Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

August 30th – November 30th, 2014

Curated by Julie Lohnes, Curator of Art Collections & Exhibitions

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Imperialism, 2011, oil and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 48 inches

One of the most acclaimed Native American artists working today, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is internationally known as an artist, curator, lecturer, printmaker and professor. She was born at the St. Ignatius Mission on a Montana reservation, home to The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, of which she is an enrolled Salish member. Smith calls herself a cultural arts worker. She uses humor and satire to examine myths, stereotypes and the paradox of Native American life in contrast to the consumerism of American society. Her work is philosophically centered by her strong traditional beliefs and political activism.

Over the course of the last forty years, Smith has had over 100 solo exhibitions, and has been extensively reviewed in current art periodicals. Additionally, she has curated and/or organized over thirty Native American-focused exhibitions and lectured at more than 200 universities, museums and conferences worldwide. Her collaborative public artworks include the terrazzo floor design in the Great Hall of the Denver Airport; an in-situ sculpture piece in Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco; and a mile-long sidewalk history trail in West Seattle.

Smith’s work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Quito, Ecuador; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Recent awards include a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation to archive her work; ArtTable Artist Award, 2011; Moore College of Art and Design Visionary Woman Award, 2011; induction into the National Academy of Art in 2011; Living Artist of Distinction Exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 2012; the Anna Lamar Switzer Distinguished Artist Award, 2012; National Art Education Association Ziegfeld Lecture Award, 2014.

This exhibition was generously co-sponsored by the Office of Campus Diversity, the Women and Gender Studies Program, and the Department of Visual Arts at Union College.