NICOLE FIACCO GALLERY

The NICOLE FIACCO GALLERY is pleased to announce Post-Identity an exhibition featuring the work of seven artists of Native American descent whose work defies the narrow definitions of ‘identity art’ that continue to pigeonhole artists.  Postmodern ceramics, mixed media, paintings and photographs will be presented.  Exhibiting artists include Lorenzo Clayton, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Susan Folwell, Peter Jemison, Duane Slick, Kay WalkingStick and Will Wilson.

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In no other contemporary art markets other than Indigenous ones do governments regulate art and identity together.  In the United States, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 attempts to qualify art by ethnicity and ethnicity by art.  Consequently, artists of Native American descent must contend with false boundaries of culture, market and law that are irrelevant to their work and their person.  For artists, the difference between “Native American Artist” and artist who happens to be Native American is of great significance and can mean the difference between having to recapitulate an imposed ‘identity’ versus the type of self-actualization that artists are especially entitled to.

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The artists selected for this exhibition directly and indirectly react against the notion that ‘identity’ is singular and that their artwork must comply with stereotypical and legal definitions of “Native American Art”.  

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Lorenzo Clayton (American b. 1950) is a mixed media and installation artist.  Clayton has exhibited his work internationally and has been included in major museum exhibitions at the Heard Museum, AZ, the Zimmerli Museum, NJ, the National Museum of the American Indian, NY and the Eitlejorg Museum, IN.  Clayton’s work has been reviewed in publications including the New York Times and the Village Voice.  Clayton is a professor of printmaking Cooper Union.

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Sonya Kelliher-Combs (American b. 1969) is a mixed media and installation artist from Alaska. The artist received her M.F.A from Arizona State University and has exhibited with frequency in Alaska since 1990.  In 2004, Kelliher-Combs exhibited in a solo show at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Ms. Kelliher-Combs’ work has been reviewed in The Anchorage Daily News and The Arizona Republic, among other publications.  Kelliher-Combs presented a solo exhibition of her work at the Nicole Fiacco Gallery in 2006.  The artist is a recipient of the 2007 Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship.
 
Susan Folwell (American b. 1970) is a ceramic artist living in Arizona.  Folwell’s postmodern ceramics are rooted in the traditions of pottery found at Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico.  Folwell was included in Free Spirits, an internationally traveling exhibition organized by New York City based gallerist and internationally known ceramics authority, Garth Clark.

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Peter Jemison (American b. 1945) is a landscsape painter living in Western New York.  Jemison has exhibited his work internationally including a 2004 solo exhibit at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY.  Jemison’s work is in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Gallery, NY; The British Museum, London; the Fenimore Art Museum, NY and the Heard Museum, AZ, among others.

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Duane Slick (American b. 1961) is a painter living in Rhode Island.  Slick is a professor of painting and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design.  His work is in the permanent collections of the Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY; the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Montclair Art Museum, NJ, among others.  His work has been reviewed in publications such as the New York Times and the Boston Globe.  Slick recently exhibited in No Reservations at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT.  

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Kay WalkingStick (American b. 1935) is a painter living in New York City.  WalkingStick has an extensive exhibition history and has been written about with frequency in publications including ARTnews, The New York Times and Art in America.  WalkingStick’s paintings are in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Gallery, NY; the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; the Eiteljorg Museum, IN; Heard Museum, AZ; Israel Museum, Is; Andrew Mellon Foundation, PA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Montclair Art Museum, NJ; Neuberger Museum of Art, NY; National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, to name a few.  

 

Will Wilson (American b. 1969) is a photographer living in Arizona.  Wilson is a Visiting Professor of Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson.  Wilson has had solo exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institute, NY, NY and the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ.  Wilson is a recipient of the 2007 Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship.