88 Artists Magazine May 2020
DistrictofColumbia
HEARTS OF OUR
PEOPLE: NATIVE
WOMEN ARTISTS
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
WASHINGTON, D.C.
AMERICANART.SI.EDU
THROUGHMAY17, 2020Must-see museum exhibitions
DO
NOW
“Hearts of Our People: Native Women
Artists” is a landmark exhibition,
intent on making individual Native
women creators the stars of the show
instead of generalized representations
of tribes and cultures, as has been
common in the past. The 81 artworks
span hundreds of years and include
textiles, beadwork, sculpture, time-
based media and photography.
The museum worked with an
advisory panel of Native women art-
ists and scholars, both Native and
non-Native, to “provide insights from
a range of nations,” according to a
museum press release. The show is
co-organized by Jill Ahlberg Yohe, asso-
ciate curator of Native American Art at
the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and
Teri Greeves, an independent curator
and member of the Kiowa Nation.
Popular Native American writer
and author, Louise Erdrich, had
this to say about the exhibition:
“At long, long last, after centuries
of erasure, ‘Hearts of Our People’
celebrates the fiercely loving genius
of Indigenous women. Sumptuous,
gorgeous, eternal, strange, this art is
alive. Be prepared for an encounter
with power and joy!” The show’s final
stop will be at the Philbrook Museum
of Art, in Tulsa, Okla., from June 28–
September 20, 2020.TOP
Valise
by Nellie Two Bear Gates (Ma2pi ́ya Bog ̆á Wi ́ŋ,
Gathering of Clouds Woman); 1903; beads,
hide, metal, oilcloth, thread
MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTMIDDLE
The Wisdom of the Universe
by Christi Belcourt (Métis); 2014; acrylic
on canvas
ART GALLERY ONTARIO, TORONTO; PURCHASED
WITH FUNDS DONATED BY GREG LATREMOILLE
© CHRISTI BELCOURLEFT
Adaption II
Jamie Okuma (Luiseno/Shoshone-Bannock); shoes
designed by Christian Louboutin; 2012; leather, glass
beads, porcupine quills, sterling silver cones, brass
sequins, chicken feathers, cloth, deer rawhide, buckskin
MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART,
BEQUEST OF VIRGINIA DONEGHY