Native Women & Chicago Imagists

Mechanical bank developed by Daniel Cooke for the Hubley
Manufacturing Co., on display at the MIA.

A visit to the MIA is never less than inspiring. I made a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art this past weekend to see the Hearts Of Our People: Native Women Artists exhibit. I didn't take any pictures of the experience because: a) many of the pieces on display were prohibited from being photographed at the artist's or donor's request; and b) it was an immersive experience with lots of multi-media components, and constantly withdrawing from that to stop and snap dimly-lit pictures on my iPhone seemed to countermand the purpose of the exhibition itself. I definitely recommend the visit, though, and you can get a peek at some of the pieces here on MIA's website, including one of my favorites of the exhibition, a series of clay tower sculptures by Santa Clara Pueblo native artist Nora Naranjo Morse.

Here are some examples of her work, including a detail of the series of sculptures on display (bottom pic) at the MIA:

"Khwee-seng (Woman-man)" Nora Naranjo Morse at
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ.

I recommend checking out Nora Naranjo Morse's website here. According to her website she's moved away from ceramics and into utilizing recycled materials and recently opened an exhibit with her daughter Eliza in Redwood City, CA.

On my way out of the Hearts Of Our People exhibit, I walked out into the rotunda designated as Gallery G280, which had a number of recent acquisitions hanging on the wall; some pieces holdovers from the recent display focusing on Hairy Who and The Chicago Imagist movement. Up until that point I had been woefully ignorant of the Chicago Imagist movement as an art movement and of the MIA even having had a spotlight exhibit dedicated to it. I definitely left with a list of names to do further research on!

Art Green "United Opposition" oil on canvas, 1975.

Ray Yoshida "Miraculous Matriarch" acrylic on canvas, 1980.

Roger Brown "Skyscraper"  oil on canvas with painted frame, 1971.

Errol Ortiz "Astronaut Targets" acrylic on canvas, 1965.

Jim Denomie "Vatican Cafe" oil on canvas, 2014.

Dominick Di Meo "Untitled (Red line with heads)" mixed media on Masonite, 1952. 

There's a great website that gives a good overview of the Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagist movement here, though be warned it is quite media-heavy and even with contemporary internet speeds and blink-of-the-eye media plug-in loading, the media hasn't all been necessarily streamlined and compressed to modern standards. The navigation leans more towards the novelty than the user-friendly as well, though the site is packed with great information and examples of each artist's work.

You can read about a recent controversy involving Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie's piece "Standing Rock 2016" and a Minnesota House Republican's offense at his depiction of Donald Trump here.