“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
Lilla Watson
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, our Seeds newsletter features inspirational reads about native artists who grapple with themes around identity, relationships with the land, and issues with representation across U.S. galleries and institutions. We share about artist G. Peter Jamison, whose painting o:nyõ’hsowa:nẽh gowa (Great Pumpkin), addresses his Seneca identity, as well as his interests in looking to the natural world as context for his native cultural traditions. We highlight an article on Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s curated exhibition “The Land Carries Our Ancestors” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Smith’s show spotlights work from fifty intergenerational Native American artists, just three years after the museum’s first acquisition of a native artist’s work and seventy years since its first exhibition featuring contemporary native artworks. “Land” engages the concept of land as simultaneously socio-cultural, spiritual, and political. Lastly, in “Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969,” currently on view at the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, the New Red Order collective brings together artists who use theatre, humor, performance, and storytelling to recall the 1969 vision for new American Indian Theatre and “expose America’s love/hate relationship with Native culture.”
Our Seeds Stories present young artists who share a persistence and drive to pursue creative careers and develop meaningful and informed artistic practices. Joline Jourdain shares about her interests in storytelling, and how through illustration and writing, she can examine human experiences with growth, pain, and change. As Seedling Sophia Potorti mulls over the question of “What comes after?,” while she makes post-high school plans, she looks forward to the ways her time at the League will help her develop a strong portfolio for her college applications and support her path to becoming an art historian and educator. As Seeds students settle into their fall classes at the League, we look forward to how they will use these next few months to build their skills and deepen their relationship with this community.
Check back next month for our December newsletter!
andy battaglia
Native American Artist G. Peter Jemison On Searching For Identity And Summoning A Great Pumpkin
vanessa larson
At The National Gallery, A Belated Corrective For Native American Art
holland cotter
