Scoops 60
By Gurl 23
Fingerprint Gallery is thrilled to present Scoops 60 a solo exhibition by Gurl 23.
Scoops 60 is a culturally historic journey, where through art, Gurl 23 will shed light on the atrocities of Canada’s infamous 60s scoop and its impact on survivors like Gurl 23. The exhibit provides a space for understanding and reconciliation through the mediums of sculpture, graffiti art, canvas mixed with sewing textile & visual media.
Scoops 60 opened July 18th 2025 from 6-9pm with an opening ceremony including a grass dance performance by Gurl 23 in Leg in Boot Square.
About Gurl 23
Larissa Healy, famously known as Gurl 23, is a multitalented indigenous, two-spirited artist of Anishinabe descent. For over 35 years, Gurl 23 has achieved many artistic pursuits using elements of her Indigenous culture combined with visual & physical art ranging in mediums from 60 scoop graffiti culture, hip hop, rap, pop culture, mural art, street art and graffiti.
Gurl 23’s artwork has been exhibited across Canada at some of the most iconic galleries, including the Museum of Anthropology, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Bill Reid Gallery, the Power Plant Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada.
Gurl 23’s art demonstrates the integrity, strength, talent, and persistence of overcoming a life of being marginalized while living with a non-visual disability. These challenges have been a catalyst for Gurl 23’s use of art as the platform to bring explosive truth to a much-needed reconciliation with Canada’s historic genocide, as well as spending her time teaching and mentoring highly at-risk youth.
Limited Edition Gurl 23 x Fingerprint Gallery 1/25 Signed and Numbered Print
Size: 10” x 12” on Heavy Stock Paper
Price: $75
About:
“BOOM. The government sent me a letter during the pandemic, apologizing for the illegal apprehension, and sent us a small amount of money for compensation. The elder once said: They gave us enough money to kill ourselves. In my reality, I turned this horrific situation into a PAINTING.
In the world of graffiti, characters play a pivotal role in adding flair and expression to pieces.
For me, it was only fitting to question this particular character and push forward with this depiction. Like, WTF IS GOING ON?! The original character was called Little Hiawatha from the 1937 animated short film Silly Symphonies produced by Walt Disney. The depiction in the cartoon is extremely upsetting.
The colour blue was chosen to represent the abrupt disassociation with culture, language, and family. The black and white letters spell the word apprehension and are the first colours we see as a baby. I was apprehended as a child and immediately started to question my world, seeing the fortunes of the land and people immediately appropriated for others' gain.
Thank you for witnessing, and to all those who support.”
GURL 23
Limited Edition Gurl 23 x Fingerprint Gallery 1/25 Signed and Numbered Print
Size: 12” x 12” on Heavy Stock Paper
Price: $75
About:
“This healing painting has traveled for many years in many galleries. I have had many offers for it, but refused AT THE TIME, carrying the long-term effects of 60s Scoop suffering and the pain of the loss of family culture, language, family heirlooms, and many other emotional intentions with honesty.
This painting was executed knowing the truth of where I lived on Turtle Island, hence the green turtle in the spirit world.
One human has a bird on their body, and the second human comes from the Hida Star family, who gave me the name Little Dancing Bear in Vancouver. The two humans and spirit animals are reaching out to each other to determine and understand the trauma they share and the longing for family connection.
Only two months ago (May 18 of 2025), I learned that I am a bird clan and muskrat, which helps explain why I was called to paint this so long ago. The three birds in the center of the painting were painted many, many years ago and represent myself, my sister, and my brother who passed away. As you can see, they have always been there!
For my life, all I knew was graffiti, and what I longed for is now coming true! You are witnessing truth and reconciliation as we continue on this incredible healing timeline!”
GURL 23
Limited Edition Gurl 23 x Fingerprint Gallery 1/25 Signed and Numbered Print
Size: 12” x 12” on Heavy Stock Paper
Price: $75
About:
BOOM. The government sent me a letter during the pandemic, apologizing for the illegal apprehension, and sent us a small amount of money for compensation. The elder once said: They gave us enough money to kill ourselves. In my reality, I turned this horrific situation into a PAINTING.
In the world of graffiti, characters play a pivotal role in adding flair and expression to pieces.
For me, it was only fitting to question this particular character and push forward with this depiction. Like, WTF IS GOING ON?! The original character was called Little Hiawatha from the 1937 animated short film Silly Symphonies produced by Walt Disney. The depiction in the cartoon is extremely upsetting.
The colour blue was chosen to represent the abrupt disassociation with culture, language, and family. The black and white letters spell the word apprehension and are the first colours we see as a baby. I was apprehended as a child and immediately started to question my world, seeing the fortunes of the land and people immediately appropriated for others' gain.
Thank you for witnessing, and to all those who support.
Title: History Repeats Itself
Medium: Acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Price: Please inquire for pricing - jack@fingerprintgallery.ca
About:
“After many years of carrying this canvas, including at three youth workshops, it has over 10 years of paint layers from kids painting on it. After receiving the 60s Scoops letter during COVID, I began the healing process by studying the classic rendition of Rubens’s Massacre of the Innocents. This painting has been and still is the most difficult to wrestle with, as replacing Roman guards slaughtering women and children with them being stolen by the mounted police has been a painful process. This painting is about confronting the empires that facilitated the kidnapping of children in both Rome and Canada, and I hope it prompts viewers to take action to ensure we don’t allow these horrible historic policies to repeat themselves as history so often does.”
Gurl 23
Title: 50 Thousand
Medium: acrylic paint, markers, and upcycled foam and polyurethane
Price: $2000
About:
“The greed of genocidal policies pushed us far beyond. They stole our humanity through the apprehension of over 50 thousand native children and other acts of greed using official Canadian policy between 1960 and up to the present day. The skull represents death and our erasure from history. Where are these native people? Thrown into this grey area of history. Your viewing of this installation, experiencing the raw expression, and reading this, has started the most needed reconciliation conversation on how we can change.”
Gurl 23
Title: Apprehension
Medium: Canvas, acrylic paint, marker
Price: $4000
About:
“BOOM. The government sent me a letter during the pandemic, apologizing for the illegal apprehension, and sent us a small amount of money for compensation. The elder once said: They gave us enough money to kill ourselves. In my reality, I turned this horrific situation into a PAINTING.
In the world of graffiti, characters play a pivotal role in adding flair and expression to pieces.
For me, it was only fitting to question this particular character and push forward with this depiction. Like, WTF IS GOING ON?! The original character was called Little Hiawatha from the 1937 animated short film Silly Symphonies produced by Walt Disney. The depiction in the cartoon is extremely upsetting.
The colour blue was chosen to represent the abrupt disassociation with culture, language, and family. The black and white letters spell the word apprehension and are the first colours we see as a baby. I was apprehended as a child and immediately started to question my world, seeing the fortunes of the land and people immediately appropriated for others' gain.
Thank you for witnessing, and to all those who support.”
Gurl 23
Title: FOOD IS POISONING US
Medium: Acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Price: $10,000
About:
I was approached by the City of Vancouver to do a commissioned mural for the 150 Canada celebration. This canvas was first painted as a mural that was 30 feet tall on a wall in Vancouver, with the concept of East meets West. It took 20 days to paint and featured characters from Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Cree Anishinabe.
This canvas you see before you is a piece of the larger whole. It represents the harmful food and other cravings in our Western culture that tempt and take hold of the youth, but only lead to suffering and isolation.
The bright spirit guide emerges to help our youth come out of the many addictions we face and the trauma inflicted by Canada’s past that we now must overcome through honesty and reconciliation.
The red in the spirit guide indicates all the injuries and traumatic experiences my spirit has faced living in the real world.
Title: Life or Death
Medium: Wood, foam can, spray paint, acrylic paint, glue, plaster
Price: $2700
About:
“While working in the film industry and running an underground after-hours dance club, I found myself having to choose between a very dangerous underground life Stylz in Vancouver, and my path forward as an artist. I realized I was going in the wrong direction. The spray can was calling for a better way of life, so I made a choice to put down this unforgiving life of guns and gangs and get on with the art world. This decision brought me out of the underground culture that had long-term devastating effects of trauma on me. Thank you, creator, for our gifts. From this experience, I was able to create this sculpture as a way to remind me to keep going. It’s also a tribute to the graffiti culture, as it continues to be recognized for the amazing art form it is, and continues to gain access to new areas of creation in murals, canvas, sculpture, and my native culture. This was the path that led to my showing at the National Gallery of Canada in the Sakahàn show.”
Gurl 23
Title: THE ILLEGAL SICKNESS
Medium: recycled print, acrylic paint, markers, spray paint
Price: $2700
About:
In graffiti culture, it’s a great tribute to revamp old images into something new. This was a great find as I painted this into an image of my traditional brother and me as he pulls out the sickness from the 60s Scoop world. “SCOOP” is written on the bottom, and the spirit world is there. This was the most difficult painting to do, as facing this life experience head-on and sharing this in painting is challenging but also very healing. I’m incredibly grateful to combine many cultures, never to have been seen before until now, truth painter!
Many thanks for witnessing this process
Aka: GURLTWENTYTHREE
Traditional name: Lolita Bird
Title: SAVAGE
Medium: Acrylic paint, spray paint, and marker on upcycled canvas
Price: $1200
About:
“For years, I loved our sunsets and was always drawn to birds and muskrats. Looking back at the paintings now, I’ve learned that I’m bird Anishinabe and Cree muskrat, and so my calling to paint them before I knew this about myself makes a lot of sense.
Growing up, I always heard these comments like “savage” or other words in offensive tones said to me that I never understood. And as I now understand those not-so-nice words I heard over the decades, I realized what they meant. As you can imagine, being called those savage heathens never sat well inside of me, and so I’ve always turned to painting as a way of speaking my truth and healing away!!”
Lolita BIRD/ RATTE
Gurl 23
Title: GURLTWENTYTHREE
Medium: Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas
Price: $2700
About:
“This was the perfect size canvas to do what we in the graffiti world call a black and white throw-up or bomb. A throw-up or bomb is a graffiti lettering style that takes up to 10 years to develop. The day I painted this, I was able to EXCUTE! I’m still trying to work on my identity and continue digging deeper into the feelings of discontent. This is a clean piece of THE ART OF LETTER STYLZ.”
Gurl 23
Title: Love
Medium: Acrylic paint, spray paint, paint pen, markers on canvas.
Price: $8000
About:
“This healing painting has traveled for many years in many galleries. I have had many offers for it, but refused AT THE TIME, carrying the long-term effects of 60s Scoop suffering and the pain of the loss of family culture, language, family heirlooms, and many other emotional intentions with honesty.
This painting was executed knowing the truth of where I lived on Turtle Island, hence the green turtle in the spirit world.
One human has a bird on their body, and the second human comes from the Hida Star family, who gave me the name Little Dancing Bear in Vancouver. The two humans and spirit animals are reaching out to each other to determine and understand the trauma they share and the longing for family connection.
Only two months ago (May 18 of 2025), I learned that I am a bird clan and muskrat, which helps explain why I was called to paint this so long ago. The three birds in the center of the painting were painted many, many years ago and represent myself, my sister, and my brother who passed away. As you can see, they have always been there!
For my life, all I knew was graffiti, and what I longed for is now coming true! You are witnessing truth and reconciliation as we continue on this incredible healing timeline!”
Gurl 23
