When Houston native Vincent Nguyen started to miss all his friends from art school in New York City, he came up with an idea: Why not have a gallery show and bring them all to Houston?

That show, called Friend of a Friend, will open May 12 at Reeves Art & Design in Montrose. It has two purposes: to bring a group of up-and-coming and established artists to Houston, where viewers can see their work firsthand, and to introduce Houston as a Southern cultural hub to those artists. The exhibit will feature 21 contemporary artists from across the country, working in mediums that include sculpture, paint, digital art, and more. The idea, Nguyen says, is to show that the old ways of networking, which required living on the coasts or getting formal arts training, no longer apply.

Trinity Heritage Day, an experience honoring the land, peoples and stories of our place, will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 20, in historic downtown Weaverville.

An opening ceremony will be held at noon and a closing ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the Highland Art Center meadow, 691 Main St., hosted by the Nor-Rel-Muk Wintu Nation. Following the opening ceremony, visitors are encouraged to join in at free drop-in arts, dance and music workshops from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., courtesy of the Trinity County Arts Council. Featured artists include Trinity Tribal Drum musicians Thomas Burns, Randolph Sanchez and Rosalie Jones, and traditional dancer Olivia Foster.

Amanda Mae Gibbs will teach bear grass weaving and visitors can take home their own works. Ted and Laura Dawson of Nom Sus Wintu will be on hand, and guests are encouraged to talk to Ted and learn first-hand about Native plant ecology, medicinal plant uses and so much more. Culture Bearer George Heinz will teach bow making and have many artifacts to show from our local areas. Phil Harper will show traditional regalia, and visitors can learn about and make art using Petroglyphs.

Artist Jesi Naomi will offer a free jewelry making workshop, and Native artists will have their wares for sale. Indian Tacos by the Nor-Rel-Muk, and BBQ ribs courtesy of U-Rok Bakery, will also be available for purchase.

Across the street, the Joss House State Historic Park invites visitors to explore Chinese history and enjoy tours of the Taoist Temple and museum. Visitors can also explore pioneer history at the Jake Jackson Museum, where the Stamp Mill will be fired up from 11 a.m. until approximately 2 p.m.

Next to the Highland Art Center meadow, the Trinity Congregational United Church of Christ will open its sanctuary to visitors from 1 to 3 p.m. Golden Nuggets will be hidden throughout the merchant’s district, redeemable for gifts at participating locations.

Visitors are invited to dress in historical period clothing for the day. The Trinity Alps Performing Arts Center has graciously loaned their bounty of period clothing to outfit the town. Period clothing is available for rental from May 15-19, the Heritage Day Clothing Shoppe will be at Angela’s Bead Art, 100 Cox Road, next to the Meraki Beauty House before the Weaverville Victorian Inn on Highway 299, and will be open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, May 15-18, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, May 19. A $5 donation is suggested; for further inquiries email trinitycountyarts@gmail.com, Attn: Julie.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – “Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023” focuses on fresh and nuanced visions by six contemporary Native American and Alaska Native artists who express the honors and burdens that connect people to one another. The exhibition features objects by Joe Feddersen, Lily Hope, Ursala Hudson, Erica Lord, Geo Neptune and Maggie Thompson that speak to the responsibility of ushering forward cultural traditions while shaping the future with innovative works of art. Their works are often culturally specific, yet they communicate across cultural boundaries. The 55 artworks in the exhibition arise from traditions of making that honor family, community or clan and require broad community participation.

The exhibition is on view from May 26, 2023 through March 31, 2024, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s (SAAM) Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. It is organized by guest curator Lara M. Evans, Founding Director of the Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, and current Vice President of programs for First Peoples Fund, with Nora Atkinson, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator in Charge at the Renwick Gallery.

“It is a great honor to spotlight these artists from Alaska, Washington State, New Mexico, Minnesota and Maine at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery, the preeminent center for American craft in the United States,” said Stephanie Stebich, the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “It is also a special burden of responsibility to showcase their artwork in a way that recognizes the past, present and future. As visitors experience groundbreaking craft from these makers, we invite them to embrace a more nuanced understanding of how Indigenous perspectives and experiences are shaping American art today.”

It is the first time that artists chosen for the Renwick Invitational are all Native Americans and Alaska Natives. All are members of separate sovereign nations: Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, Nenana Native Association, Wabanaki Confederacy, Okanagan Nation and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The artists were selected by a panel of distinguished jurors, including Evans; Miranda Belarde-Lewis, independent curator and the Jill and Joe McKinstry Endowed Faculty Fellow of Native North American Indigenous Knowledge at the University of Washington’s iSchool; and Anya Montiel, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

The exhibition includes 13 new artworks that were created within the past year in addition to three pieces the museum commissioned specifically for the exhibition: “Between Worlds (Child’s Robe)” by Hope, “Sister Bear” by Hudson and “The Codes We Carry” by Lord. The museum recently acquired Feddersen’s “Horses and Deer” and anticipates acquiring works by all of the featured artists for its permanent collection. 

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, but their work is also intended to engage with global audiences. Adding to the complexities of making are the unique decisions Native and Alaskan Native artists must often consider while creating, including balancing customary functional forms with beauty and personal narratives, determining which aspects are suitable to share with outside, non-Native audiences, and weighing the risks and benefits involved in adapting historical practices to new uses.

The artists in “Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023” come from communities where making is an honored way of coming to know. For example, Feddersen is a printmaker, glass artist and basket maker who creates geometric patterns sourced from everyday life. Lord, a multimedia artist, crafts beaded burden straps and sled-dog blankets with abstracted representations of the diseases that disproportionately impact Native and other marginalized communities. Neptune is a master basket maker, activist and educator who uses colorful narratives to emphasize the honor and burden of keeping tradition alive. Hope and Hudson, who are sisters, weave labor-intensive textiles that convey Tlingit values of reciprocity and balance, maintaining cultural integrity while experimenting with new forms and materials. Thompson, a textile artist, creates large-scale works that explore the intersections of grief and trauma with honor, beauty and healing.

“In the summer of 2021, as Anya, Miranda and I discussed our selections, we found our way toward two related themes that link these artists’ practice and artwork: honors and burdens,” said Evans. “The artworks themselves make tangible the range of honors and burdens we carry with us, from the grief and trauma of personal and community loss to precious knowledge gained from teachers and ancestors. ‘Sharing Honors and Burdens’ helps us think about these ideas through beautifully crafted artworks, large and small, in stillness and in movement.”

A series of videos was produced for the exhibition, including an introductory video with guest curator Evans and six artist videos that focus on the artists in their studios produced by the Institute of American Indian Arts in collaboration with the museum. The videos are available on the museum’s YouTube channel and are part of the in-gallery presentation. Visitors are encouraged to reflect on the honors and burdens in their own lives via a response wall at the end of the exhibition.

Established in 2000, the Renwick Invitational showcases emerging and mid-career makers deserving of wider national recognition. “Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023” is the 10th installment of the series. It is the latest example of the museum’s commitment to highlighting contemporary Native American artists and Indigenous voices through acquisitions and exhibitions.

As the executive director of the Hopi Foundation, Monica Nuvamsa’s day job keeps her busy in service to her community. But in her free time, she’s looking to invest in her art. Working in pen, ink, paints, and textiles, and inspired by her culture and heritage, Nuvamsa prints her designs on chiffon scarves, jigsaw puzzles, and more.

“It’s an expensive side hobby,” she says. “I wasn’t willing to take the risk to invest in my art when I went to college. But now that I have some foundation for myself, I can afford to grow.”

Nuvamsa’s dream is to sell her products in every national and state park across her ancestral homelands — places like Grand Canyon National Park, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde National Park, Wupatki National Monument, Tuzigoot National Monument, and Montezuma Castle.

“Those places are really important connections to my heritage, and I want my cultures to be represented in those spaces.”

Nuvamsa, a member of the Hopi Tribe, also traces her lineage to the Tewa people of the Rio Grande basin, the Acoma Pueblo, and the Havasupai Tribe within the Grand Canyon.

“I’m literally a swath of the Colorado Plateau. This is my homeland. This is who I am. Every space has a meaning for me and for my people.”

Nuvamsa is on her way toward realizing her dream. The Grand Canyon was the first park to come to her door, well, booth technically, at an art show in Flagstaff, Arizona. Nuvamsa started selling her puzzles to the Hopi House gift shop on the South Rim shortly thereafter.

Selling through middlemen

The park service relies on concessionaires — companies with long-term contracts — to run gift shops, hotels, restaurants, buses, and more. For artists like Nuvamsa, concessionaires are middlemen between them and their customers. But being a vendor selling wares to a concessionaire is limiting, she says. Xanterra, the company that buys Nuvamsa’s puzzles, purchases small quantities from her and caps the price it pays per item.

“They wanted to buy my scarves, but they don’t fit into their cost structure. I don’t want to eat into my value to do that, so I told them no until I am able to find a way to make it work more sustainably for me,” she says. “The cultural value and the significance that an artist adds, that’s really hard to put a number to. And it’s also hard for people to quantify who don’t have the same appreciation of what you structure into your value.”

Often, a lack of transparency exists around concessionaires’ pricing and markups.

“Before I sold to [Xanterra], I asked how much they’d sell it for, and they said, ‘we can’t really share that.’”

Nuvamsa found out by visiting the Hopi House gift shop to look at the pricing and was glad to learn the company stayed within the retail range they had discussed. Not every retailer will provide artists with retail ranges for their work. Some artists have a hard time negotiating these ranges because they don’t know how to value their work to include time and talent, in addition to the raw materials.

Overall, she says her relationship with Xanterra is going well. She’s happy with the display and presentation of her work at the Hopi House and feels her buyer is respectful of her and the other Hopi artists she knows.

Seeking change at Grand Canyon National Park

The challenges Nuvamsa describes are common for Native artists trying to sell their work in national parks and monuments. In August 2022, a group of Native entrepreneurs, tourism professionals, park service staff, concessionaires, and many others came together for the Emergence Intertribal Economic Summit to brainstorm new ways to do business at Grand Canyon National Park. Ideas flowed like the Colorado River in a flash flood.

To strengthen the arts and crafts market in Grand Canyon National Park, Native entrepreneurs want to see increased transparency, artist education (like how to price your products, business 101, marketing, etc.), trade shows, fair and equitable contracts, and more selling locations in the park, among other ideas.

Building a more inclusive Grand Canyon economy

Improving concessionaire support for Native artists is a good start toward building a sustainable and inclusive Grand Canyon economy. But to truly address economic barriers, challenges, and inequities, we need to think bigger.

To build a regional economy around the Grand Canyon, Nuvamsa says we should start by looking at the environments, geographies, challenges, and barriers tribes face in their own backyards.

“There’s a lot of equity building that’s needed,” she says. “I think it becomes a game changer when we ask for what we want, and most importantly, what we need. Because we’ve always given over to somebody else’s power, and that’s not gotten us anywhere.”

An Indigenized Grand Canyon, according to Nuvamsa, would be run by tribes.

“If the parks and the nation want to see this place sustainable, they should invest in tribes to do that. The Grand Canyon is a spiritual place for us, and the people that practice spirituality give it meaning. When we’re absent from that picture, it’s just a very big hole in the ground or simply a playground for recreationists.”

The Emergence Intertribal Economic Summit looks at new ways of doing business at Grand Canyon National Park, with the goal of building a regional economy guided by Indigenous cultural values.

Detail of Francesco Simeti’s station artwork design in progress

Learn about artwork in progress for the under-construction Westwood/VA Hospital Station and participate in an art making workshop with artist Francesco Simeti on Tuesday, May 23 in the West LA Veterans’ Garden at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center. Simeti, one of four artists commissioned to create site-specific, integrated artwork for the station, will lead workshop participants in creating sketches and collages inspired by the Veterans’ Garden. Participants may choose to have their work considered for inclusion in the artist’s final design for the station.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023 
11am-2pm

West LA Veterans’ Garden 
100–138 Davis Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90049
(located behind the Jackie Robinson Stadium on Davis Ave, note: map apps call it the “Grow Native Veterans’ Garden”)

RSVP by Friday, May 19 by email MetroArt@metro.net or call (213) 922-4278 

Art supplies and lunch will be provided to attendees who RSVP by the deadline.

Plan your trip using Transit app. To get there, take Metro E Line (Expo) to Expo/Bundy Station to ride Metro Bus 14 to Montana/Barrington.

For more information, visit metro.net/art

Click here to read more about the artists selected to create artwork for the Purple (D Line) Extension Transit Project.

About Metro Art  

Metro Art enhances the customer experience with innovative, award-winning visual and performing arts programming that encourages ridership and connects people, sites and neighborhoods throughout LA County. A diverse range of site-specific artworks are integrated into the growing Metro system, improving the quality of transit environments and creating a sense of place.  

Click here for more information about the Metro Art program. Follow Metro Art on  Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe for email updates on upcoming meet-the-artist events.

Related

Each month in 2023, we’re asking a local artist to recreate one of our iconic covers from the past 75 years. For May, we tapped our very own Art Director and North County native, Samantha Lacy to reimagine a 1961 cover. You can see her recreation here and learn more about her in the Q&A below:

Tell us about how you found your distinguished style and how you honed your skills?

My mother always said I should be a medical illustrator. Not much money in that, haha, but I’ve always loved old botanical prints and Audobon’s lithographs. I think if I had a different life I’d be happy as an ornithologist. I’m just a bird nerd at heart, and I’ve been drawing plants and animals forever.

I love watercolor because it’s buildable, it’s easy to work with, and it has this dreamy quality that I’m drawn to. I think my style has transitioned over the years to become more realistic, but believe me, there’s a surrealist weirdo inside of me, too.

What artists do you admire or look up to? What makes their art or creations so special to you?

I’m totally obsessed with Tiffany Bozic. Her work would maybe be my ideal for myself if I was a studio artist full-time. It’s full of allegory and double entendre, while also subtle, carefully crafted, and just gorgeous. She’s diligent that the Maplewood panels she uses are sustainable, and that she’s as conservative as possible about her paint usage.

I also love Walton Ford, and Stephanie Brown, who’s an amazing tattoo artist. There are so many others. I admire artists who use nature to tell us stories about ourselves. We’re nothing without it, yet so often we think we’re something else.

How do you think your art reflects the Southern California lifestyle? How does living in San Diego play a role in the way your art comes to life?

Living in Southern California is incredibly inspiring to me, especially in the art that I do, and would like to do more of. We have this Mediterranean scrub climate, that at first seems static and dry throughout the year. But it’s actually dynamic, full of life and biodiversity, and you can be outside almost every day. I try to notice the subtleties, and the differences around me month to month. It helps calm me down and reminds me that everything changes, life isn’t always going to be what it is right now. Be grateful where you are, and look forward to what’s coming.

What are some of the brands you have enjoyed working with the most?

I’m so grateful to be a part of this team at SDM. We’re ambitious, not afraid to take risks, raise the voices of local artists and thinkers. I think we’re at the dawn of a great thing here, and I’m thrilled to be included. I want to take us to new territories in our visual direction, and always keep growing and learning. I have these two parts of me as an artist: the graphic designer side and the illustrator side. I want to continue to build those passions individually, but it’s been exciting to get to show both in the pages of the mag.

Where do you like to go to get away and relax?

I’m definitely a homebody. Nothing beats an evening in with my wife and my cat and a home-cooked meal. But I also get out and walk the beach in North County, go on a run along the rail-trail or a surf north of Swami’s. Getting exercise and being in nature refills my batteries. 

Where can people find your work to admire you?

People can find my work every month in San Diego Magazine. That’s probably the best place to find me regularly, but maybe one of these days I’ll actually make an art website. My focus is on my work as Art Director here, but I’d love to one day explore more avenues with my traditional art. Stay tuned.