Tom Wilson Tehohàhake, the Hamilton-based painter, writer, and musician appointed to the Order of Canada in 2023, has joined Nicholas Metivier Gallery, with new paintings debuting at the Dallas Art Fair April 16 to 19. Wilson has been painting for over 30 years, but his work took on an entirely new dimension after 2015, when he discovered he was adopted and that his birth mother was Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve outside Montreal. Since then, his canvases have become the primary space where he reconciles his two lives, layering vibrant, intensely detailed imagery drawn from childhood dreams and what he describes as “blood memory,” the inherited wisdom, experience, and trauma passed down through generations. “The dotted details in these paintings are a tribute to Kahnawake beadwork, to the colour and intricacy delivered by the hands of my ancestors,” Wilson says. His bestselling 2017 autobiography ‘Beautiful Scars’ established him as a compelling literary voice, and excerpts from his writing frequently appear within the paintings themselves, making each work simultaneously visual art and personal testimony.