Native America: In Translation

"Native America: In Translation," curated by artist Wendy Red Star, assembles the wide-ranging work of nine Indigenous artists who pose challenging questions about identity and heritage, land rights, and histories of colonialism. “I was thinking about young Native artists and what would be inspirational and important for them as a road map,” said Red Star.

This road map spans intergenerational image makers representing various Native nations and affiliations, and working in photography, installation, multimedia assemblage, and video. Among them, the late Cree artist Kimowan Metchewais investigates landscape and language through his evocative Polaroids. Posing as fashion ads, the stylish self-portraits of Martine Gutierrez question conceptions of ideal beauty. And Alan Michelson’s archival projections on presidential busts excavate colonial histories.

Also included are works by Rebecca Belmore, Nalikutaar Jacqueline Cleveland, Koyoltzintli, Duane Linklater, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Marianne Nicolson. Together, their work confronts the historic, and often fraught relationship between photography and the representation of Native Americans, while also reimagining what it means to be a citizen in North America today.

"Native America: In Translation" is curated by Wendy Red Star. The exhibition is organized by Aperture, New York, and is made possible, in part, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided in part by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.

Additional support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided by Suzanne Deal Booth.