PHOENIX, AZ.- The Heard Museum announced the opening of the exhibition, Dear Listener: Works by Nicholas Galanin. The mid-career retrospective of the provocative artist runs through September 2018 and is the largest concentration of contemporary work at the Heard Museum in a decade.
Galanin, who is of mixed Tlingit-Unangax and non-Native ancestry, was born in 1979 in Sitka, Alaska.
His conceptual work is thought provoking and addresses issues of authority, authenticity, the American Indian experience and the commoditization of Indigenous culture. Proclaimed a “standout” by The New York Times, Galanin’s prominence in the contemporary art world continues to grow as museums both domestically and internationally showcase his work.
The exhibition has been installed in the recently opened Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Grand Gallery, the Dennis Lyon Family Crossroads Gallery, and the Freeman Gallery. Curated by the Heard Museum’s new fine arts curator, Erin Joyce, it features more than 10,000 square feet of new and existing works by Galanin including video installation, sculpture, performance art, works on paper, installation work, and fashion.
“This exhibition, for me, is the culmination of more than five years of research and work with the artist,” Joyce said. “Galanin’s work is unabashedly beautiful and unflinching in its interrogation of colonial power structures and issues affecting Indigenous communities, and communities more broadly.’’
Within the retrospective, visitors have a chance to explore themes of identity in both Indigenous and American contexts. One of the most arresting works in the exhibition is Galanin’s 2015-2018 installation A Supple Plunder. The work, which is a collaboration between Galanin and his brother Jerod Galanin (under the name Leonard Getinthecar), recounts the instance of 12 Unangan men who were bound together by Russian invaders and then shot to see how many men could be killed with a single bullet. The bullet lodged in the ninth man’s body, killing nine of the 12. The piece is comprised of nine ballistic torsos produced in a clear medium with a bullet lodged in the center.
The exhibition is accompanied by a text titled “Let Them Enter Dancing and Showing Their Faces” and is available for purchase at Books & More.
