Nicholas Galanin, Tlingit artist strips down Northwest Coast artforms

As part of my curatorial residency with grunt gallery we will be presenting an exhibition by Nicholas Galanin, Oblique Drift.

The Curtis Legacy

grunt gallery presents:
116 – 350 E. 2nd, Vancouver, BC  V5T 4R8 http://www.grunt.ca

Oblique Drift
Nicholas Galanin
October 23, 2009 – December 12, 2009
Opening – Friday Oct. 23rd, 8pm grunt gallery

Artist talk Saturday, October 24, 2009, 2:00 – 3:30 pm,
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
630 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia
http://www.billreidgallery.ca/

Alaskan artist Nicholas Galanin brings his transformative work to grunt gallery, which extends from his series, ‘The Imaginary Indian’ a series that juxtaposes manufactured Northwest Coast masks and French toile. Galanin explores the authentic and inauthentic and how interpretation, appropriation and “cultural drift ” inform Northwest Coast art . Showcasing new works from The Curtis Legacy Galanin strips masks, bodies and meaning down to reveal that ,”The real strength in survival of indigenous knowledge and culture lies within the ability to freely and creatively represent ourselves.” Shifting the colonial gaze from ethnography to pin-up The Curtis Legacy series includes nude models wearing Indonesian made Tlingit masks, referencing Edward Curtis photographs of the noble savage, these works lay bare the objectification of both the body and the sacred . Both series of works are brought together in Galnin’s examination of gloablized culture(s), freedom of cultural expression and the manifestations of change in a world of  shifting cultures and ancestral echoes.

Nicholas Galanin was born in Sitka, Alaska, Nicholas Galanin has struck an intriguing balance between his origins and the course of his practice. Having trained extensively in ‘traditional’ as well as ‘contemporary’ approaches to art, he pursues them both in parallel paths. His stunning bodies of work simultaneously preserve his culture and explore new perceptual territory. Galanin comes from a long line of Northwest Coast artists, starting with his great-grandfather, who sculpted in wood, down through his father, who works in both precious metal and stone. Galanin studied at the London Guildhall University, where he received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with honors in Jewelry Design and Silversmithing. Soon after, Galanin discovered a graduate arts program at Massey University in New Zealand that meshed perfectly with his interests and concerns, and in 2004 he began earning a Master’s degree there in Indigenous Visual Arts. Valuing his culture as highly as his individuality, Galanin has created an unusual path for himself. He deftly navigates “the politics of cultural representation,” as he balances both ends of the aesthetic spectrum. With a fiercely independent spirit, Galanin has found the best of both worlds and has given them back to his audience in stunning form.

http://nicholasgalanin.com/

Stanley Park Environmental Art Project-Launch

Entwined, Tania Willard, cedar bark, hemlock, red alder and madder hand dyed wool dimensions variable. 2009

Entwined, explores the interconnectedness of Stanley Park’s ecology, and how the different uses, experiences and perspectives of both indigenous and non-indigenous people, plants and materials are interwoven. Referencing native-plant and material usage in the plaiting of cedar and in the dyes created from hemlock and red alder barks as well as the oyster shell buttons, this work is a meditation on the Cedar as a tree of life and asks this cedar to share it’s story.

Please join us on Sunday, August 9 as we premiere the semi-permanent artworks of the Stanley Park Environmental Art Project.

Walking tours to the works will begin at the Lost Lagoon Nature House.

The artists, Shirley Wiebe, Tania Willard, John Hemsworth, and T’Uy’Tanat Cease Wyss and Davide Pan, will be on-site to talk about their works and their environmental art practice.

Walking tours: 1-3pm, begin at the Lost Lagoon Nature House. Everyone welcome.

Please visit the project website for more information: www.vancouver.ca/spea

Curator in Residence-grunt gallery

Tania Willard Appointed  grunt gallery Resident Curator

The grunt gallery welcomes Tania Willard as resident curator August 2009 – August 2010. This residency is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts Assistance to Aboriginal Curators for Residencies in Visual Arts program. During her residency Willard will be working on several projects. Initially she will focus on completing the exhibition and dissemination of Beat Nation and the editing of brunt issue 5. In the coming year she will be coordinating an exhibition of the work of Nicholas Galanin and developing an exhibition of emerging Northern Artists. One theme running through these projects is the transformation and resurgence of cultural knowledge and values through new forms and media whether it be hip hop, film and video or web based media.. These projects will involve travel based research investigating the contexts in which the next generation of emerging and young Inuit and Northern artists live and work.

Ndn Comix

 

Native Pride

Native artists have been working with carricature and image since early depictions of cowboy colonists on horseback getting an arrow shower. A recent exhibition at the Smithsonian American Indian Museum curates an outstanding collection of Aboriginal artists who work with comix or other allied illustrative styles. Including artists like Navajo artist Jolene Nenibah Yazzie and her Warrior Women series this show puts non-Native comix out there that feature Indians hunting dinosaurs or just being cannon fodder for cowboy’s to shame. My own work in comix has featured a re-telling of Aboriginal worker’s history as well as Secwepemc stories and legends. Working with Vancouver’s Healthy Aboriginal Network I have helped to letter and layout several great projects illustrated by Steven Keewatin Sanderson that use comix as a way to create positive messages and health issue awareness for Aboriginal youth. Inspired by comix like Super Shamoo, an Inuit superhero on the early Inuit Broadcasting Corporation turned comic to create awareness around glue sniffing, I worked with Redwire Magazine to create an all NDN comix version of the magazine that continues to be a collector’s edition of the mag. Native editorial and politic comics artist the late Everett Soop’s life and work was on display at the Galt Musuem, Everett Soop referred to himself as “the pit bull terrier of native journalism.” a member of the Kainai Nation, Everett’s biting commentary is an inspiration for many Aboriginal comic artists. I am excited to see his work memorialized. To read more about my own work and interest in Native comics check out this interview with Broken Pencil.

Bee’s Make Art and Honey

 

Burnaby Art Gallery exhibition

 

 

Local Lower Mainland artist Aganetha Dyck   creates collaborative works with honey bees. Taking collaborative arts to new levels Aganetha recently exhibiting at Burnaby Art Gallery  . I missed the show regrettably but I just wanted to mention her amazing work here. Awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual Art in 2007 this Winnipeg born artist has an interest in environmental issues and links her work with bee’s and interventions in the hives with an examination of the worlds of small things that have huge impacts in our human world. Bee’s pollinate an astounding amount of vegetables and staples of the human diet and commercial beekeeping has been plagued with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that continues to perplex scientists. I say listen to the artists for a change, Aganetha Dyck is in touch with Bees in a way Scientists could never be, perhaps it is the creative that will help to resolve the CCD mystery.

A Woman’s Place is Everywhere

I am excited to have this show A Woman’s Place is Everywhere! A Century of Women and Work coming to Vancouver, a really great show with a bunch of amazing women artists I was grateful to be a part of come and check it our March 8th. And to top it off artist Favianna Rodriguez who I have blogged who has fantastic work is going to be here for a workshop…see details below!!!!

A powerful national collection of visual art works by contemporary Canadian artists including BC’s Tania Willard, produced by Workers Arts and Heritage Centre. Sponsored by HEU, BCGEU, CEP 467. 

March 8-29 

W2 Launch Pad 

(116 W. Hastings Street) 

International Women’s Day opening reception 

Sunday, March 8 at 4pm 

Gallery open Wed-Sun, 12-6pm 

BY DONATION 

Artist activist Favianna Rodriguez is one of Utne Reader magazine’s ‘Top 50 Visionaries’ of the year. She’ll talk about her art practice and how the Oakland Eastside Arts Alliance Center she’s co-founded – combining a community centre, youth programs, a media arts collective plus social housing offers an inspiring model for Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Sponsored by DTES Community Arts Network and Tides Canada Endswell Fund. 

Sunday, March 8 

W2 Launch Pad 

(116 W. Hastings Street) 

Workshop begins at 2pm

Top 20 of Eco-Art

Wolf eye views, island wrappings, spiral jetties and more. Here is a list of the top 20 eco-art pieces with lots of links etc. Some of my faves are Sam Eastman’s animal eye views where he straps camera’s to wildlife to see a view from their worlds, he has even made a tarantula cam and viewpoint!

Call on Obama to free Leonard Peltier!

(Artwork by Leonard Peltier available for purchase to support his campaign, Obama header by Ryan Red Corn of Red Hand Media, Inc)

Leonard Peltier ( from Friends of Peltier )

An innocent man, Leonard Peltier was wrongfully convicted in 1977 and has served over 30 years in federal prison despite proof that he was convicted on the basis of fabricated and suppressed evidence, as well as coerced testimony. Learn more about Leonard’s case by watching the film Incident at Oglala-download the torrent here.( or watch it on google video here)

Most recently an urgent call from the Friends of Peltier has gone out to protect Peltier’s safety in prison as he was assaulted by other inmates in a transfer to Canaan Federal Penitentiary. The organization is concerned the attack comes at the prompting of the FBI to mar Peltier’s upcoming parole hearing.

So if it is truly a time of hope and change then Obama will honour the name given to him by his adopted Native American family, ”Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuxshish” the name translates as: “One Who Helps People Throughout This Land.”

Please write the President, send it priority or registered mail. Call your congressional representatives and write letters, not email, to them. Do what you can to get the word out to insure that LP is receiving adequate medical attention for his injuries. Also call and request Leonard be treated with dignity and respect.

Canaan Federal Prison 570-488-8000 

Ask President Obama to investigate. Also urge Obama to immediately grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.

You can also call or write to the President:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461

Express your outrage at the irresponsibility of BOP personnel in failing to provide for the safety of Leonard Peltier. 

Warden Ronnie R. Holt, Warden USP-Canaan U.S. Penitentiary

3057 Easton Turnpike, Waymart, PA 18472

Phone: 570-488-8000 Fax: 570-488-8130<br>

E-mail address: CAA/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

 

D. Scott Dodrill, Director, Northeast Regional Office, Federal Bureau of Prisons

2nd &amp; Chesnut Streets., 7th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Phone: 215-521-7301 E-mail: NERO/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

 

Harley G. Lappin, Director, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice

320 First Street, NW, Room 654, Washington, DC 20534

Phone: 202-307-3250 Fax: 202-514-6878

Time to set him free… Because it is the RIGHT thing to do

Forwarded on behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee

Inuit Breakdancing and Graffiti Art

Seems hip hop has no boundaries, Inuit youth have embraced hip hop and infused it with Inuit identity creating a hybrid brand of B boys and B girls, the KAIVA crew bring to new latitudes and longitudes break/hip hop culture Nunavut Iqaluit Aakuluk. Along with some great graffiti art projects like the mural above created in 2006 with the Alianait Arts Festival. The Festival borrows it’s name from the  Inuit expression of joy and celebration . This year’s lineup includes ArtCirq’s unique brand of Inuit Circus performance. Land of Midnight sun; it stands to reason it would conjure some brilliant talent and expression-of course there is Isuma TV a portal for indigenous filmmakers with unique Indigenous language content available 24/7. I am almost convinced to move there..at least in the summer!

Thunderbirds, Stencils and The Streets

Recent exhibitions and artworks from me Tania Willard. New catalogues are out for two recent exhibitions featuring some of my work. LORE curated by Ryan Rice, director of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, is a group show with myself Jason Lujan and Duane Linklater upcoming at the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University and recently shown in Ottawa at Gallery 101, the exhibition features woodcut, wood engraving and paintings that look at animals of myth and tradition. A beautifully produced catalogue for the show is available through the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University. Also ”Mother’s Mother’s Mother”, curated by Jenny Western for Urban Shaman Gallery and The Gallery of SouthWestern Manitoba made the top ten visual art highlights of 2008 in the Winnipeg Free Press. There is also a beautiful little catalogue for this show, the work I had in this exhibition was called Key7e Dress and was a life size stencil of my great grandmother’s dress which was reproduced on canvas and several site specific locations. The catalogue for Mother’s Mother’s Mother also features the amazing work of Maria Hupfield, Rosalie Favell, Shelley Niro, Hanah Claus and Daphne Odjig in this, “Legacy and Rebellion of Aboriginal Women’s Art.”