Untitled (Tree Study #2): Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Born in Kamloops, BC in 1957, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s artwork draws on traditional Northwest Coast designs, Coast Salish cosmology, Western landscape painting, and Surrealism to explore issues of environmentalism, land ownership, and the intersection of First Nations culture with the land, and with Canada’s non-First Nations people.

Old growth trees are a fascination for Yuxweluptun, who has expressed concern about their continued loss through logging.[1]

His images of trees have become one of his most widely recognized subjects, and one that he has returned to frequently in his paintings and drawings. His depiction of trees incorporate a unique non-conventional usage of traditional Northern Northwest Coast design elements, using abstract faces encapsulated in ovoids in place of tree branches and needles. The many faces animate the trees and connect them conceptually to the descendants of the land’s earliest inhabitants.

The present drawing Tree Study #2 is an exemplar of Yuxweluptun’s drawing style, each element integrating the highly abstract structured line-work of traditional Northwest Coast convention with a scattershot network of fine lines that the artist uses to convey depth and shadow. Both elements come together to give the viewer a uniquely Northwest Coast experience of an iconic Canadian subject.

[1] Untitled (tree study), 2017, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (Reference: 3168157), Welcome Collection, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/rtvqwfsj, accessed 15 Oct 2026.

ABOUT THE AUCTION

Highlighted by a monumental 1991 Norval Morrisseau canvas depicting an Ojibwa family and tree of knowledge, this auction also includes notable works by artists Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Alex Janvier, Daphne Odjig, Allen Sapp, Arthur Shilling, Benjamin Chee Chee, Chief Henry Speck Sr., Tim Paul, John Cross, and Ellen Neel.

View the digital catalogue.

Please contact us for more information.

On view at our Toronto gallery:

Saturday, November 14 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Sunday, November 15 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, November 16 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, November 17 from 10 am to 7 pm
Wednesday, November 18 from 10 am to 5 pm

Or by appointment.

Contact us for more information at [email protected]