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Public Events --

  ICONOCLASTS: Native Art of a Non-Native Nature   

Image from ICONOCLASTS: Native Art of a Non-Native Nature

ICONOCLASTS: Native Art of a Non-Native Nature

  • Location: ISM Chicago Gallery, Chicago
  • Date: Monday, March 30, 2015 through Friday, April 03, 2015 , 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM

ISM Chicago Gallery Special Exhibition in Atrium

March 30 - April 3, 2015, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm

The ISM Chicago Gallery in collaboration with the Native American Curators Ernest M. Whiteman III (Northern Arapaho) and David Spencer ( Mississippi Chata/Dine) presents work by Native American artists.
ICONOCLASTS: Native Art of a Non-Native Nature

For so long, the images, iconography, and cultural information of Native American Art that goes out to the world has been the providence of the Art Experts, Art Collectors, and Buyers. The authority over Native arts, however contemporary, has been given endorsement by how much an art piece sells for, practically buying the voice of Native peoples away from the artists for decades.

In the Pay for Play doxa of the New Reservation System of the Native Arts Markets, whoever is able to sell the most marketable Native Art is considered the "best" Native American Artist. Yet, to make an art piece marketable enough to sell, an artist typically creates a piece with many clichéd, historical, hackneyed, and stereotypical imagery as possible. Even when touting the "deconstruction" of such stereotypes, they are still selling out such cultural touchstones to the highest bidder, they are still putting out those images out there to an audience that probably cares for nothing other than owning the piece, and having the authority over its message, imagery, and voice.

The challenge then becomes, how do you honestly express yourself as a Native Artist without using the "classical" imagery associated with Native American cultures, without using the clichéd, historical, hackneyed, and stereotypical imagery? That is what this display attempts to do. Then, by not using cultural touchstones to "deconstruct" the stereotype, we as unlabeled artists, we deconstruct the very nature of "Native American Art" itself.

Exhibition Curator
Ernest M Whiteman III
Northern Arapaho
For more information please contact Jane Stevens, 312-814-5318,
jstevens@museum.state.il.us
Atrium Hours: 7:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Free and open to the public

For more events at ISM Chicago Gallery.