Exhibit puts NW Indigenous art in the spotlight

If you go:

Salem Art Association Exhibition Indigenous Northwest, curated by Steph Littlebird

Where: Bush Barn Art Center & Annex, 600 Mission St. S.E., Salem

When: Friday, Sept. 6 to Sunday, Oct. 27. Hours are noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday

Cost: Free  

Opening reception: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6. Welcome and artist introductions at 6 p.m.

Curator talk: 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3

More information: 503-581-2228

 

 

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Grand Ronde Tribal member, artist and curator Steph Littlebird is coming home, and she’s bringing a suitcase worth of plans and ambitions with her, beginning with a new exhibit of Pacific Northwest Indigenous art.

“I’m ready to share what I’ve learned with my community,” Littlebird, who has been living in Las Vegas, said.

She wants to teach young people about the demand for graphics by Native artists, among other goals.

Littlebird is especially excited about the upcoming art exhibition at the Bush Barn Art Center & Annex in Bush’s Pasture Park in Salem.

“Portland is home to some of the most acclaimed Indigenous artists in the country,” Littlebird said. “This is an opportunity to showcase how talented our community is.”

She said she’s proud to bring Indigenous art to a space that has largely been reserved for white artists. In addition, the show will take place during the Salem Art Fair, which brings in thousands of visitors, so it’s an opportunity for artists to be seen by lots of people.

The exhibit will run for two months in the Bush Barn Art Center & Annex. As with all the center’s art exhibits, it will be free and open to the public. Hours are noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

The Salem Art Association operates Bush House, the home built by Statesman Journal founder Asahel Bush II. Although the house and grounds are treasured today for their extensive gardens, historical museum and art gallery, Littlebird said that Bush, who died in 1913, “had a history of being extremely racist, so the museum is kind of reinventing itself,” with a new focus on inclusivity.

Salem Art Association Executive Director Matthew Boulay, who took the position in 2020, said he was almost immediately approached by staff about concerns they had been hearing from the public.

“Staff said that we have been challenged by the Oregon Black Pioneers, who said, ‘you’re promoting this guy, you’re telling a half-truth, a half-truth is a lie. Tell the whole truth, the whole complex story.’ And we’re starting to tell it,” Boulay said. “He was a strong advocate for the exclusionary laws that kept Black people out of Oregon. The evidence is less strong, but he also was not good to the Indigenous population. … So, we started this whole process we call reimagining, that involves thinking about what are the facts and who gets to tell that story.”

That has included looking at how to bring in other marginalized communities, he said.

Part of that work, Boulay said, included hiring Portland artist Jeremy Okai Davis to paint portraits of 10 Black Oregon pioneers, to be displayed along with the portrait Bush commissioned of himself, by famed portrait artist William Cogswell. He noted that many of those pioneers have been “suppressed and overlooked,” because of the actions of Bush and others like him.

“It’s great art and a broader, more full, honest, complex, truthful story,” Boulay said.

In addition, Boulay said, he put together a steering committee of artists and educators and recruited both Littlebird and Indigenous historian and Grand Ronde Tribal Elder David Lewis to join it. Lewis held an exhibition on the Indigenous history of Salem in 2021, Boulay said.

“We hired Steph to be on our curatorial committee to have a so-called ‘seat at the table,’” Boulay said, and purchased signs from her to set around the property, that state “This is Kalapuyan Land.”

The idea for Littlebird to curate an exhibit of Indigenous artists from the Pacific Northwest came up about a year and a half ago, Boulay said.

“It kept getting bigger and bigger; he was like, ‘wait, what if it wasn’t just one time,’” Littlebird said.

“The language we got really excited about is biennale,” Boulay said. “It’s the Italian word for biannual, but in the art world, a biennale is the big thing; it’s like the Superbowl of the art world. … It elevated it from an exhibition — and we consider this a major exhibition, and we’re excited about it — but now it is a long-term commitment.”

As part of that commitment, he envisions workshops, residencies and lectures, along with opportunities for artists to interact.

“A lot of what we do is for visitors and the public, but we also wanted time for Indigenous artists to talk to other Indigenous artists,” Boulay said. “Steph and I both think a contemporary Indigenous art biennale doesn’t exist, anywhere, and so that’s like all the more reason to do it, and this is a way to elevate Indigenous artists and practices.”

Every two years, the exhibit will include a different mix of artists.

“A lot of my work outside of being an artist or a curator is teaching people about Native history or Native art more broadly and what I’ve learned is that people don’t know a lot about us,” Littlebird said. “But if they can learn more about us through our art, it gives them a broader understanding that’s hard to convey in words.”

In addition to that broader education work, Littlebird said, “It’s very important for young Natives to see their community creating all this work; it lets them see what’s possible.”

She said she lacked those role models herself and wants to inspire young artists and potential artists.

Littlebird said she likes to bring together traditional crafts and contemporary work to show a full spectrum of what is being done by Indigenous artists.

“I love to find new artists, because inevitably they are inspiring and making something incredible,” she said. “What I like to do is bring a lot of different mediums together, and so it’s like I want people to come and see things that they might expect in some ways … But I also want to showcase the contemporary things.”

In addition to artists from Grand Ronde and the Pacific Northwest, Littlebird said, she has included “a Hawaiian artist who does work about her culture, and an Argentinean Mexican artist who does work about her culture,” to broaden the message.

“It’s important for us to see ourselves in these fancy art spaces, because we’ve been shut out of them, and we deserve to be there, too,” she said. “That’s why I brought in beadwork and basketry; I know that will speak to my Elders. They want to see that stuff in a gallery. They want to see it held in esteem and honored because it should be. It’s so fun to give people the recognition they deserve for their work.”

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https://salemart.org/events/indigenous-northwest/