Native America: In Translation, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa
Native America: In Translation, curated by Wendy Red Star, considers the wide-ranging work of photographers and lens-based artists who pose challenging questions about land rights, identity and heritage, and histories of colonialism. The exhibition extends Red Star’s work as guest editor of the Fall 2020 issue of Aperture magazine.
“I was thinking about young Native artists,” says Red Star, “and what would be inspirational and important for them as a road map.” That map spans a diverse array of intergenerational image-making, counting as lodestars the meditative assemblages of Kimowan Metchewais and installation works of Alan Michelson and Marianne Nicolson, the stylish self-portraits of Martine Gutierrez, and the speculative mythologies of Koyoltzintli and Guadalupe Maravilla. With essential contributions from Rebecca Belmore and Jacqueline Cleveland, the exhibition and accompanying Aperture publication look into the historic, often fraught relationship between photography and Native representation, while also offering new perspectives by emerging artists who reimagine what it means to be a citizen in North America today.
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Wendy Red Star (born in Billings, Montana, 1981) is a Portland, Oregon–based artist raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation. Her work is informed both by her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives in work that is at once inquisitive, witty, and unsettling. Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Image credit: Alan Michelson, Hanödaga:yas (Town Destroyer), 2018
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University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave. CAM101
Tampa, FL 33620-7360 USA
Related Programs:
Native America: In Translation Exhibition Walkthrough + Opening Reception
Friday, August 25, 6:30pm – 9pm
USF Contemporary Art Museum
USF Curator of Public Art and Social Practice Sarah Howard will lead a gallery tour at 6:30pm followed by an opening reception. This event is free and open to all.
ART Thursday Concert in the Galleries: Native America: Sonic Translation
Thursday, September 14, 7pm
USF Contemporary Art Museum
In response to the exhibition Native America: In Translation, USF students, faculty, and USF Community Music Project feature performances and world premieres of original scores composed by Dr. William Linthicum-Blackhorse and USF Faculty member, Dr. Justin Giarrusso. Free event, open to all. Presented by USF Contemporary Art Museum and USF School of Music.
Native America: In Translation Online Conversation
Wednesday, October 4, 6pm
Zoom, Registration Required (cam.usf.edu/events)
In this online conversation Native America: In Translation Curator Wendy Red Star and artists Marianne Nicolson and Koyoltzintli discuss concepts and approaches to Indigenous visual sovereignty in reclaiming cultural identity. Moderated by USF Curator of Public Art and Social Practice Sarah Howard. Free event, advance registration required.
Guadalupe Maravilla – Kennedy Family Visiting Artist Lecture
Thursday, October 19, 6pm
USF School of Art and Art History, FAH 101
Transdisciplinary visual artist, choreographer, and healer Guadalupe Maravilla will present a public lecture on his creative practice. Maravilla’s work is included in Native America: In Translation. This event is free and open to all. Presented by the USF School of Art and Art History Kennedy Family Artist and Scholar Residency.
What Remains: Listening to Indigenous Perspectives
Saturday, November 4, 11am
Barness Hall, USF School of Music, 3755 USF Holly Drive, MUS 101, Tampa, FL 33620
This forum gathers the voices of an Indigenous artist, tribal cultural preservationist, and Native American civil rights and environmental advocates in dialogue with an expert in the field of anthropology to explore ways of restoring and expanding Indigenous cultural agency and honoring tribal heritage and ecological knowledge. Moderated by USF Curator of Public Art and Social Practice Sarah Howard. Free and open to all.
ART Thursday, Student-Led Exhibition Tours
November 30, 6pm & 7pm
USF Contemporary Art Museum
Join us for two student-led tours of the exhibition Native America: In Translation. The tours are free and open to the public.