Four contemporary Alaska Native artists exhibit at The Craft & Folk Art Museum
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Wednesday, December 4, 2024


Four contemporary Alaska Native artists exhibit at The Craft & Folk Art Museum
Nicholas Galanin, Get Comfortable. Digital photograph, 2012. Courtesy of the artist.



LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Craft & Folk Art Museum in collaboration with the Anchorage Museum presents This Is Not A Silent Movie: Four Contemporary Alaska Native Artists, an exhibition centered around four acclaimed Alaska Native artists whose groundbreaking contemporary works question institutional methods of identifying Native heritage, examine their own mixed-race identities, and challenge perceptions and stereotypes about indigenous peoples. It will be on view through Sunday, September 8, 2013.

Through the language of contemporary visual art, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Susie Silook, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and Nicholas Galanin seek new and distinct ways to speak of tradition and mediate the serious and sometimes ironic conditions of art, identity, and history in the late 20th and early 21st century. Though each artist’s work is rooted in a lifelong immersion in their respective Alaska Native craft traditions, their multi-media installations dissolve the boundaries between contemporary and traditional arts. For those that missed the viewing, here's an nice list of additional resources.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq/Athabascan) utilizes media such as polyurethane, Beluga intestine, and walrus stomach into her paintings, sculptures, and labor-intensive installations. These works often simulate skin, which is a point of investigation into her struggle for self-definition and identity.

Nicholas Galanin’s (Tlingit/Aleut) video and photography installations object to the cultural appropriation and categorization of indigenous peoples by popular culture. In "Things are Looking Native, Native's Looking Whiter," Galanin creates a split image that is a composite of one of photographer Edward Curtis' Native American models with actress Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars. The image references the cross pollination of the traditional butterfly whorl hairstyle that was worn by unmarried Hopi girls and the popular culture image. In 2013, Galanin received a major award from United States Artists.

Carver Susie Silook (Yupik/Iñupiaq) is a writer and sculptor. The ancestral ivory dolls of Saint Lawrence, traditionally carved by men, are the basis of her work. Silook also departs from tradition by depicting women in her carvings rather than the animals most commonly rendered by men. Her walrus tusk carvings add a distinctly feminist perspective to an otherwise male-dominated art form as they address the widespread incidence of sexual abuse and violence perpetrated against Native women. Silook received a United States Artists Fellowship in 2007.

Da-ka-xeen Mehner’s installation "Finding My Song" (Tlingit/N’ishga) draws upon his family’s stories to take a personal look at the retention and reclamation of language. The installation is inspired partially by his grandmother, whose mouth was washed out with soap whenever she spoke her Tlingit language in school in order to “encourage” her to speak English. Mehner’s work examines his own multicultural heritage— and the social expectations and definitions that accompany each aspect of it.

The title This is Not A Silent Movie comes from a quote by Native American writer and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, who works to move audiences away from narrow and stereotypical views of Native people—a view that Native people had very little influence in shaping. The exhibition has been curated by Julie Decker, Ph.D., Chief Curator at the Anchorage Museum.










Today's News

May 30, 2013

Ai Weiwei presents scenes from his arrest in new installation at the Venice Biennale

Paintings by Anker, Sisley, Caillebotte and Van Gogh featured in auctions at Koller Zurich

International rug expert comments on $33.7 million record price for antique oriental carpet

Investigators analyse ashes taken from the house of one of the suspects as Dutch heist paintings feared burnt

Research uncovers new information about Spanish Baroque sculpture acquired by Meadows Museum

Exhibition at Punta della Dogana presents 80 works from the last 50 years

Gagosian Gallery in London presents a group of four tapestries by Gerhard Richter

Brazilian and Mexican artists lead Christie's Latin American Art Sale in New York

Property from the Estate of Merv Griffin, Warner Bros. Studios and LACMA on offer at Bonhams

New Curator for Dutch and German Baroque Painting at the Alte Pinakothek

A solo show of works by the renowned British artist Marc Quinn opens at The Giorgio Cini Foundation

Four contemporary Alaska Native artists exhibit at The Craft & Folk Art Museum

The British Council announces new initiative to take ex-offenders to the Venice Biennale

Harn Museum explores the creation, meaning and importance of portraits

Germany vs. France: Results from auction of rare books at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg

Exceptional artwork by Canada's most celebrated artists featured in Joyner Waddington's spring auction

Vibrant kinetic sculptures created by artist Michael Landy on view at the National Gallery in London

First United States one-man show by Spanish artist Miguel Angel Garcia opens at Laurence Miller Gallery

Galleria Vezzoli at Maxxi: Over 90 works in the first Italian retrospective devoted to Francesco Vezzoli

Bonhams auction at the Spa Classic realises €3.4 million in its debut year

Fundacion Mapfre presents the photography exhibition Emmet Gowin




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful