Through an artistic practice akin to sculpture, Listuguj artist Duane Isaac creates imaginary masks that are both playful and mystical. Sometimes integrated into photographic portraits, these masks are staged in often surreal compositions, where lighting and digital manipulation accentuate the dramatic effect. Incorporating elements as dark, baroque and gaudy as they are sensitive and romantic, these masks are, in the artist's words, “opulent, clever, extravagant, unsettling, sexy and unquestionably queer.” His lens seeks a balanced relationship between body and mind, in which the masks externalize a rich inner world, populated by grotesque and seductive creatures, guided by Indigenous ways of knowing, the queer gaze, environmental angst and an apocalyptic perspective on past and future.​

Duane Isaac is an artist, sculptor and photographer from the Mi'gmaq two spirit community, living and working in Listuguj. They employ a resolutely contemporary aesthetic to pursue an identity and cultural quest for aboriginality. Duane Isaac visually re-appropriates the representational typologies of indigenous peoples in order to subvert harmful stereotypes. Their intimate portraits and staged photographs celebrate the diversity and strength of aboriginal communities. Their recent artistic practice revolves around masks, created from a know-how of superimposing different materials and transposed from one technique to another, and small prefabricated dolls that the artist personalizes, drawing inspiration from aboriginal legends and miscellaneous events. Their work has been shown at ExMuro's Projet 0° in Quebec City in 2025, at Art Mûr Gallery in Montreal for the 2022 edition of the BACA (Biennale d'art contemporain autochtone), at Capture Photo and at the Queer Festival in Vancouver in 2022.

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