Native American Art Exhibition curator steps beyond the typical ‘diluted version of our truths’

South Puget Sound Community College’s 16th annual Native American Art Exhibition juxtaposes art that keeps alive traditional techniques with pieces that explore indigenous identities through a contemporary lens.

The show, “Honoring Ancestors and Embracing Our Culture in the Modern World,” is on view through Friday, Dec. 13.

The exhibition features the work of indigenous artists of differing backgrounds and perspectives working in a wide array of media, from digital illustrations, collages, and photographs to beadwork, ceramics and regalia of hand-woven wool or animal hide.

“It shows many generations, but the stories come together as one,” said guest curator Mikaela Shafer of Olympia. “As you walk through the space, you will see regalia surrounding the art, as if matriarchs are standing watch.

“Too often, institutions seek a diluted version of our truths, something that is palatable and easy to digest for a non-native audience,” she said in a curator’s statement. “Our stories are so much more; they are layered, complex, creative, colorful, generational and beautifully diverse.”

“This is an eclectic exhibition,” said gallery coordinator Sean Barnes. “Mikaela is a young artist, and she’s brought in a number of other younger Native artists, some of whom are working in less traditional ways and addressing social justice and human rights issues.”

In Ray Larkin’s photos, part of a series called “We Are Still Here,” white-sheeted figures, like Halloween ghosts, stand in significant landscapes. The figures are at once absent and present, hidden and visible.

Steph Littlebird’s digital illustrations, colorful and impossible to ignore, invert the tropes of popular culture. The kneeling Native American woman in “Land of Fakes,” based on the familiar packaging of Land O Lakes Butter, raises both middle fingers in defiance of submissive stereotype.

The exhibition contrasts such pieces with work that carries on traditions — work that might feel more familiar in a Native American art show but that carries deeply personal meaning and has much to say about indigenous lives today.

“Too often, institutions expect Native artists to fit into a box; they want traditional arts and crafts without actually understanding the stories behind them,” Shafer, an interdisciplinary artist and writer, told the Olympian. “We … have so many unique ways of interpreting and reimagining traditional work. The theme ‘Honoring our Ancestors in the Modern World’ allowed the artists to share their culture and their stories in a way that felt authentic to them, without limiting them.”

The Native Art Exhibition marks Shafer’s first time working as a solo curator, though she has also worked with the pop-up Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts.

Her own art is currently on view at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, and she is at work on a solo exhibition for the All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis, set to open in October.

Like the art in the SPSCC show, Shafer’s work connects past, present and future.

“My work is very much rooted in matriarchal stories,” she said. “I am a matriarch; I am a mother, a daughter, a sister and a community member. It is my duty and my honor to preserve our stories and keep them safe for future generations. My work is about how I do that personally through healing intergenerational trauma; by healing myself, I am healing the future.”

As the SPSCC exhibition weaves together the featured artists’ diverse experiences and stories, a red woven blanket hanging from the ceiling helps to weave together the works on view.

“When I was putting together the exhibition, I felt like I was missing a piece,” Shafer said. “I wanted a way to bring it all together.” A friend of hers came to the gallery with the blanket, created by Shameka Gagnier and the Black Well Red Thread Collective, and it was that missing piece.

“Once it was hung, I knew (the show) was complete,” Shafer said. “The bright red tied into every piece in the space. During the opening reception, it ended up being the backdrop for everyone’s photos, which I love.”

SPSCC Native American Art Exhibition

• What: Curated by Olympia’s Mikaela Shafer, the 16th annual exhibit explores the theme “Honoring Ancestors and Embracing Our Culture in the Modern World.”
• When: On view through Friday, Dec. 13, with a free panel discussion from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13. The gallery is open from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Where: The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at the Minnaert Center for the Arts on South Puget Sound Community College’s Olympia campus, 2011 Mottman Road SW.
• Admission: Free
• More information: https://spscc.edu/art-gallery