"The Lyrical Artwork of Jim Denomie"
July 8, 2023 - March 24, 2024 at Mia
Jim Denomie (Ojibwe, Lac Courte Oreilles Band, 1955–2022) used bright colors to draw the viewer into his satirical work. One will By Josie Owens at first enjoy familiar references to artworks like “American Gothic” or “Nighthawks.” Then, the viewer will look more closely and pause to contemplate the harsher references embedded in the busy canvas — the 38 Dakota men who were hanged on December 26, 1862, in Mankato; a priest who oversaw the forced separation of Native children from their parents and culture; or a more recent civil rights violation when Minneapolis officers transported two intoxicated Native Americans to the hospital in the trunk of a police car.
Denomie understood the suffering of the Native people firsthand as he was part of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, a federal program to encourage assimilation of the American Indian by proffering vocational opportunities in large cities in exchange for leaving the reservation. However, Denomie’s family did not receive the promised aid and ended up in poverty without jobs but with a broken family structure. In spite of this, Denomie overcame hardships including addiction to pursue art at the University of Minnesota, where he developed his powerful voice.
“The Lyrical Artwork of Jim Denomie” pulls no punches. Denomie was masterful at presenting images that have layers of meaning.
His motley canvases playfully entice the viewer and then provoke and challenge. Although Denomie died while it was being planned, his art and message live on in this superbly curated exhibit. Nicole Soukup, who worked closely with Denomie, his wife Diane Wilson, and his art representative, Todd Bockley, captures Denomie’s personality and his impactful commentary. “Despite the emotional weight of his subject matter, the artist’s dry wit opened space for necessary conversations about the legacies of colonization and the nature of humanity.”
"In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now"
October 22, 2023 – January 14, 2024 at Mia (public tours at 2 p.m. daily)
Photography has a complicated history for Indigenous people as the medium was used to subjugate and repress. Indigenous people were posed and manipulated to create a deceptive and destructive narrative. “In Our Hands” allows photography made by Indigenous people to correct those flawed images that permeated the canon.
As with the impactful “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists,” a curatorial council of Indigenous artists, educators and curators worked to select the artworks. More than 150 Native photographic works of art reclaim and tell the story of diverse cultures from the Rio Grande to the Arctic Circle. Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Jaida Grey Eagle and Casey Riley have curated a visually stunning exhibit. The vast exhibit has three themes: World of Relations, Always Leaders and Always Present. The photographs are positioned in a way that allows them to talk to each other about issues that extend across decades.
The artists also explore and manipulate photography in unexpected ways. For example, “War Shirt #1” by Bentley Spang (Northern Cheyenne) is a protective shirt made from family photographs with tassels of negatives, transforming the medium from subjugation to empowerment. Contemporary photographers highlight environmental issues and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
As “TV Indians” by Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) reminds the audience that you may not even realize how many of these false images you have seen and accepted. Now is the chance to reflect on whose history gets to be told in film and replace those misrepresentations with a different narrative.
"Cara Romero, Indigenous Futurisms"
October 21, 2023 – November 26, 2023 at the Bockley Gallery
Cara Romero’s work does not stop with “In Our Hands.” She has her own intimate show at the Bockley Gallery. Romero is known for her gorgeous black and white large portraits with a spiritual under meaning, but now she is exploring a new style — bright colorful photographs that take us on a journey to the future. Indigenous Futurism is an art movement that confronts the consequences of past and present colonization and imagines ways to heal and build better futures for Indigenous communities. Romero says that Indigenous people “carry deep histories with us like sacred bundles.” In her new portraits, her subjects are carrying something old into the future.
Romero stresses the importance of resilience. “Seeds can be dormant for twenty years and then bloom. They are dormant, not dead.” Romero remains positive through her artwork. “As we (Natives) continue to heal from past and ongoing traumas, we move from surviving to thriving. We are now in a creative space to imagine our futures while remembering all of our gifts granted by the sacrifices of those that came before us. We address themes like the futurity of precious Native life ways, our climate and Mother Earth, bringing balance and women’s leadership, and speculative fantasy with what feels like hope.”
The Bockley Gallery is located at 2123 West 21st Street and is three doors down from Birchbark Books & Native Arts, which has a great selection of Indigenous literature and history to read during Indigenous Heritage Month.
"Minneapolis is celebrating November Indigenous Heritage Month with three excellent art exhibits at Mia (Minneapolis Institute of Art) and the Bockley Gallery. All three shows offer powerful messages that will leave the viewer with a deep appreciation for these important but too often underrepresented artists who reclaim and rectify the Indigenous historical narrative."
