INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Five artists have been selected for the prestigious 2023 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, an award that comes with a $50,000 unrestricted grant, museum permanent collection purchases, and a place in the exhibition UNSETTLE/Converge. This exhibition, sure to be stellar, will open November 11, 2023, and continue through the end of February 2024 at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. The museum will publish an art catalogue featuring essays about each of the 2023 fellows to accompany the exhibition.
In 2023 the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellows are:
- Natalie Ball (Klamath/Modoc) of Chiloquin, Oregon. Ball draws upon her Native and African American heritage to create assemblages using quilt patterns, unconventional objects, and natural materials to investigate definitions of Native identity.
- Sean Chandler (Aaniiih) of Harlem, Montana. Chandler creates abstract drawings on unstretched canvas, conveying experiences of growing up in eastern Montana and US settler colonialism. His artistic methodologies coincide with his academic career as a community college educator and administrator; he currently serves as president of Aaniiih Nakoda College on the Fort Belknap Agency in Montana.
- Ruth Cuthand (Plains Cree) of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In her printmaking, painting, drawing, photography, and beadwork, Cuthand confronts Canada’s historical mistreatment of First Nations peoples. Her recent works focus on the pandemic and include intricate beadwork depictions of viruses – as they would be seen under a microscope – sewn onto face masks.
- Mercedes Dorame of Burbank, California. Dorame creates photographs documenting her installations using natural materials with the land. Her ancestral home is present-day Los Angeles, and her work explores the roles of culture and ceremony, past and present.
- Raven Halfmoon (Caddo Nation/Choctaw/Delaware) of Norman, Oklahoma. Halfmoon continues her tribe’s rich history with ceramics by creating large-scale stoneware sculptures that focus on Caddo culture, social issues, and living as a Native woman in the 21st century.
Eiteljorg Fellows have been named every other year since 1999 and the Eiteljorg Fellowship has added more than 200 works by 55 contemporary Native artists to the museum’s permanent collection. A comprehensive overview of all previous Eiteljorg Fellowship recipients can be found at contemporaryartfellowship.eiteljorg.org.
Links
- Eiteljorg Museum, eiteljorg.org
- Natalie Ball, natalieball.com
- Sean Chandler, IG @niithuwaak
- Ruth Cuthand, ruthcuthand.ca
- Mercedes Dorame, mercedesdorame.com
- Raven Halfmoon, ravenhalfmoon.com