From Charles M. Russell to Barbara Meikle and beyond, summer 2023 is looking pretty good for art lovers. Get out of the heat with these summer art events and galleries.

Want to beat the heat this summer? Step into a gallery or art show to experience the best of Western and Indigenous culture.

Through September 2
Billy Schenck: Mystic Visions of the West

This exhibition features 65 works by Billy Schenck, one of the pioneers of the contemporary art movement of the 1960s. Schenck, along with Fritz Scholder and Luis Jimenez, presented a conceptual and aesthetic counterpoint to the traditionalism provided by groups such as the Cowboy Artists of America. Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, Texas, 830.896.2553, museumofwesternart.com.

Billy Schenck, The Legend of Gregorio Cortez, 2019, oil, 28″ x 22″

Through September 4
With the Grain

Focusing on the story of wood carving in Northern New Mexico and the deep-rooted relationship wood carvers have with the materials they use for their art, this exhibition explores the work of modern and contemporary Hispanic carvers in Northern New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, 505.476.5072, nmartmuseum.org.

Patrocinio Barela, Carreta de la Muerte, 1953, carved wood and leather, 16.25” x 31.25” x 16.25”, National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum Permanent Collection, 2006.1.56 a-f. Anonymous gift in honor of Virginia and Edward Lujan. Photo credit: Addison Doty

Through September 10
Nexo Entre Raíces / Nexus Between Roots

Featuring prints from artists with Mexican roots working in both Mexico and the U.S., this printmaking exhibition comprises a total of 64 prints, 33 artworks exchanged for a print portfolio between the participating artists, as well as additional pieces contextualizing the artists’ work. The artworks traverse themes—including culture, tradition, identity, and place—that connect those with Mexican roots across borders. National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, nhccnm.org.

Juan de Dios Mora, Canícula, 2022, linograbado/linecut, 15” x 22”. Photo courtesy of Marco Sánchez

Through September 17
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Pearlman Collection

Some 30 works by Cézanne, Manet, Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani, and others are explored within the context of the artists’ experience of transience. The exhibition also examines the friendships they developed in Paris, as well as the varied locations and sites that shaped their work. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 713.639.7300, mfah.org.

Vincent van Gogh, Tarascon Stagecoach, 1888, oil on canvas, the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on loan to the Princeton University Art Museum. Photo credit: Bruce M. White

Through September 24
Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion

Artworks exploring lowrider and skateboard culture in Denver and across the American Southwest comprise this exhibition that delves into the diverse ways artists who self-identify as Indigenous and Latinx express identity, pride, and sense of community by transforming vehicles associated with the American West. Denver Art Museum, Denver, 720.865.5000, denverartmuseum.org.

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Liquid Sunshine (Sol Liquid), 2021, digital chromogenic print, 24” x 32”. Courtesy of Cara Romero © Cara Romero

Through September 24
Hold Your Horses! Exhibit and Sale

Celebrating the horse’s interaction with cowboys through ranch life and showmanship, this annual event features artists known specifically for their exceptional equine art. Participating artists this year include Shawn Cameron, Barbara Meikle, Scott Ewen, and Gary Byrd. Phippen Museum, Prescott, Arizona, 928.778.1385, phippenartmuseum.org.

Barbara Meikle, I’ve Got Your Back, oil on canvas, 24” x 36”. Courtesy of the artist.

August 10 – 13
Objects of Art & American Indian/Tribal Santa Fe

These shows offer an extensive collection of historic and contemporary material that includes unique objects, fashion and jewelry, furniture, works on paper and canvas, as well as classics in tribal, folk, and American Indian art. El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, Santa Fe, objectsofartshows.com.

August 11–13
Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival

This juried outdoor fine arts and crafts show features a wide range of original artwork as well as live music, food trucks, a picnic area, and kids’ activity area. Atkinson Park, Ketchum, Idaho, 208.720.5095, sunvalleyartsandcraftsfestival.com.

August 12 – 14
Whitehawk Antique Indian & Ethnographic Art Show

The “one show with endless treasures” kicks off August 11 with an opening night preview of Native American and ethnographic arts and jewelry. Items include devotional pieces, furniture, rugs, baskets, pottery, textiles, paintings, and more. Santa Fe Community Convention Center, Santa Fe, 805.340.0384, objectsofartshows.com.

August 11 – 13
Sculpture in the Park

The country’s largest outdoor juried sculpture show gets underway with a ticketed Friday night preview of the 2,000 artworks by 162 sculptors (including 27 new to the show). Proceeds go toward the purchase of sculpture for the garden. Currently 178 permanent pieces grace the grounds. Benson Sculpture Park, Loveland, Colorado, 970.663.2940, sculptureinthepark.org.

August 12 – October 14
America’s Horse in Art Show & Sale

The 2023 show and sale comprises artworks depicting the American Quarter Horse lifestyle. Art goes on sale (in person or by phone or proxy bid) directly following an opening reception with the artists August 12 and is available for purchase through October 14. American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum, Amarillo, Texas, 806.376.5181, aqha.com/artshow.

August 16 – 19
The Russell

Inspired by the artist and storyteller Charlie Russell, the C.M. Russell Museum’s fundraising events include a summer sale, art preview party, the First Strike Thursday Night auction, as well as an Art in Action/The Russell Live Auction combined event on Friday and more. Various venues, Great Falls, Montana, 406.727.1939, cmrussell.org.

August 17–19
Wheelwright Indian Market Events

The museum’s annual benefit event (August 17–18)—featuring donated and consigned Native art including jewelry, pottery, textiles, kachinas, folk art, and more—kicks off with a ticketed affair August 16. A Native artist market August 18–19 includes artists Cippy Crazyhorse, Waddie Crazyhorse, Benjamin Harjo Jr., Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird, Raynard Lalo, Shanna Peterson, Christopher Yazzie, and others. Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, 505.982.4636, wheelwright.org.

September 6 – 17
Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival

Over 50 art events make up the cultural extravaganza Celebrating Arts in the Tetons, Jackson Hole’s fall arts festival. Attractions include the Western Design Conference exhibit and sale, a quick-draw auction, food and wine tastings, gallery open houses, artist receptions, sales, and live art auctions. Various venues, Jackson, Wyoming, 307.733.3316, jacksonholechamber.com/events.

September 8 – 10
Quest for the West Art Show & Sale

This premier art event known for its festive atmosphere features newly created paintings and sculptures by 50 of today’s leading Western artists. Among the opening weekend events are a miniature art sale and fixed-price, luck-of-the-draw main sale (absentee bids accepted). The show opens to the public September 10, and all art will remain on view through October 8. Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, 317.636.9378, quest.eiteljorg.org.

Brad Teare (American, b. 1956), Majesty of Morning Light, 2023, oil on canvas, 42” x 42”. Image courtesy of the artist and the Eiteljorg Museum

September 9 – 16
Grand Canyon Celebration of Art

Artists capture the beauty of the canyon “en plein air” along the South Rim, September 9–16; these artworks will hang in the historic Kolb Studio for an exhibition and sale, September 17, 2023–January 16, 2024. A quick draw with on-site purchases takes place September 15. Various locations, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona, 480.277.0458, grandcanyon.org.

September 9 – 23
Bosque Art Classic

Drawings, paintings, and sculptures are among the 175–200 juried artworks featured in this year’s exhibition and sale opening to the public September 10. An awards ceremony is scheduled for September 9; the online sale opens September 11. All art remains on view through the end of the show. Bosque Arts Center, Clifton, Texas, 254.675.3724, bosqueartscenter.org.

Matt Atkinson; Sunka Wakan; 2022; graphite on Bristol Board; 20” x 24”; Silver Medal Drawing Winner, 2022 Bosque Art Classic. Photo courtesy of the artist

September 14 – 16
Trappings of Texas

This annual exhibition and sale of contemporary Western art and custom cowboy gear celebrates this year with 40-plus artists. Ticketed opening weekend activities include artist demonstrations, a preview party, opening reception, exhibit, sale, breakfast at the museum, and Ranch Roundup party. The exhibition remains up through November 4. Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine, Texas, 432.837.8143, museumofthebigbend.com.

September 14–17
Reno Tahoe International Art Show

Just two years old, this event has already made a name for itself with art from more than 200 independent artists and 60 galleries, a First Nation exhibition with 30-plus artists, the country’s largest indoor/outdoor sculpture exhibition, live music performances, short film screenings, and more. Reno-Sparks Convention Center, Reno, Nevada, rtiashow.com.

September 14 – October 1
Western Visions Art Show + Sale

Artworks by more than 170 contemporary wildlife artists come up for live auction and an intent-to-purchase sale at this year’s annual fundraiser. The exhibit opens September 9. Attend the signature event September 14 in person, online, or by proxy. Unsold works remain available September 15 – October 1; all art stays on display through October 1. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, 307.733.5771, wildlifeartevents.org.

September 15–24
Escalante Canyons Art Festival

In the heart of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, this festival celebrates Utah’s canyon country with plein air competitions, art exhibits and sales, workshops, an arts and crafts fair, live music, guided walks, and more. Various locations, Escalante, Utah, 435.616.1075, escalantecanyonsartfestival.org.

September 16
Jackson Hole Art Auction

The signature event of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, the auction offers quality art by renowned past masters as well as contemporary artists. This year’s artists include Bob Kuhn, Howard Terpning, Carl Rungius, Conrad Schwiering, and Carl Brenders. Center for the Arts, Jackson, Wyoming, 866.549.9278, jacksonholeartauction.com.

September 16 – 17
Prescott Indian Art Market

This juried Indian art market features traditional and contemporary artwork from artists representing many tribes and pueblos. You’ll find wood and stone carvings, pottery, ceramics, sculpture, paintings, baskets, blankets, clothing, and jewelry as well as Native musicians, dancers, and storytellers. Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona, 928.445.3122, sharlothallmuseum.org/piam.

This article appears in our August/September 2023 issue, available on newsstands now or through our C&I Shop.

Lead Image: Charles M. Russell; Assiniboine War Party; 1902; watercolor and ink; 9” x 13”.

Browse Netflix, check your local listings, or look up movies at any time of the year, and it doesn’t take a scientist to tell you that Native American and indigenous stories have systemically been left out of our collective media. Those that have risen to the top over the last century (Dances With Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans, Pocahontas) have been white-centric and/or have been stories that center around the suffering of indigenous peoples. It’s only in the last few years that, thankfully, stories by Native storytellers — of all kinds — have been given the same chances that thousands of tales of white men and women have been given by TV executives and movie producers; no longer is it that only sad Indian stories pass muster. Peacock’s Rutherford Falls, co-created by Sierra Teller Ornelas, Michael Schurm, and Ed Helms in 2021, was the first comedic sitcom where Native lives were central in the story; that same year, FX greenlit Reservation Dogs, a heartfelt and hilarious take on life on the rez.

The selection of Native narratives is still not where we’d like it to be, but that’s changing, albeit slowly. To celebrate what we can watch, here we’ve compiled a small list of shows, movies, and documentaries that can currently be seen or will be hitting screens in the next few months so you can make sure to watch funny, exciting, silly, ironic, and yes, sometimes scary or sad Native stories.

The Unknown Country (now available)

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Hailed by IndieWire as “a stunning spiritual companion” to the Oscar-winning Nomadland as well as the work of Terrence Malick, The Unknown Country was directed and co-written by Morrisa Maltz, a visual and performance artist whose work has been shown at MOCA in Los Angeles and in galleries around the world. The Unknown Country is her first narrative feature film and stars Lily Gladstone as Tana, an Oglala Lakota woman who is tethered to the past through a photograph that her grandmother took decades earlier. Living a transient lifestyle and reeling from a devastating loss in her life, Tana is pulled back to reality with an invitation to her cousin’s wedding. The reconnection with her family spurs a desire to retrace family history and find connection with people living far from mainstream life.

Maltz made the film with Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, a Lakota Sioux whom Maltz met at a hair salon in South Dakota in 2017 when Maltz was working on her first documentary feature, Ingrid. The Unknown Country premiered at SXSW in 2022 and opened in Los Angeles and New York on July 28. It will be released in several more theaters over the coming months, and you can find local listings through its website.

Dark Winds (now available)

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Much like the best-selling Leaphorn and Chee book series by Tony Hillerman that it’s based on, AMC’s first season of Dark Winds drew audiences in with its riveting tales of Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Deputy Jim Chee, played by Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon, respectively. The show was created by Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and is available to stream on AMC+ or watch on AMC as the six episodes air weekly, and its second season brings us back to Navajo County, where Leaphorn leads the small-but-mighty reservation police. Joined by Leaphorn’s most trusted sidekick, Sergeant Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten), the force chases down a bomb-crazy killer, while Chee, now a former deputy turned private eye, has a similar case he’s pursuing. As the two seemingly separate stories converge, old wounds are reopened for Leaphorn, and his patience — not to mention his moral and professional code — is challenged.

The second season also includes guest stars Jeri Ryan, a femme fatale whose weak physicality belies her nefarious ambitions, Nicholas Logan as the twisted assassin with a dark secret, and Jacqueline Byers as a Los Angeles Times reporter hellbent on telling a fair story of Native women’s struggle with maternal health and safety.

With an executive producer team that includes Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin, among others, you know it’s going to be a worthwhile watch.

Reservation Dogs (now available)

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In its third and final season, this laugh-out-loud funny/grab-the-tissues sad series really should be on your radar already. FX’s Reservation Dogs, co-created by Sterlin Harjo (Love and Fury, Barking Water, Four Sheets to the Wind) and Academy Award-winner Taika Waititi, follows a group of rural Oklahoma teens. They’re young, kindred spirits, or as they’d probably prefer to be called, partners in crime, who started out in season one just wanting to get out of their hometown and make it to the shores of California. The foursome — Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Cheese (Lane Factor) — begged, borrowed, but mostly stole to try to make this fantasy a reality, and over the first two award-winning seasons, audiences have fallen in love with them and their extended rez families (which even include spirits from the other side).

This 10-episode final season opens with the pack stranded in California after running away. Once they make it back to Okern — with some well-deserved discipline from their elders — Elora considers college, Bear comes across a conspiracy theorist named Maximus (Graham Greene), Willie Jack gets interested in healing her community, and Cheese still lives with his foster grandmother. Fun fact: McClarnon plays a tribal cop in this show too, and there’s a whole cast of characters played by Native super-talents, such as Wes Studi, Lily Gladstone, Richard Ray Whitman, and Jana Schmieding.

Downwind (August 18)

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Downwind — an appropriate companion watch to Oppenheimer — is a documentary that chronicles a dark period of U.S. history when, from 1951 to 1992, the United States government tested nuclear and atomic bombs in the Nevada desert. The downwinder communities, mostly made up of Native Americans, Mormons, and ranchers, continue to suffer the dire health consequences and intergenerational trauma caused by exposure to radioactive fallout from testing.

The film is executive produced by actor and activist Matthew Modine, who also co-stars in Oppenheimer, and whose family was directly affected by the desert testing sites. It’s narrated by Emmy Award-winner Martin Sheen, who protested against the continued testing of nuclear bombs in the late 1980s. And central to the documentary is Ian Zabarte, principal man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians, whose grandfather, cousins, and uncle all died from cancer, with plausible links to radiation exposure. He has been a tireless advocate with the Native Community Action Council and served on the Nevada Desert Experience board, because to this day, the Nevada test site remains active and off-limits and rests on deeded and sacred Shoshone land, without the consent of the Shoshone.

Downwind tells the invigorating tale of American patriot-activists committed to exposing the government’s wrongdoing, working to stop future nuclear weapons testing, and fighting to get Congress to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Killers of the Flower Moon (October 6)

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Killers of the Flower Moon is the hotly anticipated Martin Scorsese film based on the best-selling nonfiction book by David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. The book and the movie chronicle the rise of Osage Nation as they became some of the richest people in the world overnight after the discovery of oil on their land in the 1920s. Unsurprisingly, the amassed wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white men who extorted and stole as much of their money as they could before resorting to murder.

This epic Western crime drama co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone along with Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, and others, with a screenplay by Scorsese and Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune, A Star Is Born, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Get your tickets as soon as you can because this film — which got a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival — is going to be a scorcher.

The American Buffalo (October 16)

Ken Burns for The American Buffalo.

We’ve all heard the tragic story of how the U.S. Army and early Western settlers killed off nearly the entirety of buffalo in North America, but what about the species’ origins, or their integral nature to the very heart of Native American tribes all over the continent? The American Buffalo is a new two-part, four-hour PBS series from award-winning documentarian Ken Burns. Burns takes viewers on a journey through 10,000 years of history and across iconic continental landscapes to trace the giant animal’s evolution. The series studies the significance of buffalo to the ecosystem of the Great Plains, chronicles their near demise, and dives into their relationship with the indigenous people of North America and how important that connection was for both human and animal.

Bookmark your calendars to tune to PBS on October 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. ET to catch this epic journey.

Native America (October 24)

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In its second season, Native America is an important and groundbreaking portrait of life in contemporary Indian country. The four-part series, directed by Natives, fights back against the history books that so often talk about Native Americans in the past tense by showcasing their life, their culture, their people, and the enterprises of today’s indigenous world. Building on the history delved into during the first season, the second season of Native America reveals the tenacity, beauty, and power of today’s Native people who are smashing stereotypes. The audience will be introduced to exciting engineers, tough politicians, and brilliant artists who draw upon their Native traditions to help build a better world for their people and everyone else in the 21st century.

Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel, and food writer and is also a senior contributor to Shondaland. Elsewhere, she has written for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, and The Washington Post. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times and Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Instagram @ByValentinaV.

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Art shows addressing the themes of climate change, nature and sustainability from the hallowed confines of their white cube settings are common these days. Thankfully, in an effort to take the message beyond the four walls of the museum, sā Ladakh opts for a refreshingly different approach. Recently inaugurated at the astounding altitude of 3,600 metres in the Disko Valley landscape near Leh, this immersive exhibition (the sā in its title means ‘soil’ in Ladakhi dialect) promises to let visitors connect with nature and nudge them to reflect on the global environmental challenges.

Over 22 international and Indian artists are showcasing their climate-driven work in what has been billed as ‘Asia’s highest altitude land art exhibition’. Interestingly, among the participants are several young Ladakhi-origin artists whose art is influenced by climate change. Deeply concerned about the fragility of their mountainous surroundings, local artists like Jigmet Angmo, Tundup Gyatso, Skarma Sonam Tashi, Tsering Gurmet Kungyam, Arunima Dazess Wangchuk, Anayat Ali, Tsering Motup and Tundup Dorjay Churpon are known for working with discarded, renewable, natural or recycled materials.

Also read: A deep dive into the vernacular architecture of Ladakh that honours intergenerational memories

Artwork by Skarma Sonam Tashi.

sā Ladakh

Sustainable Craftsmanship

Worried about the plastic menace in a bustling tourist attraction like Ladakh, which offers scenic views of the Karakoram range adjoining the Himalayas, the Leh-based artist and architect Tundup Gyatso’s Kicker of Plastics — conjured out of plastic bottle waste, earth and wood — is intended as a commentary on the environmental impact of tourism. Popular as a mountain biking destination, Disko Valley is the ideal venue for Gyatso’s biking-inspired creativity, says Raki Nikahetiya, co-curator and co-founder of sā Ladakh. “Gyatso uses his installation as a metaphor to confront plastic pollution and urges us to reconsider our consumption habits,” Nikahetiya adds. Another artist hailing from Leh, Skarma Sonam Tashi, has repurposed old notebooks, cardboard and clay to highlight the significance of glaciers to hillside villages where water is scarce. Similarly, Anayat Ali’s Sacred Place examines the constantly changing and vulnerable ecology of Ladakh, particularly affected in recent years by the carbon footprints of the burgeoning tourism industry and infrastructure projects that exploit the region’s natural resources.

EDMONDS, August 6, 2023—The Native American Modern: Shared Expressions in Northwest Art is now on exhibit until October 29, 2023, at the Cascadia Art Museum. This exhibition is the first to center around the art of Julius “Land Elk” Twohy (Two-vy-nah-auche) (1902 – 1986) and his local contemporaries. One of the region’s earlier modernists, he was best known for his paintings and prints created in Seattle through the Federal Art Projects of the 1930’s and 40’s.

Twohy, (Ute) and his younger contemporary, Delbert J. McBride (Cowlitz/Quinault 1920-1998), produced fascinating art and objects utilizing modern and abstract designs inspired by their Native American heritage. Their works will be displayed alongside non-native contemporaries such as Worth D. Griffin (1893-1981), R. Bruce Inverarity (1909–1999) and others who were highly influenced by Northwest indigenous design and culture. These artists worked side by side and received acclaim in their own individual fields.

Cascadia Art Museum is located at 190 Sunset Ave S., Edmonds is operating hours are Wednesday – Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Related

NEWBERRY — Anyone who walks around Downtown Newberry may notice a mural on Tiny Paris (Caldwell Street). This piece of art was created by 28-year-old Ricardo Ramirez.

Ramirez, a New York native, said he started getting into art at a young age.

“I remember being in school and instead of paying attention, I found myself drawing in my notebooks…to my teacher’s dismay. I found art and drawing captivated me more than many other things,” he said. “This is what I wanted to do, it was always art, it was always creating. I think that has definitely made its way into my adult life, I never lost the desire to create to make anything.”

Ramirez’s first creation was of his mother, he said it started after he got in trouble and was sent to his room.

“As a way to make amends, I decided to draw a picture of her. I quickly learned the mistake in this, after I was done drawing, I held it up and it looked so bad, looked nothing like her,” Ramirez said laughing. “I did not give it to her and stayed in my room grounded.”

That was the first piece he remembered drawing.

When it comes to style and inspiration Ramirez thought hard and said he likes to create art based on what grabs his attention.

“There is so much out there that tries to grab your attention to sell you something. If art can do it for more wholesome or thought provoking, that’s the kind of art I like to make,” he said.

Simply put, Ramirez likes to create art that he likes to make.

“I think way before you put pen to paper it is just observing, just looking, noticing unique features in people, maybe different poses, differing buildings. Just be observant, just look,” he said. “From there, the things that stand out when you are looking, that make interesting subject matter to make a piece. Not just nature, different T.V. shows, directing shots, comic books, anything — if I like it, that is where I start.”

One of Ramirez’s pieces is that of a rooster, inspired after spending time with his friend, Sergio, who has chickens.

“Being raised in the city, I was not exposed to farm life, never saw a chicken up close until he took me to meet his chickens,” he said. “Sergio shows me his rooster, he held him up and the way the light hit the feathers, I saw all these colors, greens, purples, the colors moved in the sunlight; I thought it was amazing that something ordinary has extraordinary characteristics. It all comes from being observant.”

Ramirez added that there is a lot that can be done with something normally overlooked. He said if you take a look at something long enough, a grain of interest is already there. For example, Ramirez started creating art following a coffee stain.

“I was working on my computer, put my coffee cup on a piece of paper, it left a coffee ring and it held my attention. I thought, you could do something with a stain and coffee, something unartistic you can do something neat with. I created art from what the coffee stain said to do, one was spaghetti and the other was a fox,” he said. “I used a pen (to create the other side) and then got better shadows using the coffee, I layered the coffee with the watercolor brush.”

When it comes to his art style, Ramirez said he was inspired by the late Roy Lichtenstein, an American pop artist.

“He is one of my favorite artists, he broke the norm. He would take pictures of comics and blow them up (before computers) and paint it. I watched a video about him, he was nervous and talking to an artist friend, he didn’t know if it was art and the friend said it didn’t matter, art doesn’t have boundaries,” Ramirez said.

This inspiration led Ramirez to create a canvas painting based on Lichtenstein’s work.

“During school, I got into comic books and that is when I really got into art, the stories are great but the images really captivated me, heavy black lines, graphic style of the artwork. That’s what I want to do, that’s me,” he said.

Professionally, Ramirez uses Octopus Ink has his handle and he said the name was invented by his wife, Emily, when they were dating.

“I told her I wanted to start this business, I couldn’t come up with a name. She asked me my favorite animal and I said octopus. I get a call that same day and she said Octopus Ink and that was a pretty cool name,” he said.

While creating his work, Ramirez said he uses pen, pencil and paper, however, after a couple of years, he bought a drawing tablet.

“Buying that opened up a world of possibilities, may be expensive to create on a canvas, but with a tablet doing it digitally, there is no limit to your imagination,” he said.

To see more of Ramirez, check out www.octopusinkcreative.com or on Instagram.

SUMMARY

• Shamanism, an ancient system of beliefs and practices, is prevalent in various cultures across the globe.
• Art has a significant role in shamanistic practices, with many art forms having symbolic and healing purposes. Contemporary artists like Joseph Beuys and Ernesto Neto have drawn from shamanic traditions.
• Indigenous artists provide an authentic perspective on shamanism, emphasizing its communal nature and resisting the homogenization of global culture.
• The resurgence in shamanism and spiritual practices might be a reaction to the uncertainties of the modern world and a collective desire for reconnecting with nature and finding sustainable ways of living.

Shamanism is a system of beliefs and practices that many researchers consider the oldest surviving. This system has barely changed in the history of humanity. Shamanism is not a religion in the present-day sense since various cultures rely on various mythological systems, but a specific type of religious practice. It is surrounded by many myths and misconceptions imposed by Western culture. Still, many artists choose to employ shamanic practice not only as an homage to their ethnic roots but as a specific way of artistic self-expression.

Shamanism as a practice is not limited to a specific region or culture. Although rituals and settings may differ, shamanic practices still exist in Australia, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. The word shaman is familiar to the Western ear but it is often influenced by pop cultural images. Shamans are not evil magicians but practicing spiritualists and healers, usually deeply respected by their community. According to practitioners’ beliefs, one does not decide if they want to become a shaman as the spirits make their choice before the person in question is even born.

Entering the state of trance, often with the use of psychedelics, a shaman can supposedly communicate with spirits, negotiate with them, and sometimes even fight them. Shaman as a being exists outside the boundaries of the dead and the living, the spiritual and the human. Rebirth and transformation are crucial processes for shamans. Often they are symbolically killed during initiation rituals since this act is supposed to give them the ability to cross the borders between the worlds. Social and gender boundaries also rarely apply to shamans. In many cultures, a shaman is a separate category, not subject to the common characteristics of males and females.

Shamanism and Indigenous Art

Creating art plays an important role in shamanistic practices, yet, contrary to popular belief, the artistic element of it is not limited to performance art. Painting and sculpture are also common. However, a shaman is not creating art for art’s sake. Instead, all of their actions have symbolic and practical meanings. For instance, Navajo sand paintings that are created by a shaman seeping colored sand through their fingers, have a healing purpose, with the design of the composition depending on a particular illness. The sick person then sits on the painting as part of the healing ritual.

In fact, many varieties of shamanic art imply the destruction of the shaman’s work at the end of the ritual. Always made from natural materials like wool, soil, or honey, pieces of indigenous art involved in practices often come back to nature, completing the cycle.

In a way, the myth of a shaman is similar to the Western myth of an artist. Both shamans and artists perform their actions not because they are willing to do it but because they cannot avoid doing it. A shamanic gift can kill its owner when unreleased, just like the suppressed artistic self-expression harms the artist. The concepts of an artist and a shaman share the idea of non-regular humans, capable of seeing, feeling, and expressing more than others. Like a shaman transforming themselves during the ritual, an artist is going through a spiritual catharsis.

One of the best-known Western artists who incorporated shamanic practices in his work was the controversial German man named Joseph Beuys. Art historians regard Beuys as the father of performance art and conceptualism but nonetheless admit that his actions and claims need to be re-evaluated. Beuys’ artistic persona was the central element of his art.

Born in 1921, Beuys was old enough to volunteer for the Luftwaffe when World War II  unfolded. He was stationed in Crimea, Ukraine in 1942 and conducted attacks as a gunner until his plane crashed in 1944. That was the moment when Beuys artistic biography started. According to the artist, the tribe of Crimean Tatars found him and accepted him as one of their people. These events left a lasting mark on Beuys’ artistic practice. For years after the incident, he dived into shamanic practices and adapted them into his artworks, often using natural materials and ritualistic gestures.

However, it is necessary to state that Beuys’ story was hardly anything more than a product of his imagination. Although the plane crash indeed happened, there were no Crimean Tatars in the area. Despite Beuys’ claims that he was reborn as a new person and left Luftwaffe as soon as he got back to his unit, he actually remained in service until the Third Reich capitulation in May 1945.

Beuys never confessed what made him invent the story so difficult to believe. Apart from a rather understandable act of establishing his artistic persona, Beuys had probably felt the need to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the public. After the end of World War II, being a German artist was not a crime, but being a Luftwaffe volunteer certainly was. To avoid accusations, Beuys fabricated the narrative of rebirth and redemption, which still did not stop him from maintaining his connections with some Nazi officials who managed to escape Europe.

The central topics of Beuys’ work were transformation, healing, and reconnection with nature. All these processes were necessary to fix the world after two great wars. He planned the world’s rebirth in the same fashion as his own life story, staging performances based on his archetypal mythology. Once, he spent a week in an enclosed room with a coyote, which he regarded as the most indigenous being in America, wrapped in felt blankets, overcoming the hostility of the poor animal.

During another performance, Beuys covered his head in honey and gold leaf and wandered through an art gallery with a dead hare in his arms, whispering the meaning of the exhibited works into the animal’s ear. Hare and honey are known as symbols of resurrection in German culture. The whole performance could be seen as both the lamentation over the natural world, destroyed by humans and replaced with simulacra, and the elaborate ritual of its resurrection, composed of movements, incantations, and sacrifices.

Borrowing indigenous spiritual practices isn’t anything new for Western artists. Apart from the not-so-carefully fabricated story of Joseph Beuys, we can recall Jackson Pollock, who had a profound interest in Native American art and shamanistic practices. Pollock’s gesture painting originated from Navajo art, used in healing rituals and ceremonies.

Only a limited number of artists inspired by shamanism directly present themselves as shamans. Still, their interest in rituals and shamanic practices illustrates a larger trend towards deeper spiritual involvement and reconsidering our relationships with society and nature.

Brazilian contemporary artist Ernesto Neto closely collaborates with the Huni Kuin people, an indigenous group living in Brazil and Peru. Neto didn’t just adopt the shamanic practices of the Huni Kuin, he also invited its representatives to join his artistic projects. Neto’s installations often incorporate smells, textures, and space manipulation to immerse the viewers completely, helping them reach a trance-like state.

Shamanism and Colonialism

When we talk about the use of shamanist practices in Western art, we have to mention a certain degree of cultural insensitivity. Cultural appropriation and distortion of concepts inherent to the life and practices of indigenous groups not only offend the groups in question but interfere with preserving their traditions. The use of shamanic practices by artists like Jackson Pollock sometimes provoked criticism for the inward-driven nature of his art, which focused on the artist’s ego. Shamanism as a practice does not focus on a single individual since it’s a community-oriented concept shared by all members of the group.

Thankfully, as the presence of indigenous artists on the art market grows, the representation of shamanism radically transforms from a deformed retelling to first-hand accounts of practitioners and keepers of the tradition. Through their spiritual practices, indigenous artists are re-exploring their ethnic identities, while establishing them in broader cultural contexts. Turning to shamanic practices often signifies opposition to the globalized homogenous culture.

In recent years, anthropologists saw a rise in interest in spiritual practices and shamanism was no exception. But why exactly did we decide to shift back to wood, felt, and ritual dances in the era of social media and metaverse?

The experts give several reasons for such a shift. One is the uncertainty of the future, with wars, pandemics, and ecological and economic crises happening. Unable to rely on the world around them, artists turn their gaze inwards, addressing the internal processes.

The Covid lockdowns and isolation brought a certain degree of techno-fatigue to people. Too many things were happening online as the world struggled to maintain an illusion of order. Although previous generations of artists were enthusiastic about technological development and its seemingly endless possibilities for creating art, contemporary creators now realize that technology can only express as much.

The physical experiences of interacting with nature and its powers became valuable again. Shamanistic practices, rooted in close contact with the realm of nature and understanding of its laws, offer an alternative way of expression and perception. The use of natural materials in shamanic practices also falls into the trend of ecological consciousness. The revival of indigenous spiritual practices is hardly a step back from rationalism and it might be a step forward toward a sustainable future.

The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Native Art Fellowship.

This year’s Native Art Fellowship recipients are: Rose Pecos-SunRhodes (Jemez Pueblo) and Taylar Stagner (Arapaho and Shoshone).

The native clay pottery that Rose Pecos-SunRhodes creates stems from the upbringing she’s had as a member of the Jemez Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. Born and raised with the tradition of pottery she has learned from the masters of the village who have taught her to continue the age-old cultural practices. As a contemporary traditional artist/potter, she respects and takes from the old traditional methods of collecting the clays, paints and firing to using a more contemporary, unique flair on the style of the clay piece she is working on.

Rose considers herself a contemporary figurative potter. Storytellers, which depict village storytellers from long ago are portrayed by many pueblo potters. She has won numerous awards at Santa Fe Indian Market, Heard Museum, Red Earth Art Festival, Eiteljorg Museum and featured in permanent exhibits at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, traveling exhibit, “From One Hand to Another” owned by the Eitlejorg Museum and the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. Her recent entry at The Autry Museum American Indian Art Marketplace show earned her a second-place award in pottery.

Taylar Dawn Stagner is a writer and a journalist from Riverton, Wyoming. She focuses on Indigenous Affairs and has worked for Wyoming Public Media, and High Country News Magazine, and has won an Edward R. Murrow Award for her podcast episode on rural drag queens in Wyoming with The Modern West Podcast. Currently, she is an Uproot Environmental Journalist Fellow and an Air New Voices Fellow as well. She mentors for NPR’s Next Generation Radio: Indigenous as well as holds a master’s degree in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. Stagner is a Southern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone descendant.

The Native Art Fellowship is a $5,000 unrestricted award of merit, based on the artist’s portfolio, honoring the work of Native artists based within Wyoming. Artists working across any artistic discipline or medium (visual, literary, performing, folk & traditional, etc.) may apply. This fellowship is designed to raise the profiles of the highly talented Native artists in Wyoming and celebrate their artistry.

Submissions are juried anonymously by jurors from outside the state with extensive backgrounds in each artistic area. This year’s jurors were Karen Ann Hoffman, a Haudenosaunee Raised Beadwork artist and citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and artist Daniel McCoy, of the The Muscogee Nation, who resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his family. 

For the 10^th installment of the Renwick Invitational, curators for the first time selected artists who are all Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Six contemporary makers, each a member of a separate sovereign nation.

Be careful, however, not to consider their art exclusively from Indigenous perspectives.

“All the works in the exhibition were created to intentionally communicate across cultural boundaries,” guest curator Lara M. Evans (Cherokee Nation) said. “There may be some aspects in the works that only people from the artist’s own community will understand, but the works are intended to be evocative for all of us who encounter them.”

Resist a subconscious bias to tie every Native artist and artwork specifically to Native topics as if they don’t share a common humanity.

It might feel natural connecting the large-scale mixed media works of Maggie Thompson (b. 1989; Minneapolis, MN, Fond du Lac Ojibwe) with the ongoing epidemic of violence against Native American women, but question why her work doesn’t equally speak to the ongoing epidemic of violence against all women globally.

I Get Mad Because I Love You (2021-23) uses glass beads, filament and silver-plated tin cones in referencing an abuser’s rationalization. The beads range between clear and white with different sheens, some opaque, some glossy,

“I chose to use that material because when you’re in a psychologically abusive relationship, it’s hard to differentiate what’s actually being said and the intentions behind what’s being said,” Thompson said in an interview with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, host of the Renwick Invitational. “Oftentimes, you choose to focus on the good, so I chose to highlight the words ‘I love you’ so it pops out more. Just because you say ‘I love you’ doesn’t mean you get to treat me this way.”

An experience, personal, both Indigenous and universal. Thompson’s themes of identity, grief, loss and relationships are unbound by nations.

“Yes, I identify as a Native female, but I’m not speaking on behalf of (missing and murdered Indigenous women), it’s coming from a more universal perspective,” Thompson told Forbes.com. “(MMIW) is a really important topic, but I come at (abuse) from an individual perspective hoping that others from all different backgrounds will be able to relate.”

The Equivocator (2021), rope, wire, stockings, thread and ribbon, likewise, comes from personal experience.

“A belly tied in knots with the red flags that you so delicately placed, but insisted did not exist,” Thompson wrote at the time, text which now accompanies the piece on exhibit.

Coiled nylons shaped like intestines–a belly–are tied with red flags.

“Everyone experiences grief in life, but may not always be able to talk about it so my art is a way to process and go through those emotions and put it in a visual form,” she told SAAM.

The Renwick Invitational

Established in 2000, the Renwick Invitational showcases emerging and mid-career makers deserving of wider national recognition. The presentation appears in SAAM’s Renwick Gallery, the preeminent center for American craft in the United States. “Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023” highlights fresh and nuanced visions by six contemporary artists who express the honors and burdens connecting people to one another.

Joining Thompson are Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiat) and Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy). The artists come from communities where making is an honored way of coming to know.

Making serves as not only a form of self-expression, but also a powerful way of processing everyday life and expressing ties to community. In doing so, each artist uses traditional forms of making—weaving, beading or sewing—and adapts the materials and techniques to create contemporary works of art. Individually, each craftsperson works in some manner with techniques, materials or concepts embedded within their tribe’s customary practices and history. Thompson’s I Get Mad Because I Love You features a fringe of metal cones referencing the healing potential of making and dancing in the jingle dress in Ojibwe culture.

Their work is also intended to engage with global audiences. The 55 artworks in the exhibition speak to the responsibility of ushering forward cultural traditions while shaping the future with innovative works of art. Think beadwork–customary–with text-based art–contemporary–as united in I Get Mad Because I Love You.

Or Thompson’s star quilt body bags which, again, incorporate traditional beadwork and recall the star quilt patterns used by select Native American tribes, but applied to body bags in memoriam of COVID victims.

“Pushing forward, using different combinations of materials, using things in a different form, taking these star quilts and putting them into the form of a body bag, that’s not traditional,” Thompson explains.

The Renwick Invitational will remain on view through March 31, 2024.

Beyond Granite

Between August 18 and September 18, 2023, visitors to Washington, D.C. can experience “Beyond Granite: Pulling Together,” a first of its kind project curated by Monument Lab at the invitation of the Trust for the National Mall. Six new monumental scale artworks serving as prototype monuments will be placed across marquee sites on the National Mall from leading contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Wendy Red Star (Absáalooke), vanessa german, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Tiffany Chung and Ashon Crawley.

The title borrows from educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune who, upon seeing the 1939 Easter Sunday performance of renowned Black opera singer Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, said the performance “told a story of hope for tomorrow–a story of triumph–a story of pulling together, a story of splendor and real democracy.”

Anderson was barred from performing at nearby Constitution Hall due to segregation in the capital.

The artworks address the question, “what stories remain untold on the National Mall?” with a goal of bringing together innovative and experimental forms of monumentality and memory-making to shine a light on and acknowledge Indigenous legacies, histories of enslavement, civil rights, LGBTQ activism, pathways for immigration, environmental justice, and other narratives of American struggle and survival.

Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia working with artists, students, educators, activists, municipal agencies, and cultural institutions on participatory approaches to public engagement and collective memory.