Lot 7

Native Art Department International (NADI) is a collaborative long-term project created and administered by artists Maria Hupfield (Anishinaabe, Wasauksing First Nation) and Jason Lujan (Chiricahua Apache, Texas). Founded in Brooklyn in 2016 and now based in Toronto, NADI has exhibited nationally and internationally, developing a practice that spans performance, installation, painting, video, and community-based projects.

NADI seeks to circumvent easy categorization by comprising a diverse range of undertakings such as unannounced actions, curatorial projects, video screenings, paintings, collective art making, and mixed-use installations. All activities contain an undercurrent of cooperation and non-competition while at the same time functioning as emancipation from essentialism and identity-based artwork. Their work often employs humour, experimentation, and collective action to challenge conventional ideas of authorship, community, and Indigenous representation. By embracing collaboration and open-ended exchange, NADI creates spaces for dialogue that resist fixed interpretations and celebrate shared creative agency.

Their works are held in private, public, and museum collections, including Markham Public Art, the Art Gallery of Guelph, the Indigenous Art Centre (Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada), the City of Toronto, and a number of corporate collections.