Lawrence Paul's traditional Native name is Yuxweluptun. He is of Cowichan / Coast Salish and Okanagan descent, and he lives on unceded, traditional and ancestral Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories.
Yuxweluptun's strategy is to document and promote change in contemporary Indigenous history in large-scale paintings (from 54.2 x 34.7cm to 233.7 x 200.7cm), using Coast Salish cosmology, Northwest Coast formal design elements, and the Western landscape tradition. His painted works explore political, environmental, and cultural issues. His personal and socio-political experiences enhance this practice of documentation.
Lawrence has had exhibitions at the Heard Museum (2023), Philbrooke Museum of Art (2023), Eiteljorg Museum (2022, Indianapolis, Indiana), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2023), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) Indigenous Art Collection (2021-2023, Sussex Courtyards in Ottawa), McMichael Canadian Art Collection (2021, Ontario), Montreal Museum of Fine Art (2020, 2021, Montreal), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2018-2020, Bentonville, Arkansas), SITE Santa Fe (2018, New Mexico), the Art Gallery of Ontario (2017, Toronto), the Vancouver Art Gallery (1997, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2020), the National Gallery of Canada (2013, 2014, Ottawa, Ontario) and the Banff Centre for the Arts (2003, Alberta). In 2016, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia mounted a major 30-year survey of his work, titled Unceded Territories.
