My Native American Name July 30, 2023

 I was finally feeling a bit better post surgery and (sort of) ran to the Whitney Museum to see this exhibit. It closes August 13th and if you can get there, I highly recommend it. I was not familiar with her work but happy to finally explore and adore it. I also love her name. If I were Native American I would like my name to be ‘Raised by Wolves’. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (born 1940) is a Native American visual artist and curator. She is an art educator, art advocate, and political activist. She has been prolific in her long career, and her work draws from a Native worldview and comments on American Indian identity, histories of oppression, and environmental issues.This exhibition is the first New York retrospective of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), an overdue but timely look at the work of a groundbreaking artist. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map brings together nearly five decades of Smith’s drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures in the largest and most comprehensive showing of her career to date. Her artistic traditions are incorporated and reimagined with concepts rooted in Smith’s own cultural practice, reflecting her belief that her “life’s work involves examining contemporary life in America and interpreting it through Native ideology.” Employing satire and humor, Smith’s art tells stories that flip commonly held conceptions of historical narratives and illuminate absurdities in the formation of dominant culture. Smith’s approach importantly blurs categories and questions why certain visual languages attain recognition, historical privilege, and value.