Now On View: Nuanced Visions by Native Artists

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 is now on view at SAAM's Renwick Gallery.

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Presenting Fresh and Nuanced Visions by Six Native Artists

A person wears headphones adorned with beadwork and stands in an open landscape.

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023
On view through March 31, 2024
Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 focuses on fresh and nuanced visions by six Native American or Alaska Native artists who express the honors and burdens that connect people to one another. The 55 artworks in the exhibition arise from traditions of making that honor family, community or clan, and require broad community participation.

Six artists — Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiat), Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy) and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) — analyze the present moment by evoking historical practices and potential futures. Their works are often culturally specific, yet they communicate across cultural boundaries. Meet the artists during the In-Person Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 Open House on May 26.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Sharing Honors and Burdens, the tenth installment of the Renwick Invitational series, is organized by guest curator Lara M. Evans (Cherokee Nation). Established in 2000, the Invitational showcases mid-career and emerging makers deserving of wider national recognition. It is the first time that artists chosen for the Renwick Invitational are all Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

$Two mannequins in a gallery are wrapped in shawls woven with Native Alaskan designs \.$

Two artworks in a gallery. On the left, a person looks closely at a basket. On the right, an artwork is suspended from the ceiling.

Three bags with color blocked motifs are arranged on the floor of a gallery.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is able to create and share experiences like these thanks to funding from generous supporters like you. Thank you for ensuring that American art is available to all.

DONATE TO SUPPORT SAAM

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation Endowment provides support for the Renwick Invitational. The Cohen Family’s generosity in creating this endowment helps make possible this series highlighting outstanding craft artists who are deserving of wider national recognition.

Additional support has been provided by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, The Robert Lehman Foundation, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Windgate Foundation, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

Image credits:
Lily Hope, Memorial Beats, 2021, thigh-spun merino and cedar bark with copper, headphones, and audio files, 16 x 4 x 10 in., The Hope Family Trust. Photo by Sydney Akagi

Installation photography of Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2023; Photos by Albert Ting

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