FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2002
The Museum of Texas Tech University is pleased to present Changing
Hands art without reservation: Contemporary American Art from
the Southwest, organized by the American Craft Museum, New York.
The exhibition will be on display from October 13
through January 5, 2003. This is the first in an unique
series of three comprehensive exhibitions to be presented over
six years, exploring innovation and creativity in Native American
craft, art and design today. This extraordinary project
will be one of the most complete presentations ever assembled
to document, interpret and explore in depth the rich diversity
of craft, art and design today by contemporary Native American
artists.
Changing Hands examines Native American arts in the Southwest concentrating on cutting edge work in clay, glass, fiber, metal and wood by 40 emerging and established artists, and will recontextualize Native American art within contemporary art and culture, rather than examine these works as ethnographic or anthropological artifacts. Jointly curated by David Revere McFadden, chief curator of the American Craft Museum, and Ellen N. Taubman, former head of the Department of Native American Art at Sotheby's, the exhibition of approximately 75 pieces will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by the curators, as well as essays by distinguished authorities, artists and critics.
Changing Hands offers an opportunity to understand influential pioneers who challenged traditional stereotypes of Native American art with works created in the past two decades, and to relate these to works being created today by young, emerging voices in Native American art. Ceramic artists Nancy Youngblood Lugo, Richard Zane Smith and Al Qöyawayma, weaver Ramona Sakiestewa, and jewelers Mike Bird, Gail Bird, and Yazzie Johnson have established new frontiers of excellence, based on their respect for tradition and their determination to move their respective fields forward. These artists paved the way for the current generation, including figurative ceramic artists Diego Romero, Roxanne Swentzel, and Virgil Ortiz, as well as experimental potters like Preston Duwyenie, Lonnie Vigil, Tammy Garcia, and Nora Naranjo Morse. While acknowledging and honoring these craft traditions, the artists have proposed new avenues of creativity, underscoring the ways that art evolves, changes, and develops in response to contemporary concerns and issues.
For more information about Changing Hands art without reservation: Contemporary American Art from the Southwest or to request special assistance, call the Museum Education office at (806)742-2432, or email to museum.education @ttu.edu. Visit the Museum's website for up-to-date information at www.museum.ttu.edu. A catalog of the exhibition is available through the American Craft Museum at 40 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019.