Innholdsfortegnelse for April-May 2023/No. 44 i Native American Art Magazine

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART The National Gallery of Art has recently acquired an oil painting by Grand Portage Band of Chippewa artist George Morrison, expanding the institution’s collection of abstract expressionist works. Painted in 1961, the piece contributes an important voice to the collection, as this is the first work by a Native American to be placed in the NGA’s New York School holdings. Morrison is well known for both his wood collages and his brilliantly colored paintings of the late 1950s and 1960s—and this painting, Untitled, is no exception. It features saturated reds, blues, greens and ochres, as well as a highly textured style. The artist created this piece while he was in and out of New York City, between teaching positions at the Rhode Island School of Design…

1. Territorial Indian Arts & Antiques Now available at Territorial Indian Arts & Antiques are these turquoise and silver jewelry cuffs. These designs, with these amazing stones, are signatures of the Southwest. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based gallery will be at Brian Lebel’s Cody Old West Show & Auction from June 23 to 25 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Not only will jewelry be presented, but also Navajo blankets, baskets and pottery from throughout the Southwest. 7100 E. Main Street, #3 • Scottsdale, AZ 85251 • (480) 945-5432 • www.territorialindianarts.com 2. Tanner’s Indian Arts This stunning weaving, created around 1980, is now available at Tanner’s Indian Arts in Gallup, New Mexico. This 120-weft-per-inch masterpiece was homespun by celebrated Navajo weaver Julia Jumbo. All of the wool—in natural grays, blacks, whites and tans—has…

The beadwork of Ojibwe artist Jessica Leigh Gokey has as much in common with a painting as a bandolier bag. “It is more about interweaving tradition and contemporary art,” says Gokey. “I’m just trying to show the world that Native art should be looked at as more of a fine art with everyone else instead of a craft,” she says. With her piece for the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See—better known as the Vatican—Gokey is bringing the art form to the world stage. Her beadwork will be on view there for three years next to other works representing the American art canon. Traditional patterns act as a jumping-off point for the Wisconsin-based artist who also designs tattoos and commercial textiles. During the pandemic, a competitive nudge from a fellow…

A pioneering Indigenous artist, Clark Vinson Fox, Southern Cherokee, recently had a retrospective with a full-color catalog that takes a serious new look at his six-decades-long career. Influenced by his background extremes—time spent on reservations and on occupied Alcatraz followed by being part of an exclusive art club in 1970s New York City that included Andy Warhol and Larry Rivers—Fox is a fiercely independent and unique Native Americana artist. Clark V. Fox: Subversion and Spectacle ran last year at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, with more than 350 paintings and assemblage works filling the entire museum. The catalog by the same name has essays by Station Museum owner James Harithas; former curator of the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, Jane Livingston; Native American scholar Christopher Green;…

In the spring of 2022 photographer Zoe Urness turned her attention to a theme that would eventually become its own series within her work. Titled Indigenous Motherhood, the series saw the Tlingit photographer point her cameras at Indigenous mothers all around the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes they were with their babies, or even older children, and sometimes the figures were photographed alone but pregnant. Often her subjects were wearing regalia that spoke to their heritage and upbringing. Urness was connecting deeply with the subjects because she was a new mother herself. And in many cases she was shooting her subjects with her own baby, three-month-old Violet, wrapped tightly to her chest. The series was funded by an Alpha Female+ grant that Urness won in March 2022 through Sony and its Alpha…

ALBUQUERQUE, NM In the exhibition Clay Line of the Red Willow People, hosted at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, three Taos Pueblo artists come together to show cultural connection in 35 astounding creations. Visitors will see the micaceous pottery of Angie Yazzie, photography by Deborah Lujan and paintings by Brian Taaffe. “Through their artwork, these three artists represent the resilience and beauty of the Pueblo that exists today,” says IPCC head curator Paula Mirabal (Taos). “The commonality is clay, mud, the ground and the strength this holds for them as Red Willow People. The clay is the life line that runs through the images that each artist makes visible in their work and design.” Unique to the exhibition, is an underlying familial connection all the artists have to each other,…

Monica Raphael (Anishinaabe/Sicangu Lakota) started doing beadwork out of necessity. “When I was a young teenager, I was doing pow wows, and I wanted more than one outfit,” she remembers. “My mother said, ‘If you want more than one outfit, then you need to learn how to do it yourself.’ And that’s when I really started.” Though she began with beadwork, quillwork is in her DNA, as she’s preceded by four generations of quillworkers. “My grandparents and great-grandparents were all renowned quillworkers in their day,” she says. “Some of them have pieces in the Smithsonian that were made as part of the Works Progress Administration.” In the 1990s, a Woodland quillworker from Raphael’s village named Catherine Baldwin received a grant from the Smithsonian to mentor one young person and one…

George Alexander, also lovingly nicknamed “Ofuskie” for his Muscogee Creek heritage and hometown near Okfuskee County in Oklahoma, started his artistic journey like so many others—in childhood. While Alexander currently expresses himself in paint, he used drawing as an early outlet for challenging times—like his many visits to the hospital for his dad’s health condition. “My mom would often hand me copy paper and pencils to help occupy my time when waiting in the hospital,” the artist explains. “At first, I would draw my favorite cartoon characters and copy from other material. As I got older, I noticed my cousins were drawing as well and we would all sit in church and draw on the bibles or hymnals or really anything that was a piece of paper. My cousins got…

Many generations of Native American artists have passed down their techniques and artistry in popular mediums like pottery, basket making and weaving—once serving primarily functional purposes. But one could argue that even the drawing of petroglyphs on rock and animal hide centuries ago, also served a functional and creative purpose, aiding in communication and record keeping. The arrival of resources like paper, canvas, oil and acrylic paints, along with the invention of the camera, have only furthered the artistic expression and heritage of a spiritual, connected and creative people. Throughout this section, we highlight available-to-purchase artworks created in paint, paper and photography by many talented Native artists calling upon traditional ways, while often combining a fresh take. CARA ROMERO PHOTOGRAPHY Artist Cara Romero’s overarching inspiration is to “use photography to…

RENO, NV The art of Northern Paiute artist Ben Aleck captures Indigenous stories of the past—of the stars, coyotes, the formation of the Great Basin lands, the origin of its people and more. Simultaneously, his work—rendered in mediums like acrylic, ink, graphite and gouache—highlights the modern-day issues of environmental protection and water use. Opening April 1 at the Nevada Museum of Art, The Art of Ben Aleck features more than 30 of Aleck’s paintings, drawings and mixed media works. A survey of the artist’s long career, the show emphasizes the deep connections between Indigenous communities and the Great Basin. The Art of Ben Aleck also coincides with the release of a 128-page book of the same title, dedicated to Aleck’s artistic practice. “Visitors will see everything from Aleck’s high school…

TAHLEQUAH, OK Featuring the work of more than 100 Indigenous artists and representing roughly a dozen tribal nations, the 52nd annual Trail of Tears Art Show returns to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and the gallery at Cherokee Springs Plaza from April 8 to May 6. Once accepted into the juried show, artists compete for more than $15,000 in categories that include painting, sculpture, pottery, basketry, graphics, jewelry, miniatures, diverse art forms and photography/digital art. “One of my favorite things about this art show is the miniature category,” says Cherokee Nation Businesses' cultural and events project manager, Callie Chunestudy. “Artists have submitted the tiniest paintings, baskets, pottery and sculptures that showcase the finest detail. It’s remarkable what they can do at such a small scale. Also, our diverse category is known to bring…

ONGOING ALBUQUERQUE, NM Indigenous Art, Culture, and Community Albuquerque Museum (505) 243-7255 www.cabq.gov ONGOING ST. LOUIS, MO Faye HeavyShield Pulitzer Arts Foundation (314) 754-1850 www.pulitzerarts.org ONGOING TUCSON, AZ Enduring Legacies: The James T. Bialac Indigenous Art Collection Tucson Museum of Art (520) 624-2333 www.tucsonmuseumofart.org ONGOING PHOENIX, AZ He`e Nalu: The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing Heard Museum (602) 252-8840 www.heard.org ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Here, Now and Always Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (505) 476-1269 www.indianartsandculture.org THROUGH APRIL 1 SANTA FE, NM  ReVOlution Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (505) 476-1269 www.indianartsandculture.org APRIL 1-OCTOBER 29 RENO, NV The Art of Ben Aleck  Nevada Museum of Art (775) 329-3333 www.nevadaart.org THROUGH APRIL 3 FLAGSTAFF, AZ Baje Whitethorne Sr.: Nááts'íilid/Rainbow Light Museum of Northern Arizona (928) 774-5213 www.musnaz.org APRIL 8-MAY 6…

In 2002, the Algonquin artist Nadia Myre wrote, “Beading is political, whether it’s simply the personal contribution to an age-old continuum or consciously reworking loaded imagery. I really do see beading as an act of silent resistance.” That year, she exhibited the 56 pages of the Canadian government’s Indian Act which she and 230 of her compatriots beaded over with red beads—white beads replacing each word. Passed in 1876, the act was an attempt to assimilate First Peoples into non-Indigenous society. Beautiful and decorative Indigenous beadwork as social commentary is the subject of the exhibition Radical Stitch being shown at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada, through May 28. It was organized by the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. The museums explain, “Beading is one of the…

Cole Redhorse Taylor (Mdewakanton Dakota) finds a balance between the natural and the man-made. Those opposing forces create dynamic opportunities within his work, including in form, texture and color. The natural parts of his work are quills, derived from porcupines, and buckskins, which come from animal hides. The man-made portions are glass beads. Though created in entirely different manners, they unite together beautifully in Taylor’s Minnesota studio. Taylor works a variety of media, including painting and drawing, but he focuses much of his time on his bead and quill creations such as medallions and pendants, bags, moccasins and other wearable items. “I collect the beads wherever I can get them. I will buy contemporary beads, but I’m also always looking for older vintage beads, which can be harder to find.…

In the 1970s, Sámi artist and activist Hans Ragnar Mathisen (Elle-Hánsa) started creating maps of Sápmi, the name of the Sámi people’s traditional lands on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Not only was he ignoring many of the traditional borders and boundaries of Norway, Sweden and Finland, Mathisen was also including on his maps Sámi names that had been excluded, renamed or otherwise lost to history. He was reclaiming his lands, even if only on paper. Mathisen was not the first Indigenous artist to “decolonize the map,” but his cartographic activism would show other artists what was capable with art, maps and the names that are used for places all around the world. This concept is being taken to a thrilling new level with an exhibition opening virtually on March 25 and…

Thomas Tapia has come a long way since taking first prize at Santa Fe Indian Market the very first year he entered in 1996. He’s participated nearly every year since, showing both watercolors and pottery, and has earned too many awards to count, there and at other notable art fairs such as the Heard Museum Guild Fair & Indian Market. A Tewa Native from the Pueblo of Tesuque in New Mexico, Tapia comes from an extensive line of watercolor artists that stretches back to the 1880s with the birth of his late grandfather, Tomás Vigil. His four uncles were also highly regarded watercolorists, as was his brother, Joseph Tapia. Although Tapia was surrounded by art-making as a child, it wasn’t until high school that he really took an interest in…

ALBUQUERQUE, NM An exhibition currently on view at the Albuquerque Museum highlights a collection of ceramics, beadwork, prints, paintings and other artwork produced by award-winning Native American artists, most of whom have participated in the iconic Santa Fe Indian Market. Titled Indigenous Art, Culture, and Community, the show is both a celebration and an exploration of the ways in which artistic creativity has been at the forefront of Indian Market for the last century. With objects coming from the collection of Ruth and Sidney Schultz (who attended and supported Indian Market for more than 50 years), the exhibition shines a bright light on this legacy. More than 50 works coming from 35-plus artists will be on display for visitors to ponder and admire. Among these are some of the biggest…