SPSCC’s 16th Annual Native American Art Exhibition

by Lynette Charters Serembe

The 16th Annual Native American Art Exhibition, Honoring Ancestors and Embracing our Culture in the Modern World curated by Mikaela Shafer at The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery is themed for some of the issues its curator holds most dear. Shafer is a driving force behind Maqa Collective, Dog Bog Studios and her personal thriving fine arts business and arts community. Weber State University named her one of the 100 influential women in the region’s history. While reflecting on traditional native culture including her own Hopi culture, she is powering full steam ahead on a journey to revere the past and assess how it relates in a contemporary lived experience.

Regalia by Laurae Hughes

The question was posed to Native artists, “How can we lovingly honor our ancestors, heal generational traumas, and preserve culture in the modern world?”   Their many responses are varied, vibrant and intriguing, like a snapshot into lives lived processing, mourning, resisting, rebelling, relating, celebrating and creating. It is the bonds in communities that give meaning to our lives and help us through turbulent times; this show is very timely. The show has the charm of old-time disciplines standing strong with vibrant new and eclectic post-modern aesthetics. There is not a sleepy corner in the show and there is a whole lot to contemplate.

500 Years Ago by Jessica Doe Mehta

Artists’ works include Sophia Anderson’s charmingly beaded “Shoalwater Bay,” Elise Bill-Gerrish’s intergenerational wool creations, Jack George’s rhythmic and patterned photographs of dancers, Cody Gray’s “The Kidnapping of Cynthia Ann Parker” is a dramatic piece of photography printed on canvas, Laurae Hughes’ glorious exuberantly textured fashioned regalia made from so many natural materials it boggles the mind, Madison Judkins’ exquisitely designed beaded jewelry, Cathy Lopez’ very stylish and elegantly designed manta and belt with flawlessly stitched detailing, T’u Stanger’s joyful and vibrant multimedia piece “c̓ax̌ʷ” in support of safe and inclusive places for the LGBTQIA+ community, Amber Starks’ “Little One, Black and Red” marrying her multiple heritages with a contemporary illustrative drawn line, and traditional beaded earring, and Corrina Sasso’s spirited and colorful celebrations of culture.

Epiphany Couch takes traditional formats and mixes them with natural and Native content. Her cameo format diptych collages “Chokecherry Sister” and “Huckleberry Sister” show Native portrait profiles collaged from photographs of natural textures, and embellished with Native beading and other decorations, all immersed in images of local natural landscapes with pictures of modern-day hiking children. Native communities fight so hard to preserve their natural heritage, these works remind us of the power and importance of nature, and how much it is being disserved and abused by big business.

Arie Beston’s “Blood Quantum” drawn and painted on radiographic DNA sequencing, also “Manidoo-makwa, bi-gizhaawenimishinaan” drawn and painted on 1930s Ledgers from a tax document concerning stolen Ojibwe land (in some cases early tax ledgers show the taxing of Native children purchased from the government by white settlers). These are a visual demonstration of different narratives of broken lineages Native communities suffered manifested by money-making ventures of white Europeans.

Ray Larkin’s photography series are in picture postcard format and coloring, showing figures in nature, next to buildings, and landmarks; but instead of smiling tourists or family photos, these landscapes are inhabited by ghostlike figures wrapped in sheets. Across one of them is written the collective title of them all: “WE ARE STILL HERE.”

Gallery photo including (left to right)  Little One, Black and Red by Amber Starks, Elk Spirit Calling by Megan McDermott, 500 Years Ago by Jessica Doe Mehta, Paint With This by Steph Littlebird, and Blanket by Shamika Gagnier with The Black Well Red Thread Collective.

Jessica Doe Mehta’s arresting photos from her performance of art written on the bodies of her two children (it is noted they were willing temporary participants). The paint is black, and gold, representing the oil and gold stripped from the earth, and white paint on the body of an older person representing assimilation. Showing how colonizers named them all “resources.” These are all framed in black shiny Victorian-style frames to underline the containment and the repackaging of these assaults.

Seed Jar by Natasha Alphonse

Isabella Saavedra’s “Gnaw” is an abstracted painting on crudely sewn canvas with a crocheted blanket detail. It has a materials-forward surface and a disorienting spatial perception. It is very provocative and yet can be appreciated simply for the fabric and texture. The frayed edge runs through the figure’s face suggesting the erasure of the sitter’s identity by the seam of the canvas. This work is paired well with the interdisciplinary works of Aganaq Kostenborder’s beautifully designed pieces.  A qaspek made from wool, silk, wolf and salmon skin with refined design and balance, a salmon and seal bag with similar artistic sensibilities, Alutiiq beaded earrings and a beautifully woven Clam basket. On the other side is a beautifully textured ceramic seed jar in the shape of an acorn made by Natasha Alphonse.

Megan McDermott’s affirming “Elk Spirit Calling” and the huge colorful banner, “Urban Ndns”are celebratiosn of spirit in the face of adversity, while “Grass Dancer,” beadwork, is a more intimate version of the same resilience.Steph Littlebird’s loud and proud banners of brightly colored cartoon stereotypes of Native women flipping the bird with banner titles “Land O Fakes” and “Paint With This”are at once exuberant and uncompromising in their message.

At the entrance of the show is a huge blanket woven from bright red yarn. It is created by local artist Shameka L. Gagnier with the Black Well Red Thread Collective. The blanket is described as a physical recognition of the significance of the 4094 ancestors in 12 generations over 400 years that lead to the event of your existence, significant (despite the dominant media narratives which seek to minimize all others’ lived experiences). In honor of this fact, the blanket is woven with 9094 threads, the weaving of this blanket was a shared experience bringing closer the level of connection within the Collective.

Different people will take away different things from this show, for some it will be a journey to understanding, for others an affirmation, or possibly both, and  surely that is fully intentional but however you take it, the show is beautiful, stimulating, and earnest. The most apparent message is that time has proved these assaults of colonialism, assimilation, and opportunism survived by Natives do not go away and can only begin to be healed if they are acknowledged, amended, and compensated.

c̓ax̌ʷ by T’u Stanger

Photos courtesy of The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery.

WHAT:        
The 16th Annual Native American Art Exhibition, Honoring Ancestors and Embracing our Culture in the Modern World

WHEN:        
Noon to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday through December 13, Artist Panel discussion Friday, Dec. 13, 6 –7:30 p.m.

WHERE:      
The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts, South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia

HOW MUCH: 
Free

LEARN MORE:      
https://spscc.edu/art-gallery/past-exhibitions/2024-2025-exhibition-season/16th%20Annual%20Native%20American%20Art%20Exhibition

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