The Orillia Museum of Art & History (OMAH) is proud to present two compelling new exhibitions opening Saturday, May 30, 2026: The Many Faces of Paul Shilling Dazaunggee – Sky Buffalo: A Retrospective and Awaken The Spirits by Drake Williams. Together, these exhibitions explore identity, healing, spirit, land, and Anishinaabe visual storytelling through deeply personal and contemporary artistic practices.
Curated by acclaimed artists and arts professionals Tanya Cunnington and Bewabon Shilling, the exhibitions will run from May 30 to September 19, 2026. The public is invited to attend a special opening reception and meet the artists on Saturday, May 30 from 1 to 3 pm.
The Many Faces of Paul Shilling Dazaunggee – Sky Buffalo: A Retrospective
In this retrospective exhibition, Indigenous artist Paul Shilling explores the ongoing process of self-discovery, healing, and liberation from imposed identities and shame. His work reflects a lifelong journey of questioning, redefining, and reclaiming selfhood through painting.
“As an Indigenous man, Paul Shilling works to shed the image that was taught to him as a child — that he was undesirable, shameful, unworthy,” note the curators. “This continual redefinition, the questioning and searching, keeps his work alive and varied as he welcomes the ever-changing self.”
Through expressive imagery and emotionally charged compositions, the exhibition examines the masks people wear to conceal pain and the enduring spirit that seeks to emerge beneath them. Drawing from lived experience, spirituality, and intuition, Shilling’s paintings speak to healing, vulnerability, and transformation.
Paul Shilling attended Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario for Fine Arts in the early 1990s and is primarily self-taught, informed deeply through life experience and artistic exploration.
Awaken The Spirits – Drake Williams
In Awaken The Spirits, Anishinaabe artist Drake Williams merges anthropomorphic spirit figures, Woodlands-inspired linework, and vibrant colour palettes influenced by powwow regalia to create layered contemporary works rooted in ancestral storytelling traditions.
Williams’ paintings draw inspiration from pictographs, petroglyphs, birch bark scrolls, and sacred Anishinaabe sites such as the Mnjikaning Fish Weirs and the Teaching Rocks. His work reflects relationships between land, animals, spirit beings, and people, while continuing and reinterpreting the visual language established by earlier generations of Indigenous artists.
Born in 1995 and a member of Rama First Nation, Williams is currently based in Toronto. His practice is informed by both traditional knowledge systems and contemporary Indigenous art movements, particularly the early Woodlands movement in Ontario.
Curatorial Perspectives
Curator Tanya Cunnington, originally from Kirkland Lake and now a community member of Rama First Nation, brings extensive experience as both an exhibiting artist and arts professional. Alongside her studio practice, she has served as Owner and Director of Lee Contemporary Art and previously as Arts Programming Coordinator at OMAH.
Co-curator Bewabon Shilling is an Ojibway painter from Rama whose work has been exhibited throughout North America and Europe. His paintings are represented by Roberts Gallery in Toronto and Galerie Art et Style in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. Recently, the Art Gallery of Ontario acquired his painting Field Series – Purples for its permanent collection.
“These exhibitions create space for reflection, storytelling, healing, and cultural continuity,” said Ninette Gyorody, Executive Director of OMAH. “We are honoured to present the work of these artists and grateful to the curators for bringing together such thoughtful and powerful exhibitions that speak to identity, spirit, and lived experience.”
Admission to the opening reception is free and all are welcome.
