Building bridges

For many contemporary artists, innovation is everything. But for American Indian artists, tradition counts for a lot. So much so that some Indian art exhibitions insist that participants make their work entirely in old-school ways, from the type of clay used in a pot to the style of decoration applied to a moccasin.

Heid Erdrich has other ideas. As the director of Ancient Traders Gallery, a Minneapolis showplace for American Indian art, Erdrich wants to broaden the field. Her current show, "RE: Generations, Legacy & Tradition," up through Feb. 23, features contemporary beadwork, paintings, ledger drawings, quilts and sculpture by 10 artists who honor the past but leaven their work with distinctly modern sensibilities.

"People are often constrained to produce traditional art forms or forms that seem historically authentic or, quote, museum quality, unquote," Erdrich said. "Those notions are all based on the idea that native art is an historic production rather than something that real native people are doing today. ... I wanted to show that, yes, there is tradition, but there is a bridge too."

Youth and humor are hallmarks of the works Erdrich picked. Several of the artists are young or just starting their careers; among them are Ojibwe/Oneida bead-worker Limón and Alaina Buffalo Spirit, a Northern Cheyenne who draws and paints exquisitely graceful Indian women on ledger paper and deer hides.

Others are seasoned professionals who regularly show at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market and have work in top museum collections, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Kevin Pourier and his wife, Valerie Pourier (both Oglala Lakota), carve and inlay intricate contemporary designs into buffalo horn, transforming the horn into spoons, cups and a fabulous belt. Vi Colombe (Modoc) fabricates elaborate quilted wall hangings with floral, star and medallion motifs. Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota), injects wry contemporary allusions and humor into his drawings on ledger paper, showing, for example, an aristocratic Indian being served wine and cheese by tail-coated waiters, one of whom looks suspiciously like Gen. George Custer.

Erdrich said one of her favorite pieces is "George Morrison Looking at the Lake," an alabaster sculpture by Jeff Savage, a Fond du Lac Ojibwe. Minnesota native Morrison, a prominent Ojibwe artist who died in 2000, is depicted in traditional tunic standing on a turtle. Though the figure does not resemble Morrison, the striated pink stone and design "suggests his spirit," Erdrich said.

Paintings and drawings by seven contemporary Indian artists are featured at Augsburg College at the Gage Family Art Gallery through Feb. 15. The artists include Carolyn Anderson, Frank Big Bear, Julie Buffalohead and Carl Gawboy.

While guest curator Todd Bockley frequently shows Indian artists at his namesake Minneapolis gallery, he doesn't categorize talent by ethnicity or heritage. He has shown Big Bear's work for 23 years and pieces by others of Indian heritage from time to time, but does not specialize in Indian art.

"I'm just interested in Midwestern artists representative of the region," Bockley said. "I had the good fortune of doing a few shows with George [Morrison], who always said he was an artist who happened to be Native American. Frank [Big Bear] was like that, too; he wasn't really looking for a Native American gallery, and I have never presented him that way. There is almost a backlash now against group shows, about being ghettoized."

While the Augsburg exhibit is very small, with just two pieces by each artist, it is a handsome display that offers an excellent introduction to significant Midwestern talents. The work ranges from Jim Denomie's humorous accounts of Indians chasing buffalo through a golf course to Star Wallowing Bull's colorful puzzle-like designs and Andrea Carlson's elegant motifs painted on beaver pelts.