Native Pop!
July1-30
Opening First Friday, 6-10pm
The Paseo Plunge
3010 Paseo in Oklahoma City
“We still exist,” is a fascinating statement. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually heard anyone say it until we began prepping for the Native Pop exhibit. Since, I’ve heard it from a few different artists involved in the show as a way to declare their relevance in modern art, rather than trapped within styles and techniques traditionally perceived and accepted as “Native American Art”.
“We still exist” is a simple statement that transcends art into a declaration about an entire people who’ve faced attempted extermination and systematic marginalization for hundreds of years. A concept entirely foreign to my own understanding of the world.
We still exist. Damn.
Brent Learned has curated one hell of a show. Vibrant, ambitious, and loaded with defiance. This show deserves your eyes and the eyes of many, many more as it travels across the country. Learned has assembled some heavy-hitters in pop art and they’ve delivered with striking images using cultural touchstones like historical heroes, war paint, and appropriation to display the Native American plight in the country that has so ill-treated them.

Published on July 01, 2016 09:35