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Visitors will experience cutting-edge works of contemporary Native art in the new exhibition UNSETTLE/Converge, open at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art now through Feb. 25.
Five groundbreaking Native artists from the U.S. and Canada were chosen for the prestigious 2023 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. As part of the Fellowship initiative, UNSETTLE/Converge features examples of the Fellows’ art, including innovative beadwork, assemblage, works on paper, photography, and sculpture.
As one of the leading institutions internationally presenting and supporting contemporary Native art, the Eiteljorg Museum has awarded a combined quarter of a million dollars to this year’s five Fellows. It also has purchased more than $100,000 of their artworks to add to its permanent collections.
The 2023 Fellows are an impressive group, and each has made an impact on the contemporary art world:
- The well-established career of invited artist Ruth Cuthand (Plains Cree) of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, includes works in printmaking, painting, drawing, photography, and beadwork. Confronting the settler-colonial roots of Canada, her art pays homage to the resiliency of Indigenous communities. Cuthand’s recent body of work includes beaded depictions of various mental health conditions – as shown by brain scans – that embody the intergenerational trauma experienced by many First Nations communities.
- Natalie Ball (Klamath Tribes [Klamath / Modoc]) of Chiloquin, Ore., is an elected official: a member of the Klamath Tribal Council. Her artistic practice draws upon her Native and African American heritage to create mixed-media assemblages that include quilt patterns, unconventional objects, and natural materials to investigate definitions of Native identity.
- Sean Chandler (Aaniiih [Gros Ventre]) of Harlem, Mont., creates personal narrative mixed-media works on unstretched canvas about the subjects of U.S. settler colonialism and his experiences of growing up in eastern Montana. His career as an artist coincides with his academic roles as an educator and community college administrator: Chandler serves as president of Aaniiih Nakoda College on the Fort Belknap Agency in Montana.
- Mercedes Dorame (Gabrielino Tongva) of Altadena, Calif., uses installation and photography to examine and revitalize her family’s connection to their ancestral land of Los Angeles. Utilizing natural materials, including fibers, shells or flora, her work in that region explores the roles of Gabrielino culture and ceremony, past and present.
- Raven Halfmoon (Caddo Nation / Choctaw / Delaware) of Norman, Okla., continues her tribe’s rich history with ceramics by creating large-scale stoneware sculptures that focus on Caddo culture and history, as well as her experience as a 21st century Native woman.
Selected last year for the 2023 Fellowship, these five artists join a prestigious community of Eiteljorg Fellows from 11 previous rounds. Cumulatively, the works by past Fellows in the museum’s collections now comprise one of the best collections of contemporary Native art anywhere.
“Native art is having a moment; before many others, the Eiteljorg has recognized and celebrated contemporary Native art since 1999,” said Curator of Native Art Dorene Red Cloud (Oglala Lakota), who is curating the Fellowship. “While the rest of the world has had to play catch-up, the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship continues to lead in presentation and admiration for contemporary Native art.”
Every other year since 1999, the Eiteljorg Fellowship has helped bring contemporary Native art to the forefront, amplifying the voices of Native artists. This latest round of the Fellowship now includes a $50,000 unrestricted grant to each artist – double the award of previous years. Each round, the museum purchases work from each artist, publishes an exhibit catalog, creates an exhibition, and hosts opportunities for the Fellows to engage with the broader public.
Building on the titles and themes of the two previous Fellowship rounds, Blurring the Line in 2019 and Shifting Boundaries in 2021, the 2023 round is titled UNSETTLE/Converge to convey how the parameters defining contemporary Native art have changed. By dismantling settler-colonial definitions, contemporary Native art is now being presented through Indigenous perspectives, putting Native voices and visions at the forefront.
In addition to the experiencing the exhibition, Eiteljorg Museum guests can learn more about the current and past Fellows on the website, contemporaryartfellowship.eiteljorg.org, and from the exhibit catalog featuring scholarly essays about each artist. The full-color UNSETTLE/Converge catalog is available for $30 from the Frank and Katrina Basile Museum Store.