The Art Gallery of Ontario has awarded the $75,000 Gershon Iskowitz Prize to first nations artist Faye HeavyShield.

The 69-year old artist is a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy from the Blood Nation in southern Alberta.

As part of the prize, she will have a solo exhibition next year at the Toronto gallery.

The annual award recognizes an artist who has made outstanding contribution to Canadian visual arts.  HeavySheild says she takes inspiration from her ancestors’ traditional ways of life to explore themes of family, home and connection to the land.

Her work has been featured in galleries across Canada and makes up part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg and the Alberta Foundation of Art.