All Photos By Gail
Combining traditional references with a contemporary aesthetic, this Merino Wool Felt Long Coat (2017) pays homage to the matrilineal social structure of the Tlingit tribe, and specifically to the artist’s mother and great- grandmother. Artist Tanis S’eitlin found inspiration in the Chilkat robe, a type of Tlingit regalia, that her mother made toward the end of her life.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Merino Wool Felt Long Coat By Tanis S’eitlin
Michelle O Palma, Marble Sculpture (All Photos By Gail)
The last time I can recall entering an art exhibit that completely transported me to another world, I think I was here, or even here. So, yeah, it’s been a while. I nearly missed Madonna — not the pop star, but the first solo exhibition of work by The Haas Brothers — at Marianne Boesky Gallery, but I made a special trip after work just a few days before the exhibit closed on October 26th, because I knew, if the photos I’d seen were any indication, that I’d regret not having the opportunity to experience this whimsical group of flora and fauna in person. Even better: I had the gallery all to myself!
Continue reading The Haas Brothers Madonna at Marianne Boesky Gallery
All Photos By Gail
This elaborately Beaded Vest (2013) was inspired by the catalogs for the Burpee Seed Company, an online purveyor of gardening supplies. Whereas much Native American beadwork features flat, abstract designs, Marcus Amerman (Choctaw, Born 1959) stitches each bead individually, alternating colors to create three-dimensional effects. The result is vivid imagery that leaps off the surface and defies our expectations of the medium.
Although the realism and commercial source of Amerman’s imagery are nontraditional, floral imagery has a long history within Native North American beadwork as an art form and a symbol of cultural resilience. Floral imagery emerged as a mainstay of beadwork during the fur trade, when beaded horse gear, bags, and clothing found a ready market among non-Native traders and settlers. As Native groups were disrupted and displaced by expansion, disease and war, floral imagery retained symbolic meaning known only to tribes, forming a visual language capable of surviving the destructive forces of empire.
Photographed in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, CA.