Julie Buffalohead (Ponca), A Little Medicine and Magic, 2018.
Oil paint on canvas; 52 x 72 in.
Courtesy of Julie Buffalohead and Bockley Gallery.
Animals and art at Denver Museum Denver Art Museum presents ‘Eyes On: Julie Buffalohead’ (showcasing new work by the Minnesota-based American Indian artist) and ‘Eyes On: Shimabuku’ (present a video by Japan-based artist Shimabuku titled ‘Do snow monkeys remember snow mountains?’). July 29, 2018 – January 20, 2019.]]>
Source: Denver Art Museum
”Eyes On: Julie Buffalohead” showcases new work by the Minnesota-based American Indian artist, who is a citizen of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. She uses metaphors, iconography and storytelling narratives in her artwork to describe emotional and subversive American Indian cultural experiences, and often analyzes the commercialization of American Indian cultures. Buffalohead frequently includes animals as subjects, and her eclectic palette and whimsical subjects evoke a childlike innocence.
”Eyes On: Shimabuku” presents a video by Japan-based artist Shimabuku titled “Do snow monkeys remember snow mountains?”. Three years in the making, the video illustrates the adaptation of a group of Japanese snow monkeys who have lived in a Texas desert sanctuary since they were brought to the U.S. in 1972. While analyzing the monkeys’ displacement from their natural habitat in the snow-capped mountains of Japan, the film also symbolically explores human migration and reconnection with environment through genetic memory and ancestral history.
”Eyes On: Julie Buffalohead” and “Eyes On: Shimabuku” are thematically related to each other as well as to “Stampede: Animals in Art”. Although the visuals and artistic media are vastly different, both Buffalohead and Shimabuku use the depiction of animals as a vehicle to explore both familiar and unfamiliar narratives related to their personal heritage and the world around them.
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