October 25, 2024 – January 12, 2025 | Huth, Boeing, Salmon & Haws Galleries
Preston Singletary and Tammy García, Untitled, 2008, Blown Glass, 8.5”h x 10”d, Image courtesy of Preston Singletary and Tammy García, Photography by Wendy McEarhern, © Preston Singletary and Tammy García.
Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass is a first-of-its-kind, groundbreaking exhibition giving broader and overdue recognition to a wide range of contemporary Native American and indigenous, Pacific Rim artists working in glass.
The stunning art in the exhibition embodies the intellectual content of Native traditions, newly illuminated by the unique properties that can only be achieved by
Carol Lujan, Dancing Dragonflies, 2018, Cast glass, 12” x 24” x ¼”, Images courtesy of Carol Lujan, Photo by Stephen Lang, © Carol Lujan.
working with glass. Whether reinterpreting traditional stories and designs in the medium of glass, or expressing contemporary issues affecting tribal societies, Native glass artists have created a content-laden body of work. These artists have melded the aesthetics and properties inherent in glass art with their cultural ways of knowing.
A secondary focus of the exhibition—a historical perspective—presents the fascinating story of how glass art came to Indian country, mainly through the
pioneering work of Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), a founder of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and of Dale Chihuly, who taught the first Native artists to work in glass. While Chihuly is not Native, he has long wielded a major influence on American Indian glass artists, and his own art has (in turn) taken inspiration from the designs and shapes of Native basketry and textiles. This comprehensive exhibition is the first of its kind to salute and document the sublime flowering of Native glass art.
Dr. Letitia Chambers
Clearly Indigenous includes over 115 glass art objects created by twenty-nine Native American artists, four Pacific Rim artists from New Zealand and Australia, and leading glass artist Dale Chihuly, who first introduced glass art to Indian country.
Dr. Letitia Chambers, former CEO of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, curated the exhibition together with artist and museum consultant Cathy Short (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which originated this seminal exhibition.
Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass was originated by The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The traveling exhibit was curated by Dr. Letitia Chambers, and is toured by International Arts & Artists.
Organized by International Arts & Artists
