Contemporary Native American and First Nations Art

In these artworks, the artists depict history, culture, humor, lifeways, nature, and relationship to land. The artists come from several different tribes and geographic areas.

In Alajärvi, this exhibition is part of a broader project with two exhibitions, artist residencies, an online artists roundtable which will be an opportunity to foster communication and collaboration amongst artists from throughout the Arctic Nations.

EXHIBITION ARTISTS

Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw)
Lomahaftewa was in the first class of students at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), where she taught for over 40 years. Her artworks combine symbols, animal, and plant motifs and however abstracted are oriented to land and sky.

Cannupa Hanska Luger (Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and is Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota)
Luger’s Future Ancestral Technologies which he describes as “indigenous science fiction”, utilizes installation, video and land-based narratives, interconnectedness of humans and land.

Larry McNeil (Tlingit and Nisga)
McNeil often takes a humorous perspective on perceptions of Native Americans within the larger culture.

Meryl McMaster ( Canadian artist with nêhiyaw (Plains Cree), Métis, British and Dutch ancestry)
McMaster explores lineage and the relationship of self to the land.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is also of Métis and Shoshone descent)
Smith (whose work was the subject of a 2023 retrospective Memory Map at the Whitney Museum of American Art) utilizes storytelling to demonstrate the ways we are connected to other living beings and elements with humor, warmth, and concern.

Exhibition artist support provided by Museovirasto.