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The first major exhibit to be installed at the Remai Modern opens to the public this weekend, and the art gallery is not shying away from the controversy surrounding the artist.

The lone Canadian showing of “Jimmie Durham: At the Centre of the World” will be on display at the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan from March 24 to August 5. The exhibit, a career retrospective of American artist Jimmie Durham, made its debut at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles early last year and has also been shown at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

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Photo by Michelle Berg / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

People have raised questions about Durham’s ancestry for years, and these questions have intensified since the launch of the exhibit. Though Durham self-identifies as Cherokee, he does not belong to any of the federally recognized Cherokee tribes in the United States. Some artists and scholars have expressed concern that Durham’s portrayal as a Cherokee artist is inappropriate.