Joel Richardson and Nyle Miigizi Johnston have been talking with each other for well over a decade. Their conversation began on a log over a stream in Toronto’s High Park. Johnston is an Anishinaabe visual storyteller and cultural director of Finding Our Power Together, a youth organization. His art incorporates teachings based on traditional knowledge. Richardson is a multidisciplinary artist and co-founder of the Metipso Portal, an experimental media lab in the highlands of central Kenya. 

Joel’s family are settlers to Turtle Island and include United Empire Loyalists who eventually settled on Nyle’s family’s traditional land. The two artists grew up only 30 miles apart on the gorgeous shores of Georgian Bay. 

Their conversations began with the blending of stories from Indigenous and settler perspectives, harnessing art and technology to stimulate dialogue, promote cultural revival and inspire collective responsibility for our environment. Merging historical facts with created narratives, this body of work includes mixed media and video components that follow the artists’ time travelling alter egos, Captain Jimmy Swann and Commander George Nadjiwon as they grapple with what it means to reconcile. 

Our mission at the Time Travel Collective (TTC) is to explore Canada’s colonial past and the pathways towards reconciliation through the lens of multidisciplinary arts and technology. 

We create dialogues that span time – connecting past, present and future – by weaving the narratives of Indigenous and Settler communities into immersive, accessible, thought-provoking experiences. Our Collective engages in this exploration by reimagining histories and possible futures with a blend of artistic expression and innovative media, fostering cultural understanding and environmental stewardship. 

The members of the TTC come from Indigenous, Settler and New Canadian backgrounds. As a Collective, we have extensive expertise in: architectural and environmental design; development of ecological, environmental and non-traditional exhibition art forms and spaces; community-based research and collaborations; land-based education; Indigenous cultural practices; Anishinaabe teachings; large-scale installation; performance; and digital technology. The members of the Collective have demonstrable experience – individually and as a group – of being able to successfully conceptualize and realize complex ground-breaking multi-dimensional projects. 

In 2024, the Collective entered into a partnership with Finding Our Power Together (FOPT). FOPT is a registered Canadian Charitable organization. It is an Indigenous non-profit organization working to support Indigenous youth across Turtle Island to gain access to the resources they seek to achieve their self-determined goals. They work as an interdisciplinary team of Indigenous and allied individuals to develop and facilitate mental health and educational programming to foster positive self-identity and leadership capacities in Indigenous young people to end preventable death and suicide in Indigenous communities. FOPT supports Indigenous young people to realize their own priorities and goals and to gain access to various supports they may benefit from. This means brokering relationships to mental health and educational service providers, fundraising for community programming or facilities or providing emergency support.

Nyle Johnston’s spirit name is Wiishkoonseh Miigizi’enh means Whistling White Headed Eagle. He grew up in Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and apprenticed with Storytellers since his youth. Sources of his artistic inspiration include woodland painters, Story Tellers and the traditions of his indigenous culture. Johnston notes: “In a time of reconciliation, it is important for all people to know that we exist and have such a strong, beautiful legacy of stories and teachings from the Anishinaabe Nation that are grounded in my experience and identity.”

A painter, mural artist, traditional storyteller and traditional helper, Johnston uses his gift of storytelling to connect his peoples’ stories of love and healing with the broader world and offer support to a range of community organizations. His work has been exhibited across many of Canada’s most important institutions, from the AGO and ROM to the Evergreen Brickworks and the Chippewas of Nawash Cultural Centre. His artistic practice is focused on illustrating stories of the Anishinaabe Nation in a variety of media in order to raise awareness of their unique histories as they in turn inform his process.

He was born and raised on his beautiful reserve, Neyaashiinigmiing, on the Saugeen Peninsula (Bruce Peninsula) and took a keen interest in painting and art at a very young age. Johnston has an established portfolio of work and is well recognized in Toronto. His original works are showcased at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in the Jennings Young gallery (J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art). Johnston’s Diiyah Muh’gaanag (Our First Family) is a collection of images of spiritual beings, plants and animals based on Anishinaabe teachings. Drawn in a pictographic style, they tell stories of botany, astrology and the interconnectedness of all living things. Johnston currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is a contributing member to the Indigenous & Canadian collection at the AGO  

Joel Richardson is a multi-media artist whose work spans over twenty years. His extensive body of art includes large scale installation, performance, re-workings of digital technology, video projections, film, portrait and mural painting. He rose to national attention in 2011 when then Toronto mayor Rob Ford erased his 150-meter–long mural of a series of suitmen and women in business attire interspersed with the extensive Black-Scholes equation. This work was commissioned by the city of Toronto. The significance of this work with the eeriness of the Black-Scholes equation and its shady application to legally manipulate the stock markets, translated into further shows in New York, Miami, Moscow and Toronto.  

His recent major projects include a large-scale multi-faceted historical exhibition in collaboration with the Tom Thomson Gallery. He is currently working with Olympic champion Matthew Birrir on the “Metipso Portal”, an international community interactive collaboration with many participants and moving parts. Richardson states: “I am interested in how false representation can shape truth; what is sacred and what is profane and how they intersect and are intertwined. This often complex relationship between the sacred and the untrue – is at the core of my art practice.” 

Virginia Eichhorn has worked in the visual arts field for over thirty years. A professor at Georgian College (Barrie Campus) teaching in the Design & Visual Arts Department and in Sports Recreation & Hospitality. She is a graduate of the Art History programme at Queen’s University and continued her studies in Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Toronto. With an emphasis on ecological, environmental and non-traditional exhibition spaces, her work as an independent curator has seen her presenting exhibitions at numerous prestigious venues including the XII Biennale of Art at Villa Nova Cerveira in Portugal. She has worked extensively with artists from across Canada and abroad, including Carl Beam, Judy Chicago, Maria Hupfield, Vessna Perunovich, Jane Ash Poitras, Jack Sures and Peter Von Tiesenhausen, developing exhibitions for high profile Canadian galleries and museums such as the Royal Ontario Museum.

In addition to curating, she has written numerous catalogue essays and has contributed articles to prominent Canadian magazines including Artichoke, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, ESPACE Sculpture and international magazines such as Ceramics Monthly and for institutions including the National Gallery of Canada, the MacKenzie Art Gallery and others.  She also has developed an art practice that is focused on alternative narratives and voices, using traditional and non-traditional art and craft forms. Her first solo exhibition The Power of the Feminine took place at the Temiskaming Art Gallery in 2023.  

Highness Global Inc. is proud to support and represent the work of artists as part of Gaganoonidiwag – They Talk to Each Other at THEMUSEUM. We invite visitors, curators, and collectors to connect with us to learn more about available works by Johnston and Richardson, explore future commissions, and collaborate on exhibitions, public art, and immersive activations.

For inquiries, acquisitions, or partnerships, please reach out directly to Highness Global Inc. at info@highnessglobal.com.