Please join us at the entrance of The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans for conversations with three exhibition artists as they discuss their works and artistic practice.
1:00 p.m. Marwin Begaye, printmaker and painter
2:00 p.m. Brenda Mallory, mixed media sculptor
3:00 p.m. Melissa Cody, textile artist
Marwin Begaye (Diné) is a professor at the University of Oklahoma, where his research examines issues of cultural identity through the intersection of Indigenous American and popular cultures. He has received numerous awards for his work, which has been exhibited on five continents and is held in several national collections. Begaye was educated at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
Melissa Cody (Navajo) is a fourth-generation Navajo weaver, who balances tradition, history, and contemporaneity in her work. Weaving on a traditional Navajo loom, she recombines traditional patterns into sophisticated geometric overlays and haptic color schemes. Cody holds a BA in museum studies from the College of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe.
Brenda Mallory (Cherokee Nation) has received grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, Regional Arts and Culture Council, and the Potlatch Fund. Among her awards are the Eiteljorg Museum Contemporary Native Art Fellowship, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Visual Arts Fellowship, Ucross Native Artist Fellowship, and Hallie Ford Fellowship in the Visual Arts. Mallory has enjoyed residencies at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking, Pulp and Deckle, and Bullseye Glass. She earned a BA in linguistics and English from UCLA and a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland.
About The Land Carries Our Ancestors
Curated by artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), this unprecedented exhibition brings together works by an intergenerational group of some 50 living Native American artists practicing across the United States. Their powerful art reflects a shared worldview that draws on thousands of years of reverence, study, and concern for the land.
Made possible by a grant from the Alice L. Walton Foundation.