Aubyn O’Grady is an artist, researcher, and educator based in Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Territory, Dawson City, Yukon. Aubyn is the current Chair of the Yukon School of Visual Arts. Her doctoral dissertation, Storying the Yukon School of Visual Arts with a Mediate-Ore (University of Toronto, 2023), produced the first critical history of a northern Canadian art school and has informed curricular shifts toward Indigenous worldviews and land-based pedagogy. Aubyn’s research-creation practice examines artist-led schools, extractive landscapes, and the ethics of site-specific and land-based artmaking in northern contexts. As co-lead of The Willow Basket Project, she has helped develop “creative remediation” as a framework for placer mining reclamation, a model now shaping regional conversations around mining policy, design, and public art. Collaboration is central to her practice. Her art practice requires frequent and enthusiastic collaborations, and the Dawson City League of Lady Wrestlers (2013–2017), became a nationally recognised performance project. Aubyn was the winner of the 2025 Yukon Arts Prize.
Cover image by Michael MacLean