(Santa Fe, April 11, 2016)—Sponge Bob Square Pants, Pac Man, and Curious George, all sporting a particularly Native American twist, are just a few images from popular mainstream culture seen in the exhibition, Into the Future: Culture Power in Native American Art.

Featuring nearly 100 objects by more than fifty artists from the museum’s collections as well as others borrowed from collectors and artists, the work on view in Into the Future will be in such various media as traditional clothing and jewelry, pottery and weaving, photography and video, through to comics, and on into cyberspace.

The free to the public opening for Into the Future: Culture Power in Native American Art at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is on July 17, 2016 from 1 to 4 pm and the show runs through October 22, 2017.

“Culture Power”, in the exhibition’s title, is defined by exhibition curator Valerie Verzuh, as the unique power bestowed upon objects by a culture’s stories, traditions, and emotions – objects which define ourselves, our communities, and the world around us – and, in turn, determine how we interpret and understand others.

When Native artists reinterpret popular Western imagery through the lens of these culture stories the collision of meanings provides a springboard for often pointed commentary upon issues of identity, culture, and history. And, says Verzuh, these reimagined images elicit intense emotions, “As power resides both in the mind of the viewer and in the objects themselves. Having the authority to control objects and their meanings correlates with the power to define and control personal and cultural identities.”

Using humor, as a reaction to otherwise serious issues, serves an important role in tribal cultures, for instance the widespread Trickster tradition and Pueblo clown societies. In Into the Future we see work by artists who find the comic book aesthetic expresses perfectly their message. Turning the mainstream narrative on its head and re-interpreting it through the Native cultural lens, Larry McNeil’s “Tonto” in Tlingit-Nisga’a is transformed from a “dimwitted sidekick to the hero,” Jonathan Loretto’s, Star War Figure with Ray Gun is a Cochiti Storyteller “Bobble Head” figure, and Theo Tso developed Captain Paiute the Indigenous Avenger of the Southwest, “…after noticing that there weren’t any comics that were written, drawn or even created by Native Americans!”

Also featured in Into the Future: Culture Power in Native American Art, are Linda Aguilar, Keri Ataumbi, David Bradley, Ricardo Cate, Orlando Dugi, Jody Folwell, Susan Folwell and Les Namingha, Harry Fonseca, Dorothy Grant, Teri Greeves, Bob Haozous, Melissa Henry, Lisa Holt and Harlan Reano, Maria and Julian Martinez, Dallin Maybe, Jamie Okuma, Virgil Ortiz, Pat Pruitt, Cara Romero, Ramoncita Sandoval, Preston Singletary, Margaret Tafoya, Denise Wallace, Ken Williams, Will Wilson, and Bethany Yellowtail, among others.

Into the Future: Culture Power in Native American Art celebrates the vitality of contemporary Native North American communities. So when you see a “Native” Sponge Bob Square Pants living life out loud on the ocean’s bottom, Pac Man chomping through an imagined game world, and Curious George’s adventures in the big city, know that by redefining mainstream objects and their associated meanings, Native artists assure that their culture is both integrated into that of the world at large and proudly separate from it.

Media Contacts: Steve Cantrell, PR Manager, 505-476-1144, steve.cantrell@state.nm.us and Valerie Verzuh, Curator of ICC Collections, MIAC, 505-476-1296, valerie.verzuh@state.nm.us

You’re invited! | SITE Unseen 9
A BENEFIT FOR SITE SANTA FE

Friday, April 8, 2016
Preview 5-6 pm
Public Opening 6-7:30 pm

Tickets: $100 for Preview Ticket
EXHIBITION CONTINUES APRIL 9-10

One of the most anticipated events in Santa Fe, this art-buying opportunity keeps collectors guessing (and dashing!) for their first picks.

A limited number of preview tickets are now available for SITE Unseen Santa Fe 9. Reserve your ticket here and be among the first to view the artworks for sale! Your preview ticket purchase includes a raffle ticket for a chance to win SITE staff-curated selections from the SITE Unseen archives.

How it works:

Artists are asked to create and donate works on identical 5.5”x 8” boards. All pieces are signed on the verso and exhibited anonymously. Only when the works are purchased are the artists’ names revealed. Preview tickets and artwork purchases directly support SITE Santa Fe’s vibrant exhibition program. With James Kelly as Honorary Event Chair, SITE Unseen Santa Fe has become an enormously successful event among both new and seasoned contemporary art collectors.

Participating Artists include:

Ellen Abramson, Terry Allen, David Kimball Anderson, John Andolsek, Carol Anthony, Polly Apfelbaum, Tom Appelquist, Valerie Arber, Stuart Arends, Jamison Chas Banks, Steve Barry, Tom Berg, Kevin Cannon, Roberto and PJ Cardinale, Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Madelin Coit, Leonardo Drew, Joe Ramiro Garcia, Christy Georg, Cristina Gonzalez, Geoffrey Gorman, Allan Graham, Gloria Graham, Harmony Hammond, Rebecca Holland, Munson Hunt, Shirley Klinghoffer, Jane Lackey, David Leigh, Ric Lum, Lucy Maki, Dara Mark, Tom Miller, Mary Mito, Linda Montano, Richard Morrow, Nora Naranjo Morse, Jonathan Morse, Carol Mothner, Michael Namingha, Stacey Neff, Nancy Ziegler Nodelman, Marcia Oliver, Gay Patterson, Lisa Piasecki, Pascal Pierme, Purple Mountain Collective, Willy Richardson, Ed Ruscha, Abigail Ryan, Louis Schalk, Gerry Snyder, Brandon Soder, Nancy Sutor, Linda Swanson, Mary Temple, John Tinker, Mark Tribe, Trish Witcher, Jesse Wood and many more!

SITE Unseen 9 is sponsored in part by Il Piatto Italian Farmhouse Kitchen and Wilkinson & Co. Fine Art Framers. Official SITE event link here.

Clockwork for Oracles: Willy Bo Richardson
Richard Levy Gallery
August 7 – September 4, 2015
Artist reception: Saturday August 29, 6 – 8pm

Richard Levy gallery will exhibit the new series “Clockwork for Oracles” at the Seattle Art Fair, as well as the Richard Levy project room in Albuquerque. Also in the gallery: Altered States, an exhibition of selected editions by Gerhard Richter;and artist collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf).

Clockwork for Oracles is a series of paintings by Willy Bo Richardson that reaches for freshness. He states, “The paintings are made quickly and with as little editing and deliberation as possible. This doesn’t mean I’m not making esthetic and empirical decisions.  It simply means I’m aspiring to the essence”.

Richard Levy Gallery
Tuesday –Saturday, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
505.766.9888, info@levygallery.com

Press Release: Altered States • Gerhard Richter & assume vivid astro focus Clockwork for Oracles • Willy Bo Richardson