'MESSENGERS 2012' exhibition, Native American Indian art, Rainmaker Art Gallery, Bristol, UK


	You are invited to our current exhibition: MESSENGERS 2012 June 13th - July 25th 2012 is a pivotal year for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. After 5,125 years, the current cycle of the Mayan calendar draws to a close. In preparation for a new beginning when perhaps, indigenous values will be more widely recognised and adopted, it is time to welcome the diverse and authentic messages and manifestations of contemporary Aboriginal Americans. "My people will sleep for 100 years, and when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit." Louis Riel, Metis. 'MESSENGERS 2012' brings together the work of eighteen important contemporary Native artists from tribes across America. From beadwork to photography, weaving to painting, each artist has developed a personal expression of what it is to be American Indian in today's changing world. Using art as a means of communicating across cultures, colonial borders and linguistic barriers they eloquently transmit powerful visual messages to a wider world in decline. TONY ABEYTA, MARCUS AMERMAN, SHONTO BEGAY, DAVID BRADLEY, KELLY CHURCH, MELISSA CODY, EDGAR HEAP OF BIRDS, FRANK BUFFALO HYDE, LINDA LOMAHAFTEWA, AMERICA MEREDITH, CHRIS PAPPAN, DEBRA YEPA-PAPPAN, CARA ROMERO, DIEGO ROMERO, MATEO ROMERO, SARAH SENSE, RYAN SINGER, MICAH 'WERE WULF' WESLEY. Several artists will be flying in especially to attend the opening, and on Thursday June 14th there will be a program of artist talks, demonstrations, film screenings and discussions throughout the day. Please contact the gallery for details of these events. COME ALONG, MEET THE ARTISTS, SEE THE ART & GET THE MESSAGE!

			MARCUS AMERMAN Marcus Amerman is a multi-faceted artist, unfetterd by the limitations of any one medium, mindset or cultural expectation. Performance art, fashion design, film, sculpture, beadwork, painting and conceptual installation are just some of the choices in his repertoire. Marcus frequently repatriates misappropriated Indian imagery and identity by any conceivable means. He may bead colour into historical pictures of famous or nameless people, collage two dimensional cartoons onto vibrant canvases or re-stage old Edward Curtis photographs with friends, acquaintances and modern day articles. "I believe there is another world beyond this one. We tend to imagine an impregnable wall separating these worlds, but I think of my role as an artist as being a clouded window in that wall. I seek to be the open door." MESSENGERS 2012' Marcus will be teaching a masterclass in beadwork and giving a presentation entitled 'An Attitude of Creativity'on Thursday 14th June.
			DAVID BRADLEY David Bradley is an artist and an activist who has made significant contributions to both the Native art world and campaigns for Native rights. Striving to eradicate the exploitation of Indigenous Americans resulting from stereotyping and prejudices, his artistic aims are indistinguishable from his politics. His artworks carry an imperative message, urging tribal people to reclaim their identities and preserve their culture, whilst simultaneously offering considered reflection of past and present politics surrounding Native Americans today. To be an artist from the Indian world carries with it certain responsibilities. We have an opportunity to promote Indian truths and at the same time help dispel the myths and stereotypes that are projected upon us. I consider myself an at-large representative and advocate of the Chippewa people and American Indians in general. It is a responsibility which I do not take lightly. In terms of colour and style, Bradley's work draws together influences from the traditional folk art of Guatemala and murals from Mexico, which he experienced whilst working in the Peace Corp when he lived with Mayan Indians in Central America and the Caribbean. His vivid, light-filled palette imbues his paintings with vibrancy and a sense of enlightened clarity which is complemented by his crisp painterly technique. Further contributing to his distinctive style are his frequent pictorial references to iconic portraits and personalities from Art History which he subverts in order to present a Native perspective. Bradley creates new, amusing and insightful meanings in the anachronistic combinations of iconic references that span cultures and historical moments. The effect is initially comical and charming, but as the humour subsides so emerges the realisation that these works hold within them a complex web of intersecting narratives addressing contemporary Native issues. 'MESSENGERS 2012' features a striking acrylic portrait of Pocahontas at Stonehenge.
			EDGAR HEAP OF BIRDS Cheyenne and Arapaho artist HOCK E AYE VI EDGAR HEAP OF BIRDS has been at the forefront of contemporary Native American art since the 1970's. His impressive career as both artist and university professor fills a resume of 37 pages and as many years. He has studied at the Royal College of Art, lectured at Yale and exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Venice Biennale, to name but a few. Heap of Birds' artworks include multi-disciplinary forms of public art messages, large scale drawings, acrylic paintings, prints, works in glass and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture. In June 2005, Heap of Birds completed the fifty-foot signature, outdoor sculpture titled Wheel. The circular porcelain enamel on steel work was commissioned by The Denver Art Museum and is inspired by the traditional Medicine Wheel of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. Heap of Birds' art work was chosen by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian as their entry towards the competition for the United States Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He represented the Smithsonian with a major collateral public art project and blown glass works in Venice, June 2007 titled: 'Most Serene Republics'. 'MESSENGERS 2012' features two mono prints created specially for the exhibition. They are part of an ongoing project entitled 'Dead Indian Stories'. Edgar Heap of Birds will attend the opening of the exhibition on June 13th. He will also be screening two short films followed by an open discussion, on June 14th. Please contact the gallery to reserve a place for this event.
			FRANK BUFFALO HYDE Frank Buffalo Hyde creates multi-layered and challenging works that flout prevailing stereotypes of American Indian culture with piercing insight and wry humour. His work examines the themes of land-theft, colonization and the genocide of Native Americans. Through pop-cultural imagery he confronts the continuing exploitation and exoticisation of tribal people and navigates the complex interplay between latent indigenous influences and the visual language of contemporary America. The buffalo is an emblem of Hyde's painted and sculptural art and an eponymous reference to his own identity. Symbolising abundance, endurance and strength, and crucial to so many aspects of the old traditional life, the buffalo is afforded the greatest respect. When buffalo herds were hunted to near extinction by 19th century settlers many tribes no longer had means of independent survival. Simultaneously, the government introduced reservations to contain and control tribes whose freedom and life-way had been intrinsically connected to the buffalo and the land. Hyde currently has a solo exhibition entitled 'Frank Buffalo Hyde: "Ladies and Gentleman, This is the Buffalo Show"' at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, NM., until July 31st. MESSENGERS 2012' features two images from his Buffalo Totem series.
			AMERICA MEREDITH Swedish-Cherokee artist America Meredith blends traditional styles from Native America and Europe with pop imagery of her childhood. Her influences range from the Bacone school of painting, the Arts and Crafts movement, 60s cartoons, to Mississippian shell engravings. She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee language and syllabary figure prominently in her work, as they are the strongest visual imagery unique to her tribe. She works in pen and ink, serigraphy, monotype printing, and beadwork, but her primary focus is painting in acrylic, egg tempera, gouache, and watercolour. America earned her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and her BFA from the University of Oklahoma. She has shown throughout the United States and in Canada and Europe in the last 15 years and has won awards at the Heard and SWAIA's Indian Market as well as at numerous competitive shows. She was a 2009 Artist Fellow of the Museum of the American, won the IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts in 2007 and was voted San Francisco Weekly's Painter of the Year in 2006. MESSENGERS 2012' features two captivating watercolour and gouache paintings of Native American Indian messengers/couriers Chubby and Cupcake.
			MICAH "WERE WULF" WESLEY "Art is important to me as a healing process for myself and it has the power to inform or destroy. Art must be handled with great care from Native artists because it is a direct extension of themselves, community, culture, and image. The life of the artist and art must be equal, positive or negative, or it is not, in my regards, worth anyone experiencing." I have met Native artists that create truths they do not believe. I have seen Native exhibitions of work I loved...until I read the artist statement or met the artist. I would like to see more Native artists create about forgiveness. Forgiving themselves, their families, their tribes, their religious leaders, their governments, their neighbors, and their enemies...this is why Native art is so important to us. "My father used butterflies and hummingbirds as messengers, prayers, and voices in his paintings. He died in 2006 and my work is usually pop surreal in imagery, but I've been eluding to his visual vocabulary as of late. I don't see hummingbirds on a daily basis, I also don't have any flowers or feeders displayed. So in that regard, one must prepare things for messages to arrive or reach a level of maturity in order to hear wisdom." MESSENGERS 2012' features a mesmerising image of strength and simplicity that speaks of a time to hear the wisdom of elders and ancestors.
			CHRIS PAPPAN Chris Pappan is an American Indian artist of Osage, Kaw, Cheyenne River Sioux and mixed European heritage. His art confronts the dominant culture's distorted perceptions of Native peoples whilst proclaiming that "we are still here!" Chris Pappan is the winner of the prestigious Discovery Fellowship from the Southwestern Association of Indian Artists (SWAIA) in 2011 and the Heard Muesum's Best of Class (Paintings, Drawings, etc) and Best of Division (drawing) at the 52nd Annual Indian Market 2010. Currently his artwork is based on American Indian ledger drawings of the mid to late 19th Century while giving them a 21st Century twist. Chris has lived in Chicago for the past 18 yrs with his wife Debra Yepa-Pappan, and their daughter Ji Hae. Chris' work is in the collections of the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence Kansas, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston Illinois, The Schingoethe Center for Native Studies in Aurora Illinois and private collections around the world. 'MESSENGERS 2012' features two extraordinary ledger drawings by this remarkable and talented artist.
			DEBRA YEPA-PAPPAN Debra Yepa-Pappan is a contemporary artist of Jemez Pueblo and Korean descent. She graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe with an Associates of Fine Arts degree in 2 and 3 dimensional art. Her art addresses issues of identity and Indian stereotypes. "Living in Chicago, I am influenced by contemporary and urban culture. A lot of my work, specifically my digital images of myself with my certificate of Indian blood, deal with the issue of my own identity. Growing up in an urban environment where every culture in the world exists, where different Indian Nations from around the country exist you find yourself questioning who you are and where you belong in the whole scheme of things. Fortunately, because of my parents and their own strong ties to their cultures, I have a strong sense of self. I know who I am and where my people come from. I could pinpoint exactly where my ancestors come from on both sides of my family." MESSENGERS 2012' features a vibrant digital print of traditional imagery with a contemporary sensibilty.
			DIEGO ROMERO Diego Romero is, in my opinion, the most important living Native potter. His seminal work is both timeless and contemporary, finely crafted and comical, subversive and sublime. His iconic pots grace the displays of the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cartier Foundation, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Heard Museum and the Scottish National Museum. His distinctive aesthetic honours traditional Pueblo pottery, pre-contact Mimbres pottery and Anasazi ceramics, whilst mimicking classical Greek ceramics, presenting an accessible form and style within which to voice his anti-colonial messages of resistance and confront issues of contemporary Indian existence. "Most Pueblo pottery, the historic stuff and even contemporary work, addresses a dialogue with fertility, rain, growth, and animals associated with that, whereas my dialogue centers around post-industrialization, the commodification of Indian land, water, alcoholism . . ." Romero lives in Santa Fe with his wife photographer Cara Romero. He was raised in California and spent Summers in his fathers village of Cochiti Pueblo, NM. He studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles, and received his MFA from University of California, Los Angeles. 'MESSENGERS 2012' presents a powerful and rare work on paper by this highly skilled and talented artist who's messages are always articulately delivered.
			SARAH SENSE Sarah Sense creates complex imagery by weaving digital photographs into traditional Chitimacha basket designs which reference her own cultural heritage as an American with Native Choctaw and Chitimacha ancestry. For her current project 'WEAVING THE AMERICAS', Sense travelled across 12 countries from Canada to Chile. She conducted interviews with and collected photographs of indigenous artists and communities, in a quest to understand the arts and cultures of America's aboriginal peoples, which in the end deepened the meanings of her own work, and answered questions about the legacy of the indigenous craft skills particular to her own tribal heritage. Describing herself as a colourist and her working process as being akin to painting, she exploits colour contrast between selected photographs, so that traditional basket designs emerge from her pictures, as well as being the very force which structures them. Her pan-American images literally weave together different perspectives, simultaneously dissolving geographical boundaries and celebrating the myriad of voices and visions which make up America's indigenous population. 'WEAVING THE AMERICAS' is a personal journey, a true and current story of the American continent manifest as a series of extraordinary works of art, and a book containing transcripts from interviews with tribal artists. Books will be available to buy from RAINMAKER throughout the exhibition and the proceeds will help to fund the continuation of the project through the islands of Latin America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic coast. 'MESSENGERS 2012' features four stunning images from 'WEAVING THE AMERICAS'. Sarah Sense will attend the opening of the exhibition on June 13th. She will also be speaking to us about her work during a series of artists talks on June 14th. Please contact the gallery for details and to reserve places at these talks.