Vanessa Hyggen

Vanessa Hyggen is a Woodland Cree and Norwegian painter and bead artist from nemepith sipihk (Sucker River), in Northern Saskatchewan. Hyggen is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, currently living in Saskatoon. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan. Hyggen utilizes memory, tradition, and themes of nature in her work. The pandemic influenced Hyggen to bead four hide masks, which have been included in Breath the second wave, touring across Canada, and the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection. Her painting titled Treaty Annuity (2018) is in the Indigenous Art Collection of the Government of Canada and she has been a part of two art collaborations at the University of Saskatchewan: mÎkisak ikwa asiniyak / Beads and Stone / Lii rasaad aykway lii rosh (2019), and anoch kipasikônaw / we rise / niipawi (2020). Hyggen recently completed Beads and Stone II, a participatory art project at the University of Manitoba.