The latest exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art puts the focus on Native American and First Nations artists.
“Native America: In Translation,” curated by Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star, features nine artists who work in photography and other lens-based media. The more than 60 pieces include photographs, video projections and multimedia works that examine the history of photography and ideas about storytelling, creating memories and expressing identity.
The works “expand the narrative on contemporary photography but also on Indigenous art,” says Hannah Klemm, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Blanton.
The traveling exhibition stems from Red Star’s work as a guest editor of the Fall 2020 issue of Aperture magazine.
“I was thinking about young Native artists and what would be inspirational and important for them as a road map,” Red Star says. “The people included here have all played an important part in forging pathways, in opening up space in the art world for new ways of seeing and thinking.”
Klemm calls herself a “steward” when describing her role in this exhibition.
“We have the privilege to be the voice for the show while it’s at our institution and to really make sure that we maintain what Wendy was after when she curated this show,” Klemm says.
While it has many overarching themes, “Native America: In Translation” also highlights the diversity of Indigenous art and people. The high-fashion self-portraits of Martine Gutierrez, a queer artist of Mayan heritage, challenge traditional beauty ideals. An installation by First Nations artist Marianne Nicolson projects light through etched glass boxes, featuring an image that demonstrates how Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw peoples were able to maintain banned traditions by posing for white photographers. Polaroids from the late Cree artist Kimowan Metchewais delve into landscape and language.
“I love this idea that something that you think of as kind of singular, like photography, can in fact be so incredibly multifaceted,” Klemm says.
“Native America: In Translation” is on display through Jan. 5. Admission to the Blanton Museum of Art is free with a UT ID.
