The Akron Art Museum is presenting “Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors,” a mid-career survey of the internationally recognized Cree artist, on view April 11 through August 17, 2026. Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Denver Art Museum, the exhibition marks Akron’s distinction as the only Midwest venue on the work’s national tour, with loans from institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Monkman’s large-scale paintings reimagine the Western genre of history painting to confront colonial narratives and center Indigenous and queer perspectives often excluded from mainstream historical accounts. The survey spans more than two decades of the artist’s practice and addresses themes including climate crisis, government policies affecting Indigenous peoples, intergenerational trauma, and Two-Spirit and trans Indigenous experiences. His compositions blend lament, humor, pride, and celebration in a visual language that is at once monumental and provocative.

Monkman, a member of ocêkwi sipiy (Fisher River Cree Nation) in Treaty 5 Territory, Manitoba, employs the recurring alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle to reclaim and disrupt art historical traditions. The exhibition was curated by Léuli Eshrāghi, Curator of Indigenous Practices at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and John Lukavic, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts at the Denver Art Museum. Museum CEO Jon Fiume said the works “ask us to confront difficult truths while also creating space for reflection, humor, and resilience,” noting the significance of the show given Akron’s location on traditional Native lands.

The Akron Art Museum is located at One South High Street in downtown Akron. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 9 p.m. on Thursdays, when general admission is free to all visitors. Adult admission is $12; children 17 and under are always free.

Source: Akron Art Museum