When Daniel Pewewardy isn’t working at the Wichita Public Library, he’s busy making memes about manifest destiny, murder and his family’s history. While his meme account is one of the ways he expresses his creativity, he also devotes himself to other artistic work. Best known for his stand-up comedy, Pewewardy also works in filmmaking, and is otherwise involved in the local art community. 

His latest project involves an exhibit at the Wichita Art Museum (WAM) titled “Twice Removed: Native American Life After Relocation” and features work from contemporary Native artists, with a focus on highlighting what life looks like for Native Americans today. The exhibit was introduced to the public in Cessna Gallery as part of WAM Nights, an initiative that features artist talks and performances every Friday evening at the Wichita Art Museum.

“I think what’s really important is just kind of pushing the idea that Native Americans are still here,” Pewewardy said in his presentation. “We’re in the 21st century. We’re not living in teepees.” 

The exhibit includes a video project that Pewewardy collaborated on, photography, several folding chairs, which Pewewardy terms “powwow chairs,” painted with the names of the Kiowa Six, and ledger art. Ledger art is an evolution of traditional paintings from various Great Plains tribes, which were originally done on buffalo hides. In his presentation introducing the exhibit, Pewardy explained the significance of this type of art and why he chose to feature it.

“They wanted to find ways to defeat us, so they just killed our food supply because it was easier. So hides became harder to use to continue our artistic traditions,” Pewewardy, who is Comanche, said. “So, you see Plains natives start using paper and it’s called ledger art.”

Pewewardy also chose ledger art for its accessibility to everyone, regardless of artistic education or experience.

“I wanted to find a medium in the native art world that was contemporary, not necessarily traditional and open to all tribes,” he said.

Multiple Native American artists contributed to the ledger art on display in the exhibit. Pewewardy found these artists with the help of Harvester Arts,a nonprofit community art organization partnered with the Wichita Art Museum to recruit local artists. 

“They really are a conduit for us to the local artists community,” Molly McFerson, the museum’s director of learning, engagements and partnerships said. “They work with so many local artists and we have opportunities here through this community gallery.”

Pewewardy says it is important to support artists like the ones whose ledger art is featured in “Twice Removed”.

“Following the artists, finding their Instagram, looking them up online, buying their art and supporting their art is I think the most important thing anyone can take away from the show is to continue supporting the native community in their artwork,” he said.

“Twice Removed: Native American Life After Relocation” will be at the Wichita Art Museum through November 26. Museum admission is free to the public and featured exhibitions are free to Wichita State students with a student ID.

A man was sentenced to prison for selling fake Native artwork in Alaska Aug. 28.

Cristobal “Cris” Magno Rodrigo, 59, from Washington state, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

For years, Rodrigo was selling Philippine-produced products as authentic Alaska Native-produced artwork at a store in Ketchikan, Alaska.

The supplier of the products was Rodrigo Creative Crafts, a company owned by Rodrigo and his wife and located in the Philippines.

The business was created for the sole purpose of producing carvings featuring Alaska Native designs and motifs using Philippine labor, according to court documents. The carvings were shipped to the U.S. and then to Ketchikan, where they were later sold as authentic Alaska Native art.

In 2019 and for part of 2021, the family and their Alaska-based company employees sold over $1 million worth of Philippine-made carvings presented as Alaska Native artwork.

“The Rodrigos sold imported products as Alaska Native made in their Ketchikan, Alaska store,” said Edward Grace, Assistant Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, in a press release on August 30. “This deceptive business practice cheated customers and undermined the economic livelihood of Alaska Native artists. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a dedicated team of special agents who work on violations of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. This sentence was the result of the strong collaboration between our special agents, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

Rodrigo was also sentenced to make a $60,000 donation to the Tlingit and Haida Central Counsel Vocational Program, write a letter of apology to be published in the Ketchikan Daily Newspaper, and serve three years of supervised release or parole. His two-year initial confinement is the longest sentence a defendant has received for any Indian Arts and Crafts violation since the truth-in-marketing law became public law in 1990.

There are other defendants in a similar case, with ongoing cases: Glenda Tiglao Rodrigo, 46, and Christian Ryan Tiglao Rodrigo, 24. Rodrigo also hired Alaska Natives at both Ketchikan stores to represent and sell the Philippine-produced artwork as their own authentic Alaska Native artwork. According to the Department of Justice, the Alaska Native workers told customers they were all related family working in the store, and the art was all authentically produced from locally sourced materials and made by Alaska Natives.

“The actions the defendant took to purposefully deceive customers and forge artwork is a cultural affront to Alaska Native artisans who pride themselves on producing these historical works of art, and negatively affects those who make a living practicing the craft,” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker for the District of Alaska.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act was signed into law in 1990 and is a truth-in-marketing law aimed to protect authentic American Indian and Alaskan Native artisans and products unique to their culture and traditions. It was passed to deter misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian art and craft products within the United States. Many have advocated for additional measures to prevent fraud or misrepresentation of authentic American Indian and Alaskan Native and American Indian and Alaskan Native-style traditional and contemporary arts and crafts produced after 1934.

Some traditional items frequently copied by non-Indians include jewelry, pottery, baskets, carved stone fetishes, woven rugs, kachina dolls, and clothing.

“The Indian Arts and Crafts Board administers and enforces the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, a truth-in-marketing law,” said Indian Arts and Crafts Board Director Meridith Stanton in a press release. “The Act is intended to rid the Alaska Native and Indian arts and crafts marketplace of fakes and counterfeits in order to protect the economic livelihoods and cultural heritage of Alaska Native and Indian artists and craftspeople and their Tribes and villages, as well as the buying public.”

“Mr. Rodrigo’s sentencing should send a strong message to those who prey upon authentic Alaska Native artists and vulnerable consumers that this destructive conduct will not be tolerated, and Act violators will be held accountable,” Stanton said of Rodrigo’s sentence.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Office of Law Enforcement with assistance from the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, U.S. Customs and Border Protections, and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

Currently, the Dept. of Interior is considering adding protected mediums under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. It recently conducted a meeting with comments from artists and tribal representatives during the Santa Fe Indian Market at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.

The DOI is accepting public comments on the adjustments until 11:50 pm Eastern Time on Friday, Sept. 1. 2023, at consultation@bia.gov.

Anyone who suspects a violation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Actcan submit a complaint to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board at doi.gov/iacb/should-i-report-potential-violation, by emailing iacb@ios.doi.gov, or call (888) 278-3253.

A landmark in downtown Anadarko has received a new look after the Caddo Nation has taken over McKee’s Indian Store.

Chairman of the Caddo Nation, Bobby Gonzalez, said the store will not only feature Native American artisans, but may also help revitalize the area.

“It gives our people a place to come back to, to bring their work, their crafts their art so we can look at it and hopefully move it into the market,” Gonzalez said.

The store is now an outlet for the more than 400 Caddo families living in the area, and any others who want to sell their artwork.

“Anadarko being a Caddo name, named right after our band, we wanted to start on Main Street right with our own gallery right with our own place,” Gonzalez said. “This place is full of a variety of different things from silver to paintings to beads to cloth to artwork.”

Gonzalez also said they hope the store will be able to help with the emotional needs of those it serves.

“We want to help the local crafts people economically and give them a place to go mental health purposes and culture purposes,” Gonzalez said.

Aside from the store, there is an art gallery featuring Native American artists such as Robert Redbird.

“That is what makes a tribe, that is what makes a nation,” Gonzalez said. “You know our language our culture our songs our dances. The best way to do it is to support it.”

Every so often, the store will be switching out the artist featured in the gallery.

Details

By Jenna Kunze

September 12, 2023

NEW YORK — Last week, a half dozen Indigenous artists from across the United States and Canada captured the art world’s attention at two separate exhibition openings in New York City.

The first, Caroline Monnet, an Anishinaabe/French artist, had her first solo exhibition open on September 7 at contemporary art gallery Arsenal Contemporary. The show was curated by Greg Hill (Mohawk).

Titled WORKSITE, the exhibit includes 17 original works from the multidisciplinary, Montreal-based artist. Many of the pieces are made from raw construction materials —such as asphalt shingles, plexiglas, and polyethylene foam—that have been repurposed and Indigenized. 

The show is meant to be a commentary on humans’ relationships to our environments, Monnet said. She was particularly inspired by the history of logging in New York City: how an old-growth forest has since been clear-cut to build the economic empire and how a lot of timber has since ended up building foundations of buildings rather than staying in the ground.

“It’s really about our relationship with our environment,” Monnet told Native News Online. “The entire show is about how economic development is made on the back of trees and how natural resources and economy are completely linked.”

For one piece, the artist grew toxic black mold on gypsum plasterboard often used in homebuilding instead of drywall. Then, she overlaid computer-generated Anishinabe designs to create intricate symbols and patterns—” almost like a QR code—over the mold. 

“I do think that we should treat homes and buildings as living bodies,” Monnet said. “If there’s lingering mold in your home, it’s going to affect your physical, mental, emotional health, even spiritual health. So it speaks about the housing crisis [among First Nations in Canada], and maybe the lack of vision that we’re not necessarily using the proper materials or putting enough care in the building.”

In her largest work at the exhibit, Monnet built wooden scaffolding with Anishinaabe designs around two colonial pillars that existed in the gallery space. She said the piece represented her identity as an Indigenous and French woman.

“I visited the space and saw the columns, which I thought were very colonial. I wanted to find a way that they’re not so present in the show, and how to be in relationship with them. That’s why I did the scaffolding, because New York is full of scaffolding. I’m also part French. My father is from France, and my mother is Anishinaabe, so it’s kind of interesting how the Anishinaabe is surrounding the more colonial.”

WORKSITE is open to the public at Arsenal Contemporary through October 21. 

YOUNG ELDER, James Fuentes Art Gallery, 55 Delancey Street, New York, New York

On September 8, further east in Manhattan’s downtown, another exhibit opened at the James Fuentes art gallery, titled Young Elder.

The one-room show features work by artists Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe), Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq), Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné), and Nico Williams (Anishinaabe). The exhibit was curated by Natalie Ball (Klamath/Modoc) and Zach Feuer, and named after a Reservation Dogs episode in Season 2, when a character self-righteously refers to himself as a young elder.

Each artists’ work uses Indigenous materials and traditions to create contemporary commentary. “They all hold this tradition and this future at the same time,” Feuer said at a walk-through with the artists on Friday morning. “And that was an inspiring connection.”

Tapaha (they/them) is a 6th generation Diné weaver in their family who herds Navajo-Churro sheep throughout the year, then shears, skirts, washes, and spins the wool for their artwork. “Not only do I know the sheep, I know the dye, I know the plant,” Tapaha said.

Navajo weaving is always paired with pop culture, Tapaha said, which explains the personal text paired on their woven pieces. One work contains messages from Tapha’s personal life: “All that for a boy?” Another weaving showcases a photo of a family sheep wearing a hat that was on a family reunion t-shirt in 2005.

Carlson presented a twenty-four-panel art piece of ink, oil, acrylic, gouache, graphite, watercolor, and pen on paper, titled The Indifference of Fire. The piece is about how Indigenous communities continue to heal and grow and strategies of survival despite environmental conditions, such as fire. One depiction in Carlson’s work l is the white-throated sparrow, a bird with four chromosomal genders that ensures the continuation of its species.

“We have to find some strategies for survival,” she said. 

Last, Nico Williams presented his beadwork of four found objects: a flier for a supermarket memorializing food prices impacted by inflation, a red strip of danger tape, an Amazon delivery box, and a wallet containing his Indigenous status card.

“I’m always walking around the city and I’m always looking at objects and the kinds of things and how they’re communicating,” Williams said. 

In his Montreal-based studio, Williams creates a digital rendering of found objects he then uses as a pattern for stringing together glass beads. Those works symbolize trade and commerce, Indigenous identity, and lesser-known histories in everyday objects, such as his recreation of a Canadian ten-dollar bill from the 1970s—a period in which the currency boasted an illustration of the nuclear power refinery that was built in Williams’ home, the Aamjiwnaang Nation in Sarnia, Ontario. 

Finally, though she wasn’t present for the walk-through, Alaska Native artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs presented a sculpture series called Pink Slips. In it, several synthetic animal skins are “scarred” by imprints, in reference to the emotional scarring of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis.

“My attraction to her work is the idea of using skins from home—she’s from Alaska—but also [including] gender roles in her work, and the repetition and scale,” said curator Natalie Ball of Kelliher-Combs’ work. 

She added that, as the exhibitions co-curator, the works of the four artists are in conversation with one another.

“I think that they’re rooted in community, and they’re rooted in ancestral knowledge,” she said. “And that was my preface for wanting them to be in this show. It’s a lot of work to stay rooted in your community and to, maintain that connection to community and to maintain ancestral knowledge. I really respect those artists who maintain that sort of connection. I wanted to respect just that.”

Young Elder will remain on display through October 14.

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About The Author

Author: Jenna KunzeEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Senior Reporter

Jenna Kunze is a staff reporter covering Indian health, the environment and breaking news for Native News Online. She is also the lead reporter on stories related to Indian boarding schools and repatriation. Her bylines have appeared in The Arctic Sounder, High Country News, Indian Country Today, Tribal Business News, Smithsonian Magazine, Elle and Anchorage Daily News. Kunze is based in New York.

Dyani White Hawk, Untitled (All the Colors), 2020, acrylic, bugle beads, thread and synthetic sinew on canvas, Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Gift of the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust.

June 2 – December 21
Kansas Focus Gallery

Artist Talk with Dyani White Hawk
September 28 | 6 p.m.
Hudson Auditorium

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County of Community College

The exhibition title, derived from text seen in My Country, ‘tis of Thee by Tom Jones, references patriotism and endurance. Jones’ work presents historical images from popular culture through an Indigenous artistic lens, highlighting Native peoples’ involvement in the US military. In the spirit of Jones’ work, this exhibition explores the representational power of color. Featured in the gallery is a wide spectrum, from the bright rainbow hues of a crayon box to the sepia tones of photographs and neutral tones of natural materials such as hide and wood. These works exemplify the richness and beauty of diversity and our shared history.

The inheritance of culture that each of the artists brings into their practice is evident in the materials, techniques and subject matter. There is also a subtext of counterculture in many of the works, which situates them firmly in the contemporary. Upon entry, we are greeted by the prismatic shimmering beads in Dyani White Hawk’s Untitled (All the Colors). Set against a muted white and off-white striping, these elements create a mass of color and volume that gives depth to abstraction.

Living Native artists created all the artworks in this exhibition, which were later purchased by the Nerman Museum—often directly from the artist—with support from the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Art Acquisition Endowment and other generous donors.

Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a visual artist and independent curator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She will be at the Nerman Museum for a visiting artist talk on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m., at the Hudson Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public and will also be available via livestream. For more information, go to nermanmuseum.org/calendar.

White Hawk earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011) and a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008). She served as Gallery Director and Curator for the All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis from 2011 to 2015.

Recent awards include 2021 Anonymous Was a Woman Award and Academy of Arts and Letters Award, 2021. She has participated in residencies in Australia, Russia and Germany. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art NYC, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, among other public and private collections.

This exhibition will be temporarily closed from Sep. 4-15 for the Nerman Museum’s WILD LIFE! Celebration. Learn more at nermanmuseum.org/WildLife2023.



Art
Photography

#books
#Indigenous culture
#Jeffrey Gibson
#sculpture

Jamie Okuma, “Elk Boots” (2017), glass seed beads on Giuseppe Zanotti boots, 21 x 7 inches. Photo by Cameron Linton, courtesy of Ellen and Bill Taubman. All images © DelMonico Books, shared with permission

“Historically, books about contemporary Native and Indigenous art have often been composed of academic essays illustrated with artworks by Indigenous makers,” Jeffrey Gibson (previously) says in the introduction to An Indigenous Present. “The writing often references previously published texts that can be problematic and outmoded.” Released by DelMonico Books/Big NDN Press last month, the nearly 450-page volume renders solid a new paradigm of representation and visibility of Native North American art.

Works by more than 60 artists comprise the monumental survey, exploring myriad practices focused on and intersecting contemporary art, music, filmmaking, choreography, architecture, writing, photography, design, and more. The tome highlights the remarkable diversity of media and cultural influences across the continent, from fashion artist Jamie Okuma’s intricately beaded designer boots to Dana Claxton’s elaborate Headdress portrait series to Northwest Coast artist and Chief Beau Dick’s expressive masks. Gibson continues:

For An Indigenous Present, I wanted to make a lavish picture book (“sexy” was a word I used a lot to describe this project) that invites an audience to consider the creative and conceptual spaces artists need to think freely, disrupt the flow, take chances, make mistakes, and even fail in the process of creating something new.

Find your copy on Bookshop.

Melissa Cody, “Dopamine Regression” (2010), 3-ply wool, aniline dyes, wool warp, and 6-ply selvedge cords, 70 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

All pieces by Dana Claxton. Images courtesy of the artist

Wendy Red Star, “Awaxaawippiia (Ominous Mountains)” (2021), acrylic, graphite, kitakata paper, and marble paper in 30 parts, overall: 112 x 183 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Sargent’s Daughters, New York

Beau Dick, “Volcano Woman” (c. 2005), red cedar, acrylic, and horsehair, 24 x 20 x 10 inches. Image courtesy of Fazakas Gallery, Vancouver

Both pieces by Caroline Monnet. Images courtesy of the artist

Meryl McMaster, “Dream Catcher” (2015), Giclée print, 32 x 66 inches. Image courtesy of the artist, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, and Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montréal

Nicholas Galanin, “Never Forget” (2021), iron, paint, and steel, 59 x 360 feet. Image courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York

Raven Halfmoon, “Hey’-en, Ina, Ika” (2020), stoneware and glaze, 58 x 48 ½ x 19 inches. Image courtesy of the artist

#books
#Indigenous culture
#Jeffrey Gibson
#sculpture

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OLEAN — An opening reception will be held this Saturday for the current Tri-County Arts Council exhibit, “2023 Southern Tier Biennial A Regional Survey of Contemporary Art,” featuring works from over 35 artists from the Southern Tier.

Catering and dessert will be provided by the Century Manor Grillhouse, the reception is a special time from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at the TCAC building, 110 W. State St., Olean.

Since 2005, the Southern Tier Biennial has given rural artists the opportunity to take part in a juried professional art competition and gallery show. Every two years, artists from across New York state’s Southern Tier region submit their work to be juried by a new panel of top art professionals. The result is a stunning array of work showing the vitality of the visual arts in rural New York.

2023 Southern Tier Biennial A Regional Survey of Contemporary Art will be running from Sept. 16 to Nov. 4. This year, 51 works of art from 36 artists were chosen from the 157 artists and over 400 pieces entered.

The artists in the STB are Anne Auld, Barbara Behrmann, Tammy Renée Brackett, Chloe Bryant, Eva Capobianco, Frank Chang, Paul Cwikla, Victoria Eckley-Brown, Nancy Nixon Ensign, Jodie Estes, Hans Gindlesberger, Lindsey Glover, Ed Green, Marshall Green, Aaron Harrison, Katelyn Heins, David Higgins, Andrea Kastner, Jimmy Keller, Madison LaVallee, Barbara Mink, Gabe Morton-Cook, Timothy Pauszek, Brian Payne, Jim Root, Michelle Schleider, Laura Jaen Smith, Joe Sorci, Cesilia Tucker, Kari Varner, Jane Walker, Chris Walters, Anna Warfield, Rob Whitcomb, Todd Wolfe and Glenn Zweygardt.

The STB is presented by the Tri-County Arts Council and the Cattaraugus Regional Community Foundation, made possible by an endowment from the estate of F. Donald Kenney.

“The Southern Tier Biennial was founded in 2003 with a bequest by Olean native, philanthropist, and art lover F. Donald Kenney, managed through the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation, to create an opportunity for regional artists to exhibit in a professional gallery and be seen by jurors that can help further an artist’s career,” said Sean Huntington, STB exhibition coordinator.

“Every two years, the Southern Tier Biennial gives us a glimpse into the wonderful creative talent that this region has to offer,” he said. “It’s truly an incredible show. I encourage every visual artist, including those working in craft media, to apply.”

In addition to the opportunity to show their work, accepted artists have the chance to win one of five awards totaling $5,250 — $3,000 to the Best of Show winner ($1,000 cash and $2,000 stipend towards a solo show in fall 2024 at the TCAC); a $750 Juror’s Choice Award; and $500 for three Honorable Mention winners.

Each biennial is juried by new jurors, this year’s jurors are Andrea Alvarez, assistant curator at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) in Buffalo; Judy Barie, director of the Chautauqua Visual Arts Galleries in the Chautauqua Institution; and Tullis Johnson, curator and manager of exhibitions and collections at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo.

For more information visit www.southerntierbiennial.com or call (716) 372-7455. The Tri County Arts Council, 110 W. State St., Olean, is always adding artists to Artist Market, and is open to the public noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Posted 11 September 2023 at 5:19 pm

Press Release, Patrick Riviere

PROVINCETOWN, MASS. – Principal photography is now set to begin in the next two weeks on a new short documentary film by Albion native, Niagara University graduate, and award-winning director, Patrick Riviere.

Artists at the Edge, will celebrate the life and art of two Provincetown creatives: Darlene Van Alstyne and Kenny Lockwood and is being filmed entirely in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

“The film will not only highlight the life and art of these two extraordinary talents but also the embrace of a perception of ‘otherness’ in relation to living and creating at the tip of the Cape and the importance of Provincetown as a bedrock for art, acceptance and camaraderie,” Riviere said.

Riviere’s first film, Just a Broadway Baby: Mary Ellen Ashley, has been lauded by film festivals from coast to coast where it has garnered eight awards including five Best Documentary Short Film Awards.

Riviere himself was awarded an Indie Soul Special Recognition Award from the Boston International Film Festival in 2022 and Best Director of a Documentary Short from Vesuvius International Film Festival.

The film was also named a “Semi-Finalist” at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival – an Academy Award eligible festival, and has so far screened at a dozen film festivals including the aforementioned BIFF, Dam Short Film Festival, The Oregon Documentary Film Festival and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Locally the film screened at the Upstate New York Film Festival in Buffalo where it won both the Best Documentary Short Award and Audience Choice Award.

The film was recently invited to become a permanent part of the archives at TOFT Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York City and is now being considered by two major television platforms.

Riviere is also an award-winning actor and playwright and may be best known for his starring role as an older Jon Snow in a commercial for the late Tom Sparks that debuted during the Super Bowl in 2018 and ran for five years in the Rhode Island and Western MA markets. He also had the incredible honor of singing with Tony Award Winner Patti LuPone in her concert, Don’t Monkey with Broadway at Town Hall. He is featured opposite Marco Pigossi in the upcoming feature film, Best Place, shot in Provincetown, directed by Marco Calvani and costarring Marisa Tomei.

Darlene Van Alstyne, left, and Kenny Lockwood are the focus of a new documentary.

In his new documentary he features Darlene Van Alstyne, a professional actor, singer, dancer, wife to Melinda, and mom to two Chihuahuas. She appeared early in her career on The Chappelle Show, As the World Turns, and St. Elsewhere. She was also a back-up vocalist in a band formed and fronted by renowned composer, writer and producer, TJ Armand.

After moving to Provincetown she starred on stage as Dolores in the Wild Party, Shannon in Brad Fraser’s, Poor Superman, and as Flannery (the ex-girlfriend of a junky rock star played by Lea DeLaria) in Insatiable Hunger, a musical written by Meryl Cohn, and where she met Billy Hough and Sue Goldberg – co writers of the show.

She has performed with the well-known rock duo for 15 years and has the distinct honor of performing alongside them with the Garage Dogs in Provincetown, Boston, and New York City.

She has also starred in her own show, Forever Blonde and has played Gary Coleman in Avenue Q at Cape Rep and Geva Theater.

She has had long-running gigs at The Gifford House Porch Bar and WayDownTown – the

latter with her own band. She can currently be seen as the Head Nurse in the feature film Stronger starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and recently she and Billy Hough have performed Manic Mondays at The Post Office Café and See You Next Tuesday at Tin Pan Alley. She recently co-starred in the critically acclaimed Peregrine Theatre production of the Sondheim Tribute Review.

Kenny Lockwood works in multiple disciplines within the Arts: Fine Artist/Oil Painter, Musician/Singer/Songwriter, Actor, Acupuncturist/Healing Arts, Chinese Herbologist/Healer. His visual art focuses primarily on color field, painting, and gestural abstraction with a study of the interrelationship of picture planes & push and pull color theory.

He studied painting with Murry Zimile and Pablo Frasconi at SUNY Purchase and his work has been shown at the Woodman Shimko Galleries in Provincetown and Palm Springs and at The Patty DeLuca Gallery where he presented four “solo shows.”

In addition to his visual art he has completed & released three solo albums: Tin Angel-Folk Rock, Strong Love and Meditation/ Healing Tones. He is presently working on a 3rd Album due for release in 2024. He recently co-starred to critical acclaim in Casa Valentina at Provincetown Theater (after co-starring in a production of The Humans there last

year) and presented a new collection of paintings: “Channeling darkness & light: New Paintings in the quantum millennium,” at The Provincetown Commons. He currently lives and works year-round in Provincetown where he also has a private acupuncture practice.

For more information on the film please follow the film’s Facebook and Instagram pages, and the film’s website at www.artistsattheedge.com.