Tom Wilson, Buffalo, 2026
Tom Wilson Tehohàhake is a multidisciplinary artist working as a painter, writer, and musician who has received acclaim in all three of his artistic vocations. In 2015, Wilson had an encounter with a stranger that altered the course of his life and career. He learned that he was adopted and that his birth mother was Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve outside of Montreal. Since this discovery, Wilson has used painting and writing to reconnect with his identity and explore themes of resilience and survival. In 2017, he released his bestselling autobiography, Beautiful Scars. Excerpts from his writings often appear in his paintings.
Wilson has been painting for over 30 years. The subjects of his paintings—animals and a striking figure with blue eyes—appear to him as he recounts dreams from his childhood. They can also be attributed to “blood memory," a concept where ancestral wisdom, experiences and trauma are inherited genetically. Many of Wilson’s vibrant and intensely detailed works represent the duality of his two lives: his upbringing and his life after discovering his Indigenous roots.
Wilson has been painting for over 30 years. The subjects of his paintings—animals and a striking figure with blue eyes—appear to him as he recounts dreams from his childhood. They can also be attributed to “blood memory," a concept where ancestral wisdom, experiences and trauma are inherited genetically. Many of Wilson’s vibrant and intensely detailed works represent the duality of his two lives: his upbringing and his life after discovering his Indigenous roots.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Wilson’s first museum exhibition was held in 2018 at the Art Gallery of Burlington and toured to the Grimsby Public Art Gallery in 2020. In 2025, his exhibition, Tehohàhake - The Art of Tom Wilson, opened at the Midland Cultural Centre. In 2023, Wilson was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of his multifaceted contributions to the arts, as well as for his advocacy of Indigenous communities in Canada.