In response to a controversial tourism ad campaign that incorporated a quote by Georgia O’Keeffe, Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country: Tewa Interpretations of “O’Keeffe Country” seeks to engage and build community with native citizens of the region. The exhibition features Tewa artists’ responses to O’Keeffe’s vision of the land that would also foreground their own experiences and cultural perspectives. Moving well past a land acknowledgement affixed to the wall, this exhibition and its programming offer deep engagement – the kind necessary to build lasting relationships with communities whose artists have been historically excluded from institutional presentations and programming.
Tewa Nangeh/ Tewa Country: Tewa Interpretations of “O’Keeffe Country”
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”