A powerful art exhibit at The PACE Center in Parker, Colorado spotlights a host of Native American artists who speak to the issues of the day through the use of modern techniques as well as traditional materials reimagined, with themes of humor, empathy, familial ties, history and more.
“The underlying principles that inform my art include tribal oral histories, maps, art historical references and nature,” said Norman Akers, one of the featured artists. “Through visual narrative, I explore how my point of view relates to a historical, political, and cultural sense of place in contemporary society.”
Parker Arts Curator Rose Fredrick said, “The artists in this exhibition, along with many, many other Indigenous artists, are tremendously accomplished. Every day, more and more talented Native voices emerge on the scene. What is missing are the galleries and museum spaces that stand ready to make room for them amid their contemporaries. ”
Besides Akers, the show features works by Corwin Clairmont, Joe Feddersen, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Anna Hoover, Linley Logan, Cara Romero, Diego Romero, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Neal Ambrose Smith and Steven Yazzie.
“I recently interviewed Jaune Quick-to-See Smith for an article in a national publication,” Fredrick said. “In preparing for that interview, I read this lovely insight: through her work she speaks two languages, that of the modern artist and that of the Native American. I believe this can be said of the other artists in this exhibit and that, through two languages, they are speaking one message: we survived, we are here, it’s time to listen.”
The Allegories of Transformation exhibit, which is offered free to the public, is made possible by a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities. The exhibit will run through November 18.
