost in Translation – Friday, December 04, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Virtual Panel via YouTube
Join Onsite Gallery for a thought-provoking virtual panel featuring Alize Zorlutuna, Richa Narvekar, Dedra McDermott and others exploring how artists draw on cultural traditions, ancestral knowledge, and diasporic ways of knowing to shape contemporary creative practices.
The discussion will focus on how visual art, dance, design, storytelling, and material practices can reinterpret cultural knowledge while creating new relationships to memory, identity, land, material culture, and the more-than-human. The panelists will share how their practices engage with inherited traditions, not simply as forms to preserve, but as living sources for experimentation, reclamation, and new ways of understanding the present.
Stay involved with a live Q&A session, moderated by Onsite Gallery’s Programs & Community Coordinator, Susan Jama.
Onsite Gallery is Generously Supported by The Delaney Family
Location details: Onsite Gallery (RHD) 199 Richmond Street West
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