The Great Plains Art Museum will feature the new exhibition "Double Vision: New Works by Hulleah J. Tsinhanhjinnie" Jan. 7 through March 27.
Guest-curated by Veronica L. Passalacqua, curator of the C.N. Gorman Museum at the University of California, Davis, the exhibition employs photographic items from the museum's permanent collection to create new works of digital collage by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie.
Tsinhnahjinnie was born into the Bear and Raccoon clans of the Seminole and Muscogee nations, and born for the Tsinajinnie Clan of the Dine Nation. Exhibited nationally and internationally, photography is one of her primary modes of creative expressions. Tsinhnahjinnie's work in this series draws on the artist's native authority, incorporating vintage photographs of indigenous people. By reclaiming these images through her own expressions, she is creating a new document grounded in a native perspective.
Tsinhnahjinnie has been a recipient of the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, a Chancellor's Fellowship at the University of California, Irvine, the First Peoples Community Artist Award, and a Rockefeller artist in residence. She is director of the Gorman Museum and assistant professor in the Department of Native American Studies at UC Davis.
Passalacqua will deliver the 2011 Geske Lecture dealing with Tsinhnahjinnie's work at 7 p.m. Jan. 31. Her talk, "Archival Encounters," will be in the Sheldon Museum of Art's Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium and is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture in the Sheldon's Great Hall.
A writer, curator and scholar of Native North American art for the past 15 years, Passalacqua earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and her master's degree in museum studies from Oxford University. She has submitted her doctorate in museum studies from Oxford University, where her thesis examines political lens-based artworks by contemporary Native North American artists.
"We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting this exciting collaboration," said Amber Mohr, curator of the Great Plains Art Museum. "I've long admired Veronica Passalacqua's scholarship, particularly her pioneering discussions on visual sovereignty. Bringing new works by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, working with unique vintage items from our permanent collection, is placing the Great Plains Art Museum on the cutting edge of contemporary indigenous arts. Tsinhnahjinnie's work is tough. She twists the knife. It's exhilarating to be presenting such a strong visual voice to our audience."
"Double Vision" runs concurrently with "Ceremonial Dancing and Collaborative Spirits: Modern Native American Art," an exhibition from the Great Plains Art Museum's permanent collection, guest-curated by Kimberly Minor.
For more information on the museum, go to http://go.unl.edu/9ti or call (402) 472-6220.
- Amber Mohr, Great Plains Art Museum, and Tom Simons, University Communications
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/9ti