5 Plain Questions

After moving from Mexico City to the United States, Xavier Tavera learned what it felt like to be part of a subculture- the immigrant community. Subjected to alienation has transformed the focus of his photographs to share the lives of those who are marginalized. Images have offered insight into the diversity of numerous communities and given a voice to those who are often invisible. Tavera has shown his work extensively in the Twin Cities, nationally and internationally including Germany, Scotland, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and China. His work is part of the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Plaines Art Museum, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minnesota History Center, Ramsey County Historical Society and the Weisman Art Museum. He is a recipient of the McKnight fellowship, Jerome Travel award, State Arts Board, and Bronica scholarship.

Website:

https://www.xaviertavera.com/

Erin Shaw is a painter of borderlands, the spaces between worlds. As a visual storyteller, the child of an Oklahoma farm, Shaw tills the rich soil of dichotomy through her masterful uses of color, iconography, and story. As a Chickasaw-Choctaw artist, she creates in a

state of tension, suspended between two worlds where both solemnity and humor pervade her art. She finds that truths are revealed in unanticipated ways, and trickster often appears throughout her work. The artist earned her BFA in studio art from Baylor University

and her MFA from the University of Oklahoma. She is Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, AR, an international speaker, and a featured artist in Visual

Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art, among other exhibits in the U.S.

Born in Oklahoma, Anita Fields is a contemporary Native American multi-disciplinary artist of Osage heritage. She is known for her works which combine clay and textile with Osage knowledge systems.

Fields explores the intricacies of cultural influences at the intersections of balance and chaos found within our existence, explaining that “The power of transformation is realized by creating various forms of clothing, coverings, landscapes, and figures. The works become indicators of how we understand our surroundings and visualize our place within the world.” In this way, the early Osage concepts of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented throughout her work.

Her sculptures have been featured in many solo and group exhibitions, including the 2020-2021 Weaving History Into Art; The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn, Gilcrease Museum, Form and Relation: Contemporary Native Ceramics, Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, the 2018-2020 Hearts of Our People, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the 2018 Art for A New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950’s to Now at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Her work was also included Who Stole the Teepee? at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, New York, and the 1997 Legacy of Generations: Pottery by American Indian Women at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC., Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas. Her work can be found in several collections, such as the Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, the Museum of Art and Design, New York City, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and the Heard Museum, Arizona.

Fields was a 2017-2019 fellow with the Kaiser Foundation Tulsa Artist Fellowship program and is currently a 2020-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship Integrated Arts Grant awardee. Fields was the invited artist for the 2021 Eiteljorg Museum of Contemporary Art Fellowship. Fields was recently named a 2021 National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellow and a 2021 Anonymous Was A Woman award. In 2022 she received a Francis J Greenburger award.

Website:

https://www.anitafieldsart.com/about

Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neet'saii Gwich'in) is a writer/director/producer/actor living on the traditional territory of lower Tanana Dene lands in Alaska. She is humbled to build upon the work of so many other Indigenous creatives that have helped break trail for authentic representation in media. She is a Sundance Film Alum, a Nia Tero Storytelling Fellow, and Emmy-nominated writer and former creative producer for the Peabody award-winning PBS Kids series "Molly of Denali". Her short Gwich'in language film "Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr'eedaa", was named one of the 'brightest starts' at ImaginNative Film Festival and can be viewed at Reciprocity.org. She is currently in development for her first feature length film through her production company, Deenaadài Productions.

Reciprocity.org

Molly of Denali

https://pbskids.org/molly

Kalyn Fay Barnoski (b. 1990, Cherokee Nation enrollee, Muscogee Creek descent) is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, curator, and educator from Oklahoma. Centering Indigenous and decolonial methodologies, their work focuses on self-location, community-building, collaboration, and empathy through the use of music, publication, storytelling, and contemporary craft.  In every endeavor, they see their practice as a way to find the ways in which we all intersect and to build bridges of understanding between. Their practice is “for you, for me, for us, for we.” 

Kalyn Fay Barnoski holds an M.F.A. from University of Arkansas (2021),  an M.A. from The University of Tulsa (2016), and a B.F.A. from Rogers State University (2012). Kalyn has worked with Peabody Essex Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, Gilcrease Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Momentary, Eiteljorg Museum, along with others, and performed, exhibited, and facilitated workshops both nationally and internationally.

Links:

Websites:

https://www.kalynfay.com/

https://www.kalynbarnoski.com/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ojhmBnnR44AHdtGGK8f9q 

Bandcamp:

https://kalynfay.bandcamp.com/

IG:

https://www.instagram.com/kalynfay/?hl=en

Diana is the Executive Director of the National Indian Education Association out of Washington DC.

Through her passion and enthusiasm for supporting Native students, Diana has been a key driver in expanding NIEA's work beyond the halls of the U.S. Capitol to communities across Indian Country. She has helped shaped broader teacher hiring initiatives, created more opportunities for visits to tribal communities, acquired millions in grant funding for NIEA, testified before the US Congress in support of Native education, and inspired professional trust and collaboration among staff, colleagues, organizations and Native nations across the country. Her work has ensured that Native students have the best possible outcomes and educators have the best possible resources to support their efforts. Cournoyer directs the staff in carrying out the organization's Strategic Plan which includes: Advocacy; Building Tribal Education Capacity; Culture Based Education; Skilled Teachers and Leaders; Establishing Educational Standards, Assessments, and Accountability; and Post-Secondary Success.

Jonathan Thunder (b. 1977)

Thunder infuses his personal lens with real-time world experiences using a wide range of mediums. He is known for his surreal paintings, digitally animated films and installations in which he addresses subject matter of personal experience and social commentary. Jonathan is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, and makes his home and studio in Duluth, MN.

He has attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM and studied Visual Effects and Motion Graphics in Minneapolis, MN at the Art Institute International. His work has been featured in many states, regional, and national exhibitions, as well as in local and international publications. Thunder is the recipient of a 2020-21 Pollock – Krasner Foundation Award for his risk taking in painting. Since his first solo exhibit in 2004, he has won several awards for his short films in national and international competitions. His painting and digital work is in the permanent collections of multiple Museums and Universities.

thunderfineart.com

www.instagram.com/jonthunder/

www.facebook.com/JonathanThunder/

Chef Candace was born in Minnesota and lived on the white earth reservation until she moved out east with her mother in 2005. Finishing her culinary education at the Culinary Institute of America she has worked her way down the east coast and is now home in Fargo ND. She move back to the Midwest to be close to family and her culture. Candace moved home to share her passion for food and agriculture and hopefully be a support to those who aim to do the same.

BernBaum's Website:

https://www.bernbaums.com/

(From the Stephen Friedman Gallery)

Jeffrey Gibson’s work fuses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and experience of living in Europe, Asia and the US with references that span club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature and art history. The artist’s multi-faceted practice incorporates painting, performance, sculpture, textiles and video, characterised by vibrant colour and pattern.

Gibson was born in 1972, Colorado, USA and he currently lives and works in Hudson Valley, New York.

The artist combines intricate indigenous artisanal handcraft – such as beadwork, leatherwork and quilting – with narratives of contemporary resistance in protest slogans and song lyrics. This “blend of confrontation and pageantry” is reinforced by what Felicia Feaster describes as a “sense of movement and performance as if these objects ... are costumes waiting for a dancer to inhabit them.” The artist harnesses the power of such materials and techniques to activate overlooked narratives, while embracing the presence of historically marginalised identities.

Gibson explains: “I am drawn to these materials because they acknowledge the global world. Historically, beads often came from Italy, the Czech Republic or Poland, and contemporary beads can also come from India, China and Japan. Jingles originated as the lids of tobacco and snuff tins, turned and used to adorn dresses, but now they are commercially made in places such as Taiwan. Metal studs also have trade references and originally may have come from the Spanish, but also have modern references to punk and DIY culture. It’s a continual mash-up.”

Acknowledging music as a key element in his experience of life as an artist, pop music became one of the primary points of reference in Gibson’s practice: musicians became his elders and lyrics became his mantras. Recent paintings synthesise geometric patterns inspired by indigenous American artefacts with the lyrics and psychedelic palette of disco music.

Links:

Instagram: @jeffrune

Websites: https://www.jeffreygibson.net/

Portland Art Museum:

https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/jeffrey-gibson-they-come-from-fire/