RAPID CITY, SD — Opening October 9th, one day before the beginning of the 37th annual Black Hills Pow Wow, the Journey museum is set to be host to an exhibition curated by Oglala Sioux Tribe Artist Laureate Marty Two Bulls Jr. and featuring a collection of pieces which displays a wide range of medium (such as printing, painting, weaving, and digital art) and stylistic variety, as well as a diverse range of artists.
“Part of this show is sort of about, kind of challenging some of those preconceived ideas about Lakota art. I think a lot of folks, if you ask them, What does Lakota look like? They may say similar things, and that is definitely a part of our art forms, such as art quilts, things like that,” said Two Bulls on his goals for the exhibition. Indeed his point throughout was a focus on a broad range of work, contrasting traditional and more recent artforms to create an image of a wide spectrum of depth and possibility, showing native peoples as a living and expressive group with living and expressive culture. “I can’t say that there’s one work in particular that encapsulates the entire idea of the exhibition, but seeing the works in contrast to one another, in juxtaposition, I think that’s really where the power lies,” said Two Bulls.
On the practical limitations of such an endeavor, Two Bulls had this to say:“First I start out with my limitations, which are always limitations in these types of projects, limitations such as space, how much wall space I have money, how much, how big my budget is, how many artists they could afford to invite and support. And you know that those kind of things so, you know, to start out with, this isn’t every artist in my community, you know, I wish I had enough space and a big enough budget to, you know, really do a really big show like that. So this is sort of collection of folks ranging from different age levels to different kinds of career levels, established artists such as Martin Red Bear, who are participating you have kind of mid career artists and emerging artists and youth artists from Bristol and high school that are showing work in this exhibition and trying to get a variety of perspectives and forces, voices, male and female voices and different ages and also different mediums”.
On the timing of this exhibition, Two Bulls says it was very intentional. “We wanted this to happen during the Black Hills Pow Wow, which is also that weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday– Our opening is the day before the first grand entry for the Pow Wow”.
“It really makes a great opportunity to celebrate our artists and our culture, and do it at a time when a lot of native people and non-native folks are gathering to celebrate native culture. And ultimately, the main heart of all this is about that celebration and bringing people together, visiting and seeing the work”.
