NYU Kimmel Windows Galleries Presents Voices, on Display from March 24 - May 2

New York University Kimmel Windows Galleries presents Voices, in partnership with the American Indian Community House, which showcases the work of artists who aim to express their personal stories as a balance of identity and contemporary social life in North America. Originally a student project by graduate students in NYU’s Program in Museum Studies, the exhibition grew in scope and vision to include 11 Indigenous and Native American artists in a collaborative project and an exercise in creativity and exploration. The work will be exhibited in the Kimmel Windows at the corner of West 3^rd Street and LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village from March 24 through May 2, 2019 and July 1st through September 10th. A reception that is free and open to the public will take place in the lobby of Skirball Performing Arts Center (566 LaGuardia Pl, New York, NY 10012) on April 17th from 5:30-8pm. For more information, see the gallery’s Facebook page here.

Co-created by NYU graduate students Emily Rogers and Larisa Pecego and Kimmel Windows Galleries Curator Pamela J. Tinnen, the exhibition aims to provide a platform for Indigenous artists to tell their own stories in whatever way that speaks to them, without being limited to traditional curational practices. It is also an attempt to share a different way of seeing and understanding art to our viewers.

"NYU has great potential for the display of art in outdoor spaces around the campus, and we continue to strive towards activating our campus with the visual and performing arts,” said Pamela J. Tinnen, curator of the NYU Kimmel Windows Galleries. “What we're doing now, with the Kimmel Windows, is taking this public art initiative to a new level by making a commitment to use this public art space to showcase the work of our own students, who are creating exhibitions in their various programs, as Emily and Larissa have with Voices.”

Tinnen continued, “This project is particularly close to my heart because the graduate students are from Museum Studies, the program from which I graduated myself back in 2011. I've learned so much from working with them and their excitement and enthusiasm for the process and the artists has been truly inspiring. I can't wait to share their hard work with the community, and for the incredible artists and artworks who are a part of Voices to be shared as well."

Emily Rogers stated, “In Voices, we gave artists free reign to show whatever they want in this show because we want to prioritize Indigenous storytelling in whatever form it takes. There is incredible power in the personal and individual stories that shape us and guide the way we move in the world.”

Larisa Pacego said, “We designed this exhibition to allow each piece to speak for itself, and for artists to share their own stories. We encourage viewers to engage with each work individually, and really take in the artist statements and stories that are attached to them. We hope Voices inspires viewers to think about their own narrative and their relationship with the occupied territory we live on.”

The show will be on display from March 24^st to May 2^nd and from July 1^st to September 10^th. Works marked by a red dot are available for sale. Please contact individual artists for details (contact information below).

The exhibition was supported by NYU’s Program in Museum Studies, Jane Anderson, Eugenia Kisin, The American Indian Community House, and the Native American and Indigenous Student Group at NYU.

VOICES is part of NYU’s Art in Public Places initiative, sponsored by the Office of the Provost, and is the first iteration of NYU’s University-wide Emerging Curator Incubator Project, which awards funding and exhibition space for annual exhibitions conceived of and executed by our graduate students.

About the Kimmel Galleries: 
Established in 2003, Kimmel Galleries are dedicated to providing visually dynamic and thought-provoking exhibitions. They are free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the curator, Pamela Jean Tinnen, at 347.634.2938, or pamela.jean.tinnen@nyu.edu.

About the American Indian Community House
The American Indian Community House is a not-for-profit organization in its 50^th year serving the needs of Native Americans residing in New York City. The American Indian Community House is committed to fostering inter-cultural understanding and promoting Native arts and culture. The American Indian Community House operated a gallery space in New York City known then as The American Indian Community Gallery. During the gallery’s formative years from 1985-2005 it showcased prominent Native American, First Nations and indigenous artists. Through the instrumental support of Joanna Bigfeather, Curator at The Institute of American Indian Arts, Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator at The Portland Art Museum, Lloyd Oxendine then Director of the gallery and Diane Fraher Founder and Director of Amerinda arts all helped facilitate the gallery’s acclaim and recognition within the fine art world. The American Indian Community House continues its cultural legacy and engagement in the arts by collaborating with Native artists, curators, cultural and academic institutions throughout New York City.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Jeremy Dennis is a contemporary fine art photographer and a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. In his work, he explores indigenous identity, assimilation, and tradition from the lens of a millennial.

Dennis was one of 10 recipients of a 2016 Dreamstarter Grant from the national non-profit organization Running Strong for American Indian Youth. He was awarded $10,000 to pursue his project, On This Site, which uses photography and an interactive online map to showcase culturally significant Native American sites on Long Island, a topic of special meaning for Dennis, who was raised on the Shinnecock Nation Reservation. He also created a book and exhibition from this project. Most recently, Dennis received the Creative Bursar Award from Getty Images in 2018 to continue his series Stories.

In 2013, Dennis began working on the series, Stories—Indigenous Oral Stories, Dreams and Myths. Inspired by North American indigenous stories, the artist staged supernatural images that transform these myths and legends to depictions of an actual experience in a photograph.

Residencies: North Mountain Residency, Shanghai, WV (2018), MDOC Storytellers’ Institute, Saratoga Springs, NY (2018). Eyes on Main Street Residency & Festival, Wilson, NC (2018), Watermill Center, Watermill, NY (2017) and the Vermont Studio Center hosted by the Harpo Foundation (2016).

He has been part of several group and solo exhibitions, including Stories, From Where We Came, The Department of Art Gallery, Stony Brook University (2018); Trees Also Speak, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College at Old Westbury, NY (2018); Nothing Happened Here, Flecker Gallery at Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY (2018); On This Site: Indigenous People of Suffolk County, Suffolk County Historical Society, Riverhead, NY (2017); Pauppukkeewis, Zoller Gallery, State College, PA (2016); and Dreams, Tabler Gallery, Stony Brook, NY (2012).

Dennis holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, NY.

Frank Buffalo Hyde grew up surrounded by traditional Native American art. He had artists on both sides of his family and his parents met at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). From an early age, however, Hyde knew he wanted to make his own mark.

When he did eventually decide to embrace the visual art world — after playing in a rock band and trying his hand at writing — it was with the overt intention of making his audience think twice about the way they see Native Americans. Case in point: Hyde called his first show at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is the Buffalo Show and filled it not only with his namesake animals, but with buffalo soldiers, the character Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs, and an image of buffalo wings.

Hyde’s satirical, pop-culture-soaked, take-no-prisoners approach puts him in a unique place among Native artists. He has called out celebrities like Gwen Stefani for wearing feathers and depicted traditional ceremonies complete with a row of mobile phones caught in the act of documenting — or perhaps stealing — the dancers’ images. He knows his work will make some audience members uncomfortable. In fact, he hopes it does.

The artist has said: “When working on a piece, I tap into the universal mind. The collective unconsciousness of the 21st century. Drawing images from advertisement, movies, television, music and politics. Expressing observation, as well as knowledge through experience. Overlapping imagery to mimic the way the mind holds information: non linear and without separation. I don’t need permission to make what I make. Never have...no artist should.”

Nadema Agard Winyan Luta Red Woman is an artist, illustrator, curator, educator, lecturer, storyteller, writer, poet, published author, museum professional and consultant in Repatriation and Multicultural/Native American arts and cultures with a Master of Arts Degree in Art and Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from NYU's College of Arts and Science. As a Cherokee/Lakota/Powhatan who has been educated and traveled internationally, she is a bridge between urban and traditional cultures.

Ms. Agard’s artwork is a metaphor for the cosmic relationships between the sacred feminine and sacred masculine. These works are inspired by the images and cosmologies from Native American traditions of the Southeastern and Great Lakes Woodlands, the Southwest, the Plains, Meso-America, Pacifica and elsewhere. These devotional pieces are made in reverence to the earthmother, father sky, grandmother moon, corn mother, and all creative and regenerative forces of the universe.

Janice Toulouse is an Ojibwe artist painter and instructor, born and raised on Serpent River First Nation, Northern Ontario. She lives in Orangeville, Ontario and visits often in France. She has exhibited and presented her art internationally for 38 years. She earned an MFA from Concordia University, Montreal. She formerly taught painting and contemporary Indigenous art at Emily Carr University of Art in Vancouver for twenty years. Toulouse’s ongoing artistic concern is revising history from an Indigenous perspective. Her artworks investigate the intersection of written history, nature and spiritual beliefs that exist in her visual culture. Toulouse’s multimedia artworks have been shown nationally and internationally in Canada, U.S.A, France, and Italy. Toulouse is a recipient of several awards, Indigenous Artist Reveal Award in 2017, and the Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian award and residency in New York for her project “From Manhattan to Menatay”.

Krystyna Printup (New York, 1983) is a Brooklyn based artist, curator and designer whose work investigates her identity as an Indigenous woman and the issues surrounding ideal representations of the Native American community. A member of the New York Tuscarora Turtle Clan, Printup references her tribal history throughout her paintings, sculptures and design work referencing American Indian folk art, pop culture stereotypes, and objects of everyday life which are then combined with her own traditions. She has exhibited at Marianne Boesky gallery; Mehr Midtown Gallery; Schafler Gallery; White Box Gallery; The Hole; Year 08 Art Fair: London and at the Whitney Biennial 2017. She is a winner of the Art for Progress Artist search and a recipient of the Norwood Arts Club Founding Members Arts Award & membership. Printup’s most current project was with The Company Store as a featured artist for their inaugural Fine Art Collation launch and is one of the feature 60 contemporary artist of NYC on the Art collecting app ARTFARE. Printup attended F.H LaGuardia High School for art in New York City. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY and a MLA from Stony Brook University, New York.

Pena Bonita: Born and raised in the southwest, Pena Bonita now lives in New York City where she received her MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York in 1995. Bonita began her artistic career as a visual artist and began photography at age eight with an uncle in her grandmother’s attic, with a Brownie camera. Her work is reflective of Native American values and experiences. She has exhibited and lectured extensively throughout the United States and Canada. In 2004 she was a recipient of the National Foundation Book Award for her short story, Lotto Baby. Her work is held in numerous collections including the Thunder Bay Museum, Thunder Bay, Canada; Whoopie Goldberg; Colgate; Beth Israel Medical Center; and Long Island University.

Everton Tsosie is an abstract figurative artist-painter who lives and works in New York, NY. A native of Albuquerque, N.M., his work is contemporary and features a Native American style to his audience. He is a descendant of the Great Navajo Tribe hailing from Whitehorse Lake, N.M. He works with oils and acrylics on the canvas. He envisions an abstract quality with line and gestural strokes and brings a authentic-modern Native American perspective to his artwork.

Navajo singers, social gatherings, everyday drama, whether abstractly or naturally, his paintings and drawings conveys creations brought to the modern world with strong colors evenly spread by contour and irregular lines. As the artist adds, “ I work from experience in life and absolutely find it striking how drama can be expressed on a plain canvas with abstraction or naturalism. I love how my authenticity discloses to America that Native Americans are still here and creating!” Tsosie began his artwork since childhood and has had his first show at La Mesa Elementary in Albuquerque. Since then he grew up with a love of the arts and went on to graduate from the University of New Mexico with a BFA in an emphasis towards painting and drawing. One of the exhibitions he has been in is Time and Space are None of Our Business in Downtown Albuquerque at the CFA Gallery. He also has created a book cover for Native American author Sheila A. O’Quirke titled Taking Back the River.

Sparrowhawk is a Transcendental Story Artist who bases his life and art in accordance to his own saying: Aspirations, Visions & Dreams are only Illusions until We our Brave enough to give them Shape & Form into Reality.

He brings roots and primordial traditions into art of our time with Paintings & Sculptures aka “tangible illusions,” and Transcendental Storytelling performance.

Sparrowhawk’s sources of inspiration and muses come from the petroglyphs, philosophies and stories of his ancestors and the energies of every unique soul he meets. For more information, visit www.vimeo.com/TheSparrowhawk.