An exhibition about the early days of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), founded in 1962 as the first—and only—fine-art college for Native Americans, opens this week at the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM). Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native American Art, 1940s-70s will see ancestral aesthetics dominate and merge with Abstract Expressionism, Color field and Hard-edge painting.
In its early years, IAIA was considered the epicentre of Native American art. Lloyd Kiva New, the fashion designer and IAIA co-founder, recruited a faculty of Indigenous artists, many of whom were products of a time when the New York School of Abstract Expressionism dominated, including Fritz Scholder, whose work was informed by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and others. Works by Scholder will be among the 90-plus pieces in the show, which will also feature IAIA alumni like the printmaker and painter Linda Lomahaftewa.
The show originated at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2018. When Alexander Brier Marr, SLAM’s assistant curator of Native American art, saw that exhibition, he was surprised and excited by the depth of abstraction during that period. The museum worked closely with IAIA to enlarge the show, almost doubling its size. “We felt it was important to go deeper into the presentation of some of the key artists,” Marr says. One of those, Anita Fields, is a ceramicist and textile artist who attended IAIA in the early 1970s and is closely associated with the St Louis region.
Like many US museums, SLAM had been acquiring contemporary Native American art to augment its historic material. “We were missing part of the story,” Marr says. In 2010, the museum received the Danforth Collection, which included more than 250 objects by Plains Indians. Shortly after, SLAM hired its first curator of Native American art.
The show has also spurred the museum to “look and see what is missing” from its holdings, Marr says, and in March SLAM purchased Scholder’s New Mexico #45 (1966)—the first post-war painting by a Native American artist to join its collection.
“Great Waves From Tiny Ripples Grow,” a new exhibition of photographs by Scott Barrow goes on view at The Spring Street Gallery on Saturday, June 24th, with an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibit will remain on view through July 6.
Barrow says, “I am drawn to fresh water and my soul has always seen itself as a deep, spring-fed lake. Calm, reflective and peaceful. Capturing the quiet images of ripples on a lake at sunrise is a collaborative affair. The water is patient and you have time to observe and respond.”
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Photographs tell stories when words fail and several locally exhibited photos will receive cash prizes later this month.
The Firelands Association for Visual Arts will announce the winners of its National Juried Biennial Photography Show on June 24, coinciding with the Oberlin community’s Chalk Walk.
The entered photographs are on display at FAVA’s gallery through Aug. 13.
“Photography is a really important art form,” said Firelands Association for Visual Arts Executive Director Kathleen Jackson. “It documents our history as humans and it’s really good at showing our personal perspective.”
After a national call for entries, the pool of 200 was narrowed to 35 works to be exhibited.
Judging by Anna E. Young, co-owner of the Kink Contemporary Gallery in Cleveland was completed in early June and winners will be announced at a 1 p.m., June 24, event.
Entries use a wide variety of processes from traditional darkroom printing to printing on metal or other materials to digital manipulation.
The diversity of techniques, subject matter and perspective, make photography a very personal art form, Jackson said.
“It also helps to convey really important information about you and what you choose to document and what techniques you use,” she added. “It’s a really diverse art form that can tell a lot about you as a person.”
Jackson emphasized the accessibility of the juried show.
Anyone can enter and sophisticated equipment isn’t needed.
Entries are submitted through a Call for Entries (CaFE) system used by art shows and competitions.
A different juror is hired each year and entries are exhibited for six to eight weeks at the Oberlin gallery.
Firelands Association for Visual Arts’ annual juried shows alternate between photography and quilting.
The juried quilt show, which will open in May 2024, is the second oldest quilt show in the country and has drawn as many as 1,500 people, Jackson said.
“We ask folks to push the boundaries of what a quilt is,” she said. “The entries are really unique and amazing art expressions.”
Entries for the quilt show will open this fall.
Meanwhile, Firelands Association for Visual Arts studios, classrooms and galleries will be abuzz with summer activities for all ages.
Camps for children from preschool to high school begin June 26.
Preschool is a new addition this year due to demand from area families.
Projects and materials vary but camps expose children to a myriad of art forms, techniques and tools, Jackson said.
“Kids have the opportunity to learn from different teachers,” she said. “They do really different projects that we do in regular classes.”
Camps culminate in a weekly art showcase for parents in partnership with Oberlin Public Library.
Camp activities also include partnerships with Allen Memorial Art Museum and the city of Oberlin Parks Department.
Classes at Firelands Association for Visual Arts run the gamut from traditional figure drawing techniques to unique processes specific to diverse cultures.
One recent example involved using rubber fish to make prints, a technique called gyotaku created by Japanese fishermen to document their catches.
“We have done a wide variety of things,” Jackson said, adding that Firelands Association for Visual Arts never closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lending library for larger tools like pottery wheels and the subscription boxes for families dealing with at-home schooling for the first time have ended.
However, many of the Firelands Association for Visual Arts classes remain available online.
“We focused on what we could do,” Jackson said. “We had some folks from really far away who got involved because of it.”
Jackson looks forward to the fall Member Show at Firelands Association for Visual Arts.
Anyone can become a member with prices starting at $20.
Members can submit up to two works, in any medium, and even put their art up for sale.
Firelands Association for Visual Arts offer something for almost everyone, she added.
Families with kids enjoy visiting as much as retirees and everyone in between is welcome.
“I feel like it’s an organization that appeals to a lot of people,” Jackson said. “There’s a lot happening in our building.
“We’re trying to do a lot of ‘front yard’ events to bring more people into the building.”
Firelands Association for Visual Arts is co-located in the New Union Center for the Arts (NUCA) along with MAD Factory, the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra and the Oberlin Choristers Children’s Choir.
Learn more at favagallery.org.
June 23, 2023
Free three-day event is also available to stream
2 Rivers Remix Society (2RMX) and VirtualFeast.ca present
BRING THE CHILDREN HOME
2 Rivers Remix Music Feast LIVE at
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Powwow Arbor
345 Powwow Trail, Kamloops, BC V2H 1H1
July 7, 8-9, 2023
2riversremix.ca
From July 7- 9th, 2023, 2RMX partners with Tk’emlups te Secwepemc to present “Bring the Children Home: 2 Rivers Remix Music Feast.”
The FREE three-day feast of contemporary Indigenous music and culture is set for the beautiful Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Pow Wow Arbor in Kamloops, BC. “Bring The Children Home” features more than 40 incredibly talented and diverse Indigenous artists, toplined by Haisla hip-hop megastars Snotty Nose Rez Kids (SNRK) and electric powwow supergroup The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red).
BRING THE CHILDREN HOME will be live-streamed at feast.2rmx.ca
Co-headlining/featured artists include: Métis Canadian Folk Music award winner Amanda Rheaume, urban/rez roots hip hop vital voice Leonard Sumner, 2-Spirit powerhouse singer Shawnee Kish, veracious Mohawk singer song writers Logan Staats and sister Layla Black, sovereign story/song-weaving Anishinaabe sisters Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Ansley Simpson, ambassador and iconic songwriter of the people, Keith Secola, Inuit folk rock legend Willie Thrasher, Mohawk Rez Bluez Master Murray Porter and bass badass Helene Duguay, conscious evolutionaries of Chicano hip hop Atzlan Underground, and 2-Spirit trans house music diva Quanah Style, just to name a few.
Also joining us for this stacked lineup are roots rock soulful The North Sound, folk/country spirit captivatress Kym Gouchie, Black Owl Bluesman Gerald Charlie, soulful pop heart-opening Hayley Wallis and the Brighter Futures, contemporary roots singer/songwriter Mimi O’Bonsawin, young blues phenom Garret T Willie, ‘For The People’ soothing storytellers Margit Sky Project, Indigiqueer pop artist Nimkish, Indigifunk empowerhouse Curtis Clearsky and the Constellationz, roots rock reggae artists The Spiritual Warriors, hip hop roots fusionists The Melawmen Collective, and punkabilly pranksters, Jason Camp and The Posers.
The roster also includes an array of BC-based hip hop artists, such as Earthchild, Kiva MH, Geo aka The Voice, A’a’liyah, Rich & Beka, SacRed, and more, plus 2-Spirit neuro-divergent performing artist Madeline Terbasket aka Rez Daddy, and much more.
Leading up to the three-day cultural feast in Tk’emlups, 2RMX’s Summer Movable Feast Tour launches on June 30 at Lytton First Nation to commemorate two years of Nlaka’pamux resilience since the Lytton Fire, then proceeds July 2 to the St’at’imc Nation (Lillooet), and July 4 in the Secwepemc Nation (Skeetchestn). Each unique event includes a core of nationally and internationally known artists, as well as local and regional talent from each of the territories.
“2RMX planning was buffeted by the effects of human-caused-climate-change again this year, forcing us to move four venues and communities at the last minute, including our main event”, stated Meeka Morgan, 2RMX’s Artistic Director. “2RMX is eternally grateful to the communities who came to aid and host us this year. Our hearts go out to 2022’s 3-day festival venue, the community of Cache Creek, who suffered catastrophic flooding again this spring. We hope to return with musical medicine when it is the right time to do so, as we continue to envision a return to our original host community of Lytton, BC. We found ourselves reaching out to Tk’emlups te Secwepemc to host and are so thankful they embraced us with their support.”
As BRING THE CHILDREN HOME is the 2RMX theme of 2023, it seems surreal yet so meaningful that the healing music of 2 Rivers Remix will envelop in love the nearby former site of Kamloops IRS where the 215-plus unmarked graves of Indigenous children were confirmed in May 2021.
And so, water who brings us all life, brought us to where we needed and navigated to be. While planning and carrying out the Movable Feast events this year, the shifting waters reminded us that we also must be ready to shift, make changes, and move, but also to reach out, collaborate and cooperate with kindness and grace.
The Journey of 2 Rivers Remix:
2 Rivers Remix (2RMX) is a free annual multi-day feast of contemporary Indigenous music and culture, initially (2018-2019) hosted outdoors at Tl’kemtsin (aka Lytton BC) on Nlaka’pamux territory, then streamed online during the pandemic (2020-2021). 2RMX features all Indigenous-led musicians and artists – focusing on women, 2-Spirit, youth, elders and survivors – creating an environment of safety, tolerance and value for all people. 2 Rivers Remix Society, is a Non-Profit Society with majority First Nations directors and a mandate to educate, empower and inspire Indigenous people to tell their own stories through contemporary Indigenous cultural expression.
On June 26th, 2021, 2RMX produced an outdoor event at the wonderful Nlaka’pamux interpretative Tuckkwiowhum Village to honour the 215-plus Indigenous children then recently confirmed in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site during one of the hottest days recorded on Turtle Island. Only four days later, June 30, 2021, our beautiful host community of Tl’kemtsin/Lytton was razed to the ground in an unprecedented event that not only took homes and a whole village, but also 2 lives… Some of our staff, board, and their families lost their homes and many are still evacuated. Our office, festival archive, youth project exhibitions, and sound/video equipment was reduced to ashes.
In 2022, 2RMX pivoted to a “Movable Feast” in the aftermath of the cataclysmic fire that destroyed our previous live festival site – along with 90 percent of Tl’kemtsin/Lytton. 2RMX partnered with 8 Indigenous communities in 2022 to present Movable Feast, culminating in the 2 Rivers Remix Festival being held in Cache Creek, BC. 2 Rivers Remix Society continues to support our affected Indigenous communities that have in the last years suffered from waves of the COVID pandemic, catastrophic wildfires/flooding/infrastructure destruction,the ongoing confirmations of hundreds more unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools across Turtle Island, and the deadly toxic drug supply crisis.
2022 was the first time since the pandemic that we were able to hold a multi-day, 2RMX LIVE in-person event, and we were graciously hosted by the community of Cache Creek, in the territory of the Stuc’tews (Bonaparte First Nation) People. Until mid May of 2023 we planned to return there, but the rising waters once again navigated our journey of musical medicine… We wrap those communities still recovering with loving comfort and care, and are grateful for the ones who reach back when called upon for support.
Looking forward to this year’s event, be sure to tune in and watch the stream at feast.2rmx.ca
2 Rivers Remix Society acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, The BC Arts Council, the Government of Canada, First Peoples’ Cultural Council, Creative BC, Factor & the Vancouver Foundation, as well as Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Media Sponsors – Stir, exclaim! & CFJC-TV.
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