Tyshan Wright

Visual Artist

A “Keeper of the Heritage” of
Jamaican Maroons

— Jamaica Gleaner

Tyshan Wright, Installation view, Maroon Town exhibition, MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, 23 September 2022 to 9 December 2023. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: MSVU

Tyshan Wright, Installation view, Maroon Town exhibition, MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, 23 September 2022 to 9 December 2023. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: MSVU

Gumbe IX, 2024. Wood, deer skin, Maroon beads, cord, 30.5 x 38 x 38 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Gumbe IX, 2024. Wood, deer skin, Maroon beads, cord, 30.5 x 38 x 38 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Tyshan Wright, Installation view, Maroon Town exhibition, MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, 23 September 2022 to 9 December 2023. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: MSVU

Tyshan Wright, Installation view, Maroon Town exhibition, MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, 23 September 2022 to 9 December 2023. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: MSVU

Tyshan Wright, Installation view and durational performance, Maroon Town exhibition, MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, 23 September 2022 to 9 December 2023. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: MSVU

Tyshan Wright, Installation view and durational performance, Maroon Town exhibition, MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, 23 September 2022 to 9 December 2023. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: MSVU

Tyshan Wright, Between Slavery and Sovereignty, 2022. Wood, deer skin, Maroon beads, rope, crocus bag, pine cone, 90 x 96.5 x 38 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Tyshan Wright, Between Slavery and Sovereignty, 2022. Wood, deer skin, Maroon beads, rope, crocus bag, pine cone, 90 x 96.5 x 38 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Gumbe VII, 2024. Wood, deer skin, Maroon beads, cord, 26.7 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Gumbe VII, 2024. Wood, deer skin, Maroon beads, cord, 26.7 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Tyshan Wright, Myal II, 2022. Cow horn, crocus bag, Maroon beads, 10.8 x 29 x 8.3 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Tyshan Wright, Myal II, 2022. Cow horn, crocus bag, Maroon beads, 10.8 x 29 x 8.3 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer

Tyshan Wright, A Calling, 2021. Wood, cow horn, pine cone, 76.2 x 58.4 x 71.1 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer.

Tyshan Wright, A Calling, 2021. Wood, cow horn, pine cone, 76.2 x 58.4 x 71.1 cm. © Tyshan Wright. Photo: Steve Farmer.

Tyshan Wright, Installation view, 2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 28 October 2022 to 12 March 2023. © Tyshan Wright Photo: NGC.

Tyshan Wright, Installation view, 2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 28 October 2022 to 12 March 2023. © Tyshan Wright Photo: NGC.

“Amid discourse on the capacity of contemporary visual art practice to reconcile history with true past, Wright uses his own story and hopeful imagination to conjure beauty, curiosity, understanding and ultimately, love.”

— Laura Ritchie, Curator and 2022 Sobey Art Award Juror

Traditional Craft X Contemporary Art

Kjipuktuk (Halifax)-based artist Tyshan Wright works at the intersection of contemporary art and traditional Jamaican Maroon culture and craft. A descendant of Africans who evaded enslavement and created their own self-sustaining communities in the mountains of Jamaica in the 1600s, his work unites present with past narratives of Maroon experience in diaspora—from the Maroons’ origins in the Akan region of Ghana, to their resistance towards slavery in 17th century Jamaica, to the exile of more than 500 Maroons from Trelawny Town (a region of Jamaica’s remote Cockpit Country) to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1796, and beyond. Wright was the Atlantic region nominee shortlisted for the 2022 Sobey Art Award (Sobey Art Foundation/National Gallery of Canada). Watch the video to discover more.

“However painful and unpleasant the past, there is the possibility to create something beautiful, magical, and healing out of that pain.”

— Tyshan Wright, from The Past Informs the Future (Visual Arts News, Summer 2022 edition)