To Take Shape and Meaning

“For thousands of years, Native artists have manipulated their materials into fantastic expressions of art. The contemporary artists featured in the show are among the most acclaimed in their genres and are credited with pushing their art forms in ways that retain meaning and continue to evolve culture.” —Nancy Strickland Fields, Guest Curator​

Organized by guest curator Nancy Strickland Fields (Lumbee), director/curator of the Museum of the Southeast American Indian at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, the exhibition To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art features works by 75 Indigenous artists from over 50 tribes throughout the United States and Canada, including eight from North Carolina.

To Take Shape and Meaning brings together a wide range of Indigenous world views, ideas, experiences, traditions, cultures, and media and emphasizes the continuity and evolution of Native arts, both collective and individual expressions of Native America. 

The exhibition, composed exclusively of 3-D artworks, includes baskets made of blown glass, cars transformed into works of art, and cutting-edge fashion ensembles embellished with elaborate beadwork and feathers. This project supports the NCMA’s ongoing goal of presenting expansive and inclusive art historical narratives in all aspects of the Museum and of bringing in contemporary artists whose works focus on themes that are particularly relevant to the concerns of the current moment.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image: Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock/Wailaki/Okinawan), Adaptation II, 2012, shoes designed by Christian Louboutin, leather, glass beads, porcupine quills, sterling silver cones, brass sequins, and chicken feathers, each H. 8 5/8 × W. 3 1/4 × D. 9 3/16 in., Minneapolis Institute of Art, Bequest of Virginia Doneghy, by exchange; Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art​​