Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now

For generations, Native American artists have been considered outside the “mainstream” contemporary art world. A new exhibition, organized by Crystal Bridges, will begin to remedy that division. Native North America is the first exhibition to chart a history of contemporary Indigenous art from the United States and Canada. The exhibition presents some 75 works of art by the most important Native American artists spanning the 1950s to today—such as Kay WalkingStick, Carl Beam, Fritz Scholder, Edgar Heap of Birds, and Kent Monkman—and features works in a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, photography, video, sculpture, sound, installation, and performance art.

This unprecedented exhibition offers Indigenous perspectives on land and history and takes on the politics surrounding the way Native peoples have been represented, challenging historical assumptions and biases about Indigenous art. Ultimately Native North America unveils the power and influence of Native American artists, upends what has, until now, been the dominant story about contemporary art, and enriches our understanding of American art.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website