Organized by the University of New Mexico's Tamarind Institute, Migrations features the work of Steven Deo (Creek/Euchee), Tom Jones(Ho Chunk), Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisgaa), Ryan Lee Smith (Cherokee), Star Wallowing Bull (Chippewa/Arapaho), and Marie Watt (Seneca), each of whom collaborated with professional printers at Tamarind and at Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, Oregon, to create prints. These artists were selected because they engage in contemporary art rather than what is traditionally considered "Native American art." The exhibition is comprised of two prints by each artist and approximately eight pieces of each artist's work in other media.

The public is invited to attend the reception on November 7, from 5 to 9 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided. 

A 143-page illustrated catalogue titled Migrations, compiling the works of the six Native American artists, and including essays by Jo Ortel, Lucy Lippard, Kathleen Howe, and Gerald McMaster will be available for purchase. Ortel, an associate professor of art history at Beloit College, defines Migrations as it applies to this project. Lippard, an art critic and author, discusses the cultural baggage forced upon the American Indian. As director of the Pomona College Museum of Art and professor of art history, Howe offers an overview of Tamarind Institute's projects with indigenous peoples. McMaster, A Plains Cree artist, details the history of Crow's Shadow Institute on Oregon's Umatilla Reservation.

Marie Watt, a multidisciplinary artist from Portland, Oregon, will be leading an event that the Crisp museum is planning for December 2-3. Watt uses natural materials (stone, cornhusks, wool, cedar) and forms (blankets, pillows, bridges) that are universal to human experience to create her art.

This exhibition is organized by the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, in collaboration with the Tamarind Institute, a division of the College of Fine Arts, UNM. Support for this project was provided by TREX (Traveling Exhibitions Program of the Museum of New Mexico), the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Additional links:

Steven Deo
Southwest Art Magazine

Tom Jones
Museum of Contemporary Photography Collections

LarryMcNeil
AfterCapture Magazine

Marie Watt
Represented by PDX Contemporary Art (Portland, Oregon)
and Greg Kucera Gallery (Seattle, Washington)
Article in The Oregonian

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