REPRESENTED ARTISTS
G. Peter Jemison (Seneca, Heron Clan)
G. Peter Jemison’s career spans decades across a wide swath of diverse accomplishments with a worldwide impact. Through his art, Jemison has explored a variety of topics, from creating political works that portray contemporary social commentary to those that reflect his relationship with the natural world.
Widely shown and collected, Jemison’s works are rooted in the framework of Native American art. Known for his naturalistic paintings and series of works done on brown paper bags, his art embodies Orenda, the traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) belief that every living thing and part of creation contains a spiritual force. His paintings, videos, and mixed media works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany. He is also an esteemed administrator, curator, editor, and writer. In 2004, he was elected Board Member at Large of the American Alliance of Museums (formerly the Association of Museums) and was the founding director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City.
From November 2017 through early 2018, Jemison’s works were featured in Unholding, a group exhibition at the Artists Space in New York City. During that time, he also was featured in related discussion programs at the venue. The exhibit received praise in reviews from The New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum, and other art media.
Jemison’s works are included in such significant collections as: The Modern Museum of Art (MoMA), The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Heard Museum, Phoenix; The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe; The Denver Art Museum, Denver; The British Museum, London, UK; and the Museum der Weltkultern, Frankfurt, Germany. Jemison was one of six winners of the prestigious 2012 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award fellowship from the First Peoples Fund in Rapid City, SD for his accomplishments in Fine Art Painting, Mixed Media. In 2013, Jemison’s works were exhibited in The Old Becomes the New: New York Contemporary Native American Art Movement and the New York School at New York City’s Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba.
Jemison received his academic arts education from the University of Siena in Siena, Italy, before earning a B.S. in Arts Education from Buffalo State College as well as an Honorary Doctorate. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
A leading authority on the subject of Haudenosaunee history, Jemison co-edited the Treaty of Canandaigua 1794: 200 Years of Treaty Relations between the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States (Clear Light). He frequently contributes writings on the repatriation of sacred objects, cultural patrimony, and the human remains of the Haudenosaunee.
Luzene Hill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Luzene Hill is a multidisciplinary artist, best known for immersive installations and performance collaborations. Through work informed by pre-contact culture of the Americas Hill advocates for Indigenous sovereignty - linguistic, cultural, and individual sovereignty. Employing early autochthonous motifs she asserts female power and sexuality to challenge colonial patriarchy. Recent works, Revelate and Smoke and Mirrors, present evocative new ways of thinking about the past and the future. An enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Hill lives and works in Atlanta, GA. She has exhibited throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Russia, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Awards include the 2019 Ucross Fellowship, 2016 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship, 2015 Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship, and 2015 First Peoples Fund Fellowship. Recent residencies: 2020 Social Engagement Residency, IAIA MoCNA; 2020 Invited Artist Residency, Anderson Ranch Arts Center; and 2021 Invited Artist Residency, Township 10. Hill’s work is featured in Susan Powers’ book, “Cherokee Art: Prehistory to Present”, Josh McPhee’s book, “Celebrate People’s History!: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution”, and the PBS Documentary, “Native Art NOW!”.
Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Inupiaq/Koyukon Athabaskan)
Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich is a Koyukon Athabaskan, Inupiaq, and settler carver, painter, and beadworker whose work connects with the historically traditional beliefs of her ancestors on the value of our natural environment as gifts gathered from the land. A childhood spent across the state of Alaska imposed a personal impression of Alaska’s biological diversity, mixed with the experience of Alaska’s sacred subsistence lifeways, the true value of our state's ecosystems are immeasurable, and a gatherable gift that was cared for by our ancestors.
To establish these beliefs, Erin’s work explores representations of these resources that make our environment unique through carved, painted, and beaded sculptural mask forms. Erin’s Indigenous family connections are to the communities of Nome, Nulato, and Utqiagvik and she currently lives and works on the Denaʼina Homelands of Anchorage and Cohoe, Alaska.
Henry Payer (Ho-Chunk)
Henry Payer is a Ho-Chunk artist who works primarily with collage and mixed media. Born in Sioux City, IA, in 1986, Payer received a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, in 2008. He was invited to study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and obtained an MFA in 2013. Henry has exhibited his work at locations such as the Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln, NE; All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis, MN; Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO; and Overture Galleries located in Madison, WI. In Venice, Italy, Payer has also exhibited at the University of Venice Ca’ Voscari, Palazzo Cosulich. Payer has spent time as an instructor at the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute located at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. He currently lives in Sioux City, IA.
Payer’s narrative compositions are bold and contemporary. His works utilize Indigenous cartographic methods with traditional aspects of spatial representation and symbolism while appropriating European modernist models of cubism, spatial distortion, and collage. Each work offers a visual narrative of symbols and appropriated voices from American consumer society that reconfigures historical references to the altered landscape or the identity of a portrait. Payer questions our presumptions and challenges the dialogue of what is expected of Indigenous artists. Henry represents the work of artists seeking to expand the range and voice of their visual expression and cultural representation while attending to concepts and forms of tradition.
Terran Last Gun (Piikani)
Terran Last Gun / Sah’kwiinaamah’kaa (b. 1989, Browning, MT) is a visual artist and printmaker who grew up where the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains greet each other. Last Gun is a Piikani (Blackfeet) citizen of Montana who is a part of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Last Gun contributes to an ancient Indigenous North American narrative. His artwork is a visual interpretation of nature, the cosmos, cultural narratives, and recollections of home in reduced geometric aesthetics and color harmonies. Last Gun received his A.S. degree from the Blackfeet Community College in 2011 and his BFA in Museum Studies and AFA in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2016. He is a recipient of awards from the First Peoples Fund, 2020 Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship; Santa Fe Art Institute, 2018 Story Maps Fellowship; and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 2016 Goodman Aspiring Artist Fellowship. He currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Robyn Tsinnajinnie (Diné)
Robyn Tsinnajinnie is a Navajo artist from a small reservation surrounded by the endless color of the New Mexican desert. Her experiences with school, people, and living situations forced her to become independent at a young age. Her independence only motivated her to pursue education and self-confidence in her art. Soon, Robyn realized that being Native and a woman is viewed as a disadvantage but learned that it's the best advantage she can have.
Her passion for painting grew from the ability to create an unlimited amount of color that would captivate herself and others. She enjoys pairing colors next to each other to create different auras and moods that help communicate her ideas and thoughts through the practice of painting. Most importantly, painting is a therapeutic practice for Robyn to help herself understand herself as an artist and a Native woman.
Artist Statement:
Among many obstacles as an artist and individual, painting and women seemed to make the most sense to Robyn. Growing up primarily around women, she would listen to the many stories they would share. Soon, Robyn noticed common fears and experiences that all women tend to share. These shared stories helped Robyn break down what demonstrates power, despite the odds stacked against female figures. She believes people misrepresent women, and what they've done throughout history has gone unnoticed for so long.
I want to use the assumptions made about women to our advantage with humor instead of anger and illustrate women in dominant positions while placing them in stereotypical environments. Their positions give more power and motivation for other women to address harsh realities and help create conversations that need to happen amongst everyone. Ultimately, she wishes to show people how ridiculous stereotypes can be and to allow herself and others to laugh instead of choosing anger.