Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
The latest: A California installation mixes humor with art, a new festival is coming to the Everglades and an Albuquerque museum honors the Santa Fe Indian Market
ART: Luiseño artist gives history lesson at Frieze Fair LA
The buzzy new Santa Monica Airport location for the international Frieze Art Fair included a solo installation by the late Luiseño/Mexican artist James Luna with a sly wink to his 1993 video piece, “The History of the Luiseño People.”
The installation at the Garth Greenan Gallery booth was among a series of works exhibited for the fair in late February.
Luna, a multimedia and performance artist who lived on the La Jolla Indian Reservation in northern San Diego County, was known for his humorous interpretations of how Indigenous culture can be seen through a pop culture lens. He died in 2018 at age 68.
Central to the exhibition was Luna’s video work inside the corresponding installation, “The History of the Luiseño People: La Jolla Reservation, Christmas 1990,” in which an easy chair covered by a Native blanket sits in front of a coffee table crowded with beer cans, a black house phone, and a sad plastic Christmas tree, topped with another beer can.
Surrounded by a circle of Christmas lights, viewers were allowed to sit in the chair and view a video showing Luna in the chair, smoking, drinking and watching “White Christmas” on the television while calling friends, family and exes to talk about being alone at Christmas.
In another dual portrait work, “Sometimes I Get So Lonely (Ishi) I,” from 2011, Luna takes a portrait of himself next to Ishi, the lone Yahi survivor of genocide in 19th century California. The photos show both with tears streaming down their faces as they reclaim their “Indianess.”
Luna has been featured in 41 solo exhibitions and more than 85 group exhibitions. His works and performances have appeared in the New Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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In 2005, he was the first sponsored artist of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian presented at the 51st Venice Biennale.
The Frieze Fair also featured works by mixed-media artist Rose B. Simpson, Santa Clara Pueblo, who opened her first New York City solo exhibition, “Road Less Traveled,” on Feb. 23 at the Jack Shainman Gallery.
MUSIC/ARTS: Festival roars with music and alligators
The inaugural Big Cypress Indigenous Arts and Music Festival will kick off March 4-5 at the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation in Florida, showcasing Indigenous speakers and performers from across the U.S. and Canada as well as traditional alligator wrestling.
On Saturday, March 4, the Snotty Nose Rez Kids from Kitimat Village, British Columbia, will headline the events. The Haisla hip-hop duo was formed by rappers Yung Trybez and Young D, who gained notoriety for their 2019 release, “Trapline,” and their hit, “Boujee Natives.” They earned two JUNO Award nominations and 10 Western Canadian Music Awards.
On Sunday, March 5, award-winning Seminole musicians Spencer Battiest and Doc Native will headline. Native is a producer, writer, and rapper; Battiest is a singer-songwriter and actor.
In 2017, along with Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas, Native and Battiest won the MTV VMA for “Best Fight Against the System.” Last year, they won a Native American Music Award for Best Live Performance Video.
The weekend will feature additional performances and shows by Lyla June, Fawn Wood, One Way Sky, Aye Five, Carradine, and the Inter-Tribal Bird Singers.
A panel discussion with female Indigenous leaders on Saturday includes former U.S. Rep. Ruth Buffalo of North Dakota and Kansas state Rep. Ponka-We Victors.
A fashion show by Red Berry Woman featuring designs by Norma Baker-Flying Horse will be held Sunday. The fashion line incorporates traditional Native styles with contemporary couture and ready-to-wear for both women and men.
Baker-Flying Horse, Hidatsa/Dakota Sioux, has been named the 2020 International Designer of the Year and the 2022 Phoenix Fashion Week Designer of the Year, and is a recipient of the 2022 Cultural Recognition Visual Arts Grammy Award.
The festival, with the theme “Honoring Our Matriarchs,” will also include Native food, art, crafts, and a carnival, with Freestyle Alligator Wrestling Competitions held both days before the musical headliners.
ART: Museum showcases Indian Market artists
Award-winning Native artists, most of whom have participated in Santa Fe’s Indian Market, are featured in a new show, “Indigenous Art, Culture, and Community” at the Albuquerque Museum.
The show, which opened Feb. 4 and runs through July 23, explores how the annual Santa Fe Indian Market and the artists nurtured there have been at the center of a creative community that has grown to include artists from Indigenous nations across America and Canada.
The show includes objects selected from the collection of Ruth and Sidney Schultz, who attended the market for 50 years.
It features more than 50 works in ceramics, beadwork, prints, paintings and other art from 35 artists, including designer/beadworker Jamie Okuma, Sandra Okuma, Charlene Holy Bear, Lonnie Vigil, Ben Harjo Jr. Chris Pappan, Teri Greeves, Marcus Amerman and Les Namingha.
The exhibition also provides details about Indian Market, including the history, jury and awards processes, and the importance of family and community.
“‘Indigenous Art, Culture, and Community’ is a celebration of the ongoing creativity, skill, and ingenuity of Native artists and the community that is created through Santa Fe’s Indian Market,” said Andrew Connors, director of the Albuquerque Museum.
“We’re extremely grateful that for decades, Ruth Schultz encouraged the Albuquerque Museum to collect broadly and consistently, and support Native artists as they did. This gift from their family creates a lasting legacy to their passion.”
In the early days of Indian Market, artists were encouraged to maintain traditional artistic styles but are now encouraged to explore contemporary works, with younger generations producing such items as Louboutin beaded boots and 3-D printed jewelry.
The market has evolved in its 100-year history. Originally organized by non-Native staff at the Museum of New Mexico, now it is facilitated by Native staff and board members and is the largest juried market of Native artwork in the world.
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