GREAT FALLS, MT.- Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is now presenting WITHIN: Louis Still Smoking & John Isaiah Pepion. WITHIN is drawn from the artists’ belief that the strength and success of Native American identity and culture is internally inherited and created inside of their communities. An Artist Discussion will be held Thursday, October 26, 2023.

As artists, Louis Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion aim to help reclaim, reinform, and redefine what it means to a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana today. By looking within, they themselves and fellow indigenous communities become whole again. The artists will collaborate to create a mural inside the museum with integrated individual works. The exhibition has a time-based element as the mural is temporary and reflects on the history of cultural erasure, while the combined individual free-standing works reflect continuity and resistance. Still Smoking and Pepion state, “We will be engaging people in a positive way leaving the space with a positive mindset of what collaboration is all about. Pushing creativity and not limiting it. The exhibition will give people a new perspective about indigenous people and their culture because the Blackfeet are still attached to this geographic region and continue to be alive and thriving. The hope is that people will see our point of view as individual artists and indigenous people from this region.” Together the artists investigate the varied meanings of being indigenous, with art and culture being at the core of indigenous education and identity.

WITHIN offers the possibility of opening a dynamic conversation with the public about the current state of indigenous art, education, and life in Montana. The creation of the mural at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, originally a public school built in 1896, is integral to the conceptualization of the installation because the visual subject matter encourages a discussion about education and cultural resilience. The artists aim to root their project in the hope and positivity of their people and culture but are also poignantly reflective about the trauma inflicted on indigenous communities resulting from the seizing of their land and the enactment of forced assimilation programs. Ultimately a complex conversation.

John Isaiah Pepion and Louis Still Smoking utilize art as a tool to show how culture, language, and history are interconnected and are pathways to interpretation of Blackfeet identity. Education reform and land-back initiatives led by indigenous communities today sit at the center of their activism as artists, educators, and community agents of change. They believe that outside agencies responsible for the genocide of indigenous people cannot continue to determine or define what it is to be indigenous today, and it is through their voices, expertise, and scholarship that these communities will flourish.

John Isaiah Pepion is a Plains Indian graphic artist from the Piikani Band of the Blackfoot Confederacy based out of the Blackfeet reservation in north-central Montana, where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. He is best known for his ledger art, which is an art tradition that developed in Plains tribes, as the buffalo hide traditionally used for painting became scarce, Plains people were forced to adapt by making artwork on ledger paper from accounting books. Pepion comes from a family of artists, and ledger art has been in his family for hundreds of years.

Louis Still Smoking was born and raised in Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet Reservation. Louis worked as a stone sculptor and educator and returned to college to focus on painting. Louis’ artwork is influenced by the Impressionists, Lucian Freud, and research on the history of the American Indian Movement (AIM). He is a noted muralist and painter in Montana, his work is always evolving and growing, “I try to convey a message that is relevant to all indigenous peoples, whether that be social or political my work expresses my own personal beliefs and struggles as a modern Indigenous American”.

The exhibition and lecture series echoes the museum's core value initiatives to provide to support justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, in a space where all voices are heard. The museum is as a platform to provide and expand the reach of indigenous work in the arts and humanities by strengthening opportunities to provide educational outreach to the Great Falls and Montana community. The museum is hoping to build a better and more fortified relationship with local, regional, and statewide indigenous communities. We are aware that all indigenous voices and communities are different, including languages, experiences, history, and culture. It is through indigenous expertise and guidance, coupled with our own museum initiatives, research, and learning, that we aim to provide a positive space for future generations of indigenous artists and scholars to thrive in Montana.

Art is a part of the human experience and can reveal and forge important social understandings. Projects and programming are designed with this purpose in mind—to potentially expose emotions and attitudes, to challenge an audience to find meaning from the perspective of the artist, and to empower the imagination to pursue possibility and encourage open mindedness and acceptance.

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art
WITHIN: Louis Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion
October 20th, 2023 - January 6th, 2024