Photo By Gail
Canadian artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (b. 1954) named his ongoing series Coppers from the Hood — to which Yelthadaas (2010) belongs — for the shield-like totems, or coppers, that Haida chiefs traditionally exchanged during potlaches. These are communal feasts that formed the basis of the pre-colonial economy on the Northwest Pacific Coast, and they’re still held today.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Yelthadaas By Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Indian Madonna Enthroned, 1974 (All Photos By Gail)
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a pioneering Native American artist and activist, passed away on January 24, 2025, after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer. She had just celebrated her 85th birthday.
An enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Smith was renowned for her dynamic artworks that intricately mapped the Native American experience, blending abstraction, collage, and mixed media to address themes of identity, oppression, and environmental issues.
McFlag, 1996
Continue reading Remembering Native American Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Photo By Gail
In-Approprite #1 (2013), the pointed title of this Pop-style painting by Native American artist Frank Buffalo Hyde, calls out the type of cultural appropriation sometimes perpetrated by celebrities in the name of fashion or riding a trend. Buffalo Hyde based his painting on No Doubt’s 2012 music video for “Looking Hot.”
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Frank Buffalo Hyde, In-Appropriate #1
Photos By Gail
For Cannupa Hanska Luger (b. 1979)Â the Bison is a symbol of Indigenous resilience and sovereignty. The mass slaughter of North American bison from 1845 to 1895 by settlers of European descent took place for profit, dominion over land and westward expansion. The strategic removal of this vital source of food, clothing, shelter and spiritual reverence for the Great Plains Native American populations forced their assimilation into western culture. It was also an ecological disaster with long lasting effects.
Continue reading Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Attrition in City Hall Park
Photos By Gail
Trade (Gifts For Trading Land With White People) (1992) is the first painting, in which Native American artist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith depicted a trade canoe, a subject she frequently returns to. Here, Smith uses the painted canoe as a vehicle for examining the history of exploitation in this country, which she underscores with collaged photocopies of old photographs, zoological illustrations, and clippings from newspapers and magazines – many from the publication of her reservation, Char-Koosta News.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Trade By Jaune Quick-To-See Smith