I have a solo exhibition called Things Are Looking Native, Native’s Looking Whiter, with all new work opening Feb. 3rd at Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer… a performance installation the eve of the opening and live music after w/ Silver Jackson and AKU- MATU
Check out this wonderful article in CandianArt!
My WSJ Piece on “Shapeshifting” at Peabody Essex: A Photo-and-Video Companion
Let me supplement this article with my own photographs illustrating the works that I discuss. Here’s the “may not be suitable for children” piece that opens the show (and my article). It sure looks kid-friendly, until you step inside. Good luck trying to restrain your kids from entering this alluring “tipi”:READ MORE
Interview by Lee Rosenbaum
Mapping the territory: Expression of contemporary Aboriginal art
January 14 to February 25, 2012
Opening: Saturday, January 14 15h to 17h
Mapping the territory: Expression of contemporary Aboriginal art : Sonny Assu, Jason Baerg, Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, Kevin Lee Burton, Hannah Claus, Bonnie Devine, Raymond Dupuis, Edgar Heap of Birds, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Nicholas Galanin, Greg Hill Robert Houle, Maria Hupfield, Rita Letendre, Glenna Matoush, Alan Michelson, Nadia Myre, Marianne Nicolson, Michael Patten, Arthur Renwick, Sonia Robertson, Greg Staats, Tania Willard, Will Wilson,
Guest Curator: Nadia Myre
A Native Culture’s Reach, Both Visual and Emotional
Link to New York times Article
…While much of the work by non-Indian artists lacks this kind of physical integrity, Nicholas Galanin, the Alaskan Tlinglit artist who works in various Conceptual Art modes, does muster some of it by wittily appropriating the rock-art technique especially favored by the Native Americans of the Southwest. Into the sidewalk in front of the gallery he has incised the silhouette of a small horned animal like those found on several objects inside, as well as the word “Indians” rendered in the distinctive script used by the Cleveland baseball team, but without the Indian caricature of the logo. Redolent of tattoos and graffiti, these works bring the fuel-efficient unity posed by the Native American works in this show squarely into the present.
Upcoming exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery!
Details here
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_beat_nation.html
By combining two pre-taxidermied wolves into one, artist Nicholas Galanin has created a startling piece. Called Inert Wolf, it was made for a traveling group exhibition that deals with humanity’s impact on the environment. “The inability to progress or move forward was the basic concept,” he tells us. It was created so that we could focus on those that are “affected by societies’ sprawl.”
Originally, Galanin was going to use polar bears, “as they are, politically, in the spotlight surrounding climate change,” but ended up using wolves instead.
“I look at this piece in cultural terms,” he says. “Mainstream society often looks at Indigenous or Native American art through a romantic lens, not allowing a culture like my Tlingit community room for creative sovereign growth. The back half of this piece is contained, a captured trophy or rug to bring into the home, while the front continues to move. It is sad and the struggle is evident.
“Inert deserves to be seen in person; it generates a strong emotional response, viewers have cried.”
