NATIVE VOICES – CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS ART 

Jesse Cooday - Nicholas Galanin - Maria Hupfield -
Sonya Kelliher-Combs - Jason Lujan - Tanis Maria S’eiltin - Duane Slick - Star Wallowing Bull 

Curated by Deborah Everett 

On view: March 9 – April 19, 2008 
opening Reception: Saturday, March 9, 5-8pm 

THREE BROOKLYN VENUES / partnering with Kentler International Drawing Space and Long Island University/Brooklyn Campus (details page two)  present the work of twenty-one contemporary Native artists. The exhibitions highlight the achievements of individual artists, and suggest the scope of approaches embraced by the Native art community. The work shown at FiveMyles ranges from digital imagery and an anti-terrorist manual to sculpture sewn from walrus gut. 

Jesse Cooday’s (Tlingit) ability to distill cultural essences and merge them with personal identity, yielded a powerful self-portrait, a grid of nine photographs, of his painted face.  

Duane Slick (Mesquaki), a monochrome painter of subtlety and nuance, is also a Professor at Rhode Island School of Design.  His layered, spectral images have the subliminal power of a shadow play.   

Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq/Athabaskan) was trained as a child in traditional needle-work and gained a rich understanding of her tribal heritage. Her installation in this exhibition mirrors her culture’s affinity for animal viscera. 

Jason Lujan (Apache), who seamlessly reveals hidden agendas,  created a how-to manual on ‘homeland security’ from an indigenous point of view – where terrorism takes an entirely different form    

Tanis Maria S’eiltin  (Tlingit) has used a range of media throughout her career to confront social and political issues. Her video in the exhibition, a condemnation of Blood for Oil politics, is presided over by two life-size drawings of her great-grandmother,  

Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Aleut/Cherokee) is keenly aware of the appropriation of Northwest Coast art for tourist consumption. He re-invents a Tlingit mask (from a copy made in Indonesia) by cutting it into the pages of a thick book. 

Maria Hupfield (Ojibwa),  an artist of minimal means and elegant forms, creates surprising visual metaphors. In Flap, Flap, Flap she gathers gentle doves into a demarcated (almost target-like) circle on the floor; with wings outstretched (as if still in flight), their jumbled state implies a disregard for their peaceful path, reminiscent of the times we live in.

Star Wallowing Bull is said to have been drawing since he was one year old.  Working mostly in jewel-like prismacolor, he builds intricate, often pulsing, worlds – where Pop icons and timeless symbols vie for dominance and clarity 

We can make transportation available to see all three exhibitions.  

exhibition partner venues information:

Kentler International Drawing Space 
On view: February 8 – March 23, 2008 
Co-curators: Deborah Everett and Raquel Chapa 
Artists: Frank BigBear, Jason Lujan, Jeffrey Gibson, Joe Fedderson, Miranda Belarde-Lewis, Kay Walkingstick, Lorenzo Clayton, Mario Martinez 

Long Island University/Brooklyn 
Humanities and Salena Galleries 
On view: March 6 – March 29, 2008 
Curator: Raquel Chapa 
Featured artists include Miranda Belarde Lewis, Lorenzo Clayton, Thosh Collins, Yatika Field, Jeffery Gibson, Peter Jemison, Terrol Johnson, Mario Martinez, Sarah Sense, Joseph Williams, Annabel Wong

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

acknowledgments:

The exhibitions are in part supported by the New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the Andy Warhol Foundation.