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Heffel is proud to announce that Barry Ace’s iconic Fox Tail Moccasins (mixed media, 2016) has been acquired by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The recent acquisition by the renowned institution in Kleinburg, Ontario, is testament to the importance and appreciation of Barry Ace’s talent and body of work.

Fox Tail Moccasins will also be featured in forthcoming traveling exhibitions in the United States:

• IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, The Art of Indigenous Fashion, August 19, 2022 – January 8, 2023

• Touring with the exhibition Early Days: Indigenous Art at the McMichael, organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, in 2023 and 2024. . International tour: Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, Sept 1, 2023 to Jan 2, 2024; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM, January 27 – April 21, 2024; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, May 24 – September 2, 2024.

To view additional works by Barry Ace currently available for private sale at Heffel, please click here.

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is the largest publicly funded art gallery in Canada that focuses exclusively on Canadian and Indigenous art, both historical and contemporary. The permanent collection consists of over 6,500 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and contemporary artists who have contributed to the development of the art of Canada.

In early 2013, while studying the work of 19^th century Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), Ace was inspired by an aquatint engraving that depicted trail-duster moccasins of the northern plains and upper Missouri River. Ace came across a beautifully rendered hand-coloured aquatint of two Mandan warriors in full regalia entitled Sih-Chida (Yellow Feather) and Mahchsi-Karehde (Flying War Eagle) (1833).

In 2014, Ace was gifted a vintage pair of Fluevog classic “Swordfish” boots that would become the basis for his direct contemporary response Bodmer’s depiction of the moccasins worn by Sih-Chida (Yellow Feather) in Nigik Makazinan (Otter Moccasins). In 2017, the National Gallery of Canada acquired Nigik Makizinan (Otter Moccasins) (2014) for their permanent collection. In 2016, Ace responded to the second pair of moccasins worn by Mahchsi-Karehde (Flying War Eagle) depicted in Bodmer’s aquatint with the creation of Fox Tail Moccasins (2016). Both works are now placed in two important Canadian fine art public collections.

For more information on Ace’s trail duster moccasins:

ACE’S OTTER AND FOX MOCCASIN WORK INSPIRED BY AQUATINT OF 19TH CENTURY SWISS ARTIST

ACE INTERVIEWED FOR ZURICH EXHIBITION ON ARTIST KARL BODMER

ACE’S OTTER TAIL MOCASSINS IN ÀBADAKONE AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA