Multiple Artists
Exploding Native Inevitable
Aug 10, 2024 - Jan 5, 2025
Exploding Native Inevitable is an exhibition of the work of twelve contemporary Indigenous artists and two collaboratives, accompanied by a program of dance, film, music, performance, readings, storytelling, and video by Indigenous artists from a land we now call America.
About
Exploding Native Inevitable is an exhibition of the work of twelve contemporary Indigenous artists and two collaboratives, accompanied by a program of dance, film, music, performance, readings, storytelling, and video by Indigenous artists from a land we now call America. Exhibiting artists range from emerging to elders. “They are amazing voices, make compelling art, and have important things to say,” said co-curator Brad Kahlhamer. “The artists build on cultural traditions, push new creative boundaries, and represent some of the extraordinary work being created by Indigenous artists across the land.”
Kahlhamer and co-curator Dan Mills, who have known each other for more than twenty years, began work on this project in late 2019. “This has been a remarkable multiyear collaboration with Brad Kahlhamer,” Mills said. “Brad is a Native American artist who is respected in contemporary Indigenous circles, and who has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. He brings deep knowledge and keen insights to this project.”
The exhibition title riffs on Andy Warhol’s 1966–67 Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a series of multimedia events—including performances, concerts, and film screenings—that accompanied and extended his exhibition. Likewise, the expansive and adventuresome project that is Exploding Native Inevitable will include a wide-ranging and ongoing series of events and programs.
Organized by Bates College Museum of Art and curated by Brad Kahlhamer and Dan Mills. Support provided by World Class Partner The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and further support provided by SMoCA Alliance.
Artists
Norman Akers
Photo by Dan Mills
(Osage Nation, b. 1958, Fairfax, Oklahoma; lives in Lawrence, Kansas) received a BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute, a Certificate in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts, and an MFA in Fine Arts from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is Associate Professor in Visual Art and Affiliate Faculty in Indigenous Studies at the University of Kansas, where he has taught since 2009. Akers was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship and a participant in the Art in the Embassies program.
Nizhonniya Austin
Photo courtesy of the artist
(Diné/Tlingit, b. 1990, Juneau, Alaska; lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a paint- er, musician, actor, and poet. She is an alumna of the Institute of American Indian Arts, where she studied painting and film. Austin has also been working on a book of poetry.
Alison O. Bremner
Photo by Steve Quinn
is believed to be the first Tlingit woman to carve and raise a totem pole. She has studied under Tsimshian artists and totem-pole carvers David R. Boxley and David A. Boxley in Kingston, Washington. In her art, Bremner employs mediums such as paint, wood, regalia, and digital collage. She is also committed to the revitalization of the Tlingit language and creating works for traditional and ceremonial use.
Jaque Fragua
Photo courtesy of the artist
(Jemez Pueblo, b. 1986, Santa Fe, New Mexico; lives in Albuquerque) studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has painted murals and public interventions in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe, including in a collaboration with Shepard Fairey. Fragua experiments with mediums like aerosol, neon, found-objects, earth- works, poetry, and music with messages of civil unrest, social justice, emotional introspection, and personal healing. His work is found in numerous other locations throughout this land, both in official and informal environments, particularly in the Southwest. He continues to participate in his community’s traditional roles and ceremonies and has over 10 years of experience in community organizing, direct action, and visual communications.
Raven Halfmoon
Photo courtesy of the artist
(Caddo Nation, b. 1991 and lives in Norman, Oklahoma) earned degrees in Ceramics/Painting and cultural anthropology at the University of Arkansas. She is represented by Kouri+Corrao Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Ross+Kramer Gallery in New York City.
Elisa Harkins
Photo by Ian Byers-Gamber
Performer, artist, and composer Elisa Harkins (Muscogee/Creek Nation, b. 1978, Miami, Oklahoma; lives in Muscogee Reservation, Oklahoma) received a BA from Columbia College, MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and Certificate in Mvskoke Language at the College of Muscogee Nation, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Dedicated to community, Harkins created an Indigenous concert series called 6 Moons and a record of Creek/Seminole Hymns, and DJs for Mvhayv Radio, an Indigenous radio show in Tulsa and Indianapolis.
Sky Hopinka
Photo courtesy of the artist
(Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, b. 1984, Ferndale, Washington; lives in New York City, New York) studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin while in Portland, Oregon. He received an AA from Riverside City College, BA in Liberal Arts from Portland State University, and MFA in Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Hopinka is Assistant Professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College.
Terran Last Gun
Photo by Samantha Tracy
(Piikani/Blackfeet, b. 1989, Browning, Montana; lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico) received an AS in Environmental Science at Blackfeet Community College, and a BFA in Museum Studies and AFA in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Fox Maxy
Academy Museum, photo by Owen Kolasinski
(Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Payómkawichum, b. 1992 and lives in San Diego, California) is a filmmaker that writes, produces, and directs.
New Red Order
Photo courtesy of the artists
Core members are Adam Khalil (Ojibway, b. 1988, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; lives in Nyack, New York), Zack Khalil (Ojibway, b. 1991, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; lives in Brooklyn, New York), and Jackson Polys (Tlingit, b. 1976, Ketchikan, Alaska; lives in New York City, New York). Jackson Polys received his BA in Art History and Visual Arts and MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. He was the recipient of a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Mentor Artist Fellowship. Adam Khalil received his BA from Bard College, and is co-founder of COUSINS Collective that supports Indigenous filmmakers. Zack Khalil received his BA at Bard College in the Film and Electronic Arts Department, and is a UnionDocs Collaborative Fellow and Gates Millennium Scholar.
Mali Obomsawin
Photo by Jared and Abby Lank
(Abenaki First Nation, b. 1995, Stratford, New Hampshire; lives in Portland, Maine) Musician and composer Obomsawin studied upright bass at Berklee College of Music before studying jazz theory and transcription at Dartmouth College. She received a BA in Comparative Literature and Government. She has frequently performed in the US and Canadian festival circuit, including at the Newport Folk Festival and Philadelphia Folk Festival, among many others. The Mali Obomsawin Xtet tours frequently, recently playing in venues across Canada and New England. Her album Sweet Tooth was released in 2022 to wide acclaim, making best-of-the- year lists from The Guardian, Jazz Times, and National Public Radio. Her single, “There There” premiered on the FX series Reservation Dogs in August 2023.
Lokotah Sanborn
(Penobscot, b. 1995, Bangor, Maine; lives in Old Town, Maine) Lokotah Sanborn works for Sunlight Media Collective, an organization of Indigenous and non-Indigenous media makers documenting stories at the intersection of Wabanaki rights and environmental justice. His art has been reproduced in Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He also contributed to a chant in Obomsawin’s song “Blood Quantum” on the album Sweet Tooth. He has been a Wabanaki Leadership Institute Fellow.
Sarah Rowe
Photo by Bill Sitzmann
(Lakota, Ponca, b. 1981 and lives in Omaha, Nebraska) is a visual and performance artist. She received a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, and continued her studies in Vienna, Austria. Rowe has designed and painted theater sets, and created murals, including Starseeds, a 200-foot work on the side of a massive grain silo in Omaha, Nebraska.
Duane Slick
(Meskwaki/Sauk and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, b.1961, Waterloo, Iowa; lives in North Providence, Rhode Island) received a BFA in painting from the University of Northern Iowa and MFA in painting from the University of California, Davis. He is a professor of Painting at Rhode Island School of Design, where he has taught painting and printmaking since 1995.
Tyrrell Tapaha
Photo by Eric Retterbrush
As a sixth-generation weaver, Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné, b. 1999, Diné Bikéyah/Navajo Nation/Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah; lives in Flagstaff, Arizona) relies upon the education they received through intergenerational knowledge. They apprenticed under master weaver Roy Kady and received a BS in School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University.
Related Event
Exploding Native Inevitable Celebration
Thursday, Dec 12, 2024, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Co-curators Brad Kahlhamer and Dan Mills introduce a night of programming that includes performances, videos, and poetry.
Press
Review of Exploding Native Inevitable, Visual Art Source, Oct. 5, 2024
Years in the Making, Exploding Native Inevitable Show is a Portrait of a Movement in Full Bloom, Southwest Contemporary, Aug. 8, 2024
‘Exploding Native Inevitable’ travels to SMoCA (Scottsdale Arts news release)
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