Nicholas Galanin (b. 1979, Sitka, Alaska) is a Tlingit and Unangax̂ artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, video, performance, and music. His work critically examines cultural erasure, representation, and survival, often addressing the intersections of Indigenous traditions and contemporary art. Galanin’s practice challenges colonial frameworks and reclaims Indigenous narratives, creating works that resonate both aesthetically and politically.

I don’t think it was supposed to go like this (in memoriam) is a bronze cast taken from a commercially produced, Indonesian copy of a Lingít totem that had been cut apart and piled like firewood. Galanin turns that object into a memorial for coastal Northwest poles felled and burned during waves of Russian, European, and Euro-American colonization. The piece underscores how Indigenous cultural forms were displaced while counterfeits circulated for profit, aided by access to inexpensive overseas labor. The title nods to Galanin’s series I think it goes like this, in which painted and splintered totem sections imply they might be put back together. Here, the fragments are fixed—welded into place—insisting on remembrance and rejecting any sense that this outcome was inevitable.

Galanin’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Whitney Biennial (2019), the Sydney Biennale (2020), and the Venice Biennale (2022). His pieces are held in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Gallery of Ontario; and the National Gallery of Canada. He is recognized as one of the most important contemporary Indigenous voices in global art today.