Smithsonian Spotlight: Nicholas Galanin
Noon
5/31/2012
Tlingit artist Nicholas Galanin discusses his work in the True North exhibition. The Sitka artist explores contemporary issues of Native identity and artwork. Included with admission

http://www.anchoragemuseum.org/calendar/details.aspx?ID=1426

Someday, perhaps, archaeologists will discover a bizarre petroglyph repeated across Turtle Island: the word “Indians,” carved deep into stone and sidewalks in the style of Cleveland’s controversial baseball team.

Tlingit and Aleut artist Nicolas Galanin journeyed from Alaska to etch his ironic petroglyph with a cement cutter at the entrance of the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of its ground-breaking aboriginal art exhibit, Beat Nation, an exhibition of 27 aboriginal artists from every region of North America, open until June 3.

“The word ‘Indian’ becomes ancient-looking when you etch it into stone, but it has other kinds of political echoes as well,” says Beat Nation co-curator Tania Willard, of Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia’s interior. “That was the idea of looking at the urban landscape in a way that excavates it to show indigenous roots and indigenous presence. It brings us back to the land of aboriginal presence and culture as embedded in the landscape.”

Hi. We’re grunt gallery. Maybe you have heard of us, we are a Canadian artist-run centre established 1984, with a long history of working with many artists communities in Vancouver and across the world from our facility in the east side of Vancouver. We produce exhibitions, performances and projects in contemporary art as well as websites. Check our site at grunt.ca.

Our next project is the group exhibition BLIZZARD: Emerging Northern Artists curated by Beat Nation curator Tania Willard, and featuring 5 artists from the North opening July 5, 2012 . This exhibition was inspired by the impact of the artworks included and the way in which these works reinterpret and translate ideas and culture from the South, making us the outsiders. Dismantling the paternalistic nature of the South’s relationship with the North, Our North, BLIZZARD attempts to create space to view new works that reflect the intimacy of connection to land and culture, but also use humour, shock, and critique to re-frame that understanding of land and culture. Just as Beat Nation has changed the way people look at the artworks by young aboriginal artists, Blizzard will show us what a new generation of indigenous artists in the North are accomplishing. But we need your help.

We need to raise $2500 to help cover the printing cost of our publication. We already have some support but need your help to produce an exciting catalogue to document this important work. So we’re turning to our supporters to ask for contributions. As recognition of your support, we’re offering first editions of the catalogue, invitations to the artists’ reception and other perks from our products and publications. Your contribution will help us cover printing costs for the publication, and further, it will help give us a deeper understanding of artmaking in the North. Thanks!

Link to support!

I’ll be showing in Mexico City in Aug. at the Bienal Continental de Artes Indígenas Contemporáneas

http://bienalartesindigenas.conaculta.gob.mx

Beat Nation, Mastering Tradition with Urban Youth

The exhibition of Beat Nation begins even before you enter the Vancouver Art Gallery. Carved into the cement by the Hornby Street entrance, the stylized logo‘Indians’ of the Cleveland Major League Baseball team physically imprints the sidewalk with new meaning. Interweaving the history of Vancouver with contemporary re-appropriation, Nicholas Galanin’s piece sets the tone for the work found inside. In the past, the gallery building held the Land Title office of still un-ceded Coast Salish territory. The enlightening play between space, medium and meaning throughout the gallery presents re-interpretations of tradition and the lived experience of Aboriginal people today.

Featured on Beyond Buckskin!

Nicholas Galanin comes to us from Sitka, Alaska. The traditional lands of his relatives and ancestors, Galanin continues to mark Sitka as a critically important place to his identity and creativity.

As a guy who can find inspiration in the smallest moments in life, Galanin is a true artist who refuses to focus on one medium or category.

We can find Galanin’s work in the Peabody Essex museum archives, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s hip Beat Nation exhibit, his local Devilfish Gallery space, or on the radio airwaves under the pseudonym Silver Jackson (if it’s that, you know, new soul-baring indie kind of music) or Indian Nick (if it’s that ndn hip hop style).

We can also find him supporting charity fundraising projects (say no to Pebble Mine), or being finagled by me to do something for Beyond Buckskin. You ask him to create something ‘traditional’?, he’ll bring into being a beautiful drum box from a piece of wood. You ask him if he can do anything contemporary- and an entire gallery show unfolds. You give him a guitar and ask him to play a song?, well, you know where I’m going with this…. Read More here

or go right to the gallery