Visual Arts Center of New Jersey’s New Exhibitions to Focus on Work by Indigenous Artists

The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (VACNJ) will open two new exhibitions on Saturday, October 9, that examine the interconnectivity of the human body, land, and water. 

The Main Gallery show, The First Water Is the Body, takes its title from a poem by Natalie Diaz, which was published in her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Postcolonial Love Poem. The exhibition features multi-disciplinary work by Indigenous artists and makers from throughout North America and includes photography, video, sculpture, ceramics, basketry, beadwork, and textiles. The show is curated by Maria Hupfield, an artist, educator, and member of the Anishinaabek Nation from Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario, Canada. As Hupfield explains, “a visual compliment to Diaz's text, the work in this exhibition accepts the body as the human form of water and that the fate of water is the fate of all people. 

Featuring the work of 16 electric and unapologetic makers that belong to and operate in relation with Indigenous communities from across the USA and Canada, these artists work to produce seismic shifts in cultural perspectives that point to reciprocity, critical accountability and awaken solidarity with place, lands, and waters.” (Left: Shan Goshorn, This River Runs Red, 2018, Arches watercolor paper splints, printed with archival inks, acrylic paint, artificial sinew. Collection of Jody and Mike Wahlig.)

A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Hupfield will accompany the exhibition. Participating artists include: Carrie Allison, Natalie Ball, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Jewel Cameron, Dr. Mique’l Dangeli and Nick Dangeli, RYAN! Feddersen, Anita Fields, Shan Goshorn, Shannon Gustafson, Courtney Leonard, Marianne Nicolson, Wendy Red Star, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Neal Ambrose-Smith, and Kali Spitzer. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue are funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the NJ Council for the Humanities. A series of related public programs that will complement the exhibition are funded in part by a grant from the NJ Council for the Humanities.

Concurrently, in the Art Center’s Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Gallery, artist Athena LaTocha will create an installation responding to specific landscapes in New Jersey. LaTocha is best known for monumental works that explore the relationship between natural landscapes and human-made environments. While she is interested in the wilderness and unspoiled landscapes, she is also intrigued by industrial sites such as quarries, gravel pits, and mines—many of which can be found throughout New Jersey. LaTocha begins each project by going directly to the land, carefully observing and listening to what it can reveal about its geological and cultural histories. She compiles a bank of digital images and videos to evoke memories of these experiences and gathers materials—tire shreds from the sides of highways, bricks from excavation sites, and various organic materials—to use as tools in creating the work. LaTocha typically works on large rolls of paper laid out on the studio floor and immerses herself directly into the painting process throwing and hurling ink; lifting and whipping the paper to manipulate the large pools of ink wash; and dragging, pushing, and scraping tools through the layers of ink. She typically adds soil and plant materials and particle detritus collected from her work sites. For this project, she will also use large sheets of lead to gather molded impressions of various New Jersey rock faces. LaTocha will incorporate these life-size lead imprints into her works on paper to create an intimate and immersive viewing environment in the Eisenberg Gallery. 

LaTocha, who was born and raised in Alaska, is Standing Rock Lakota and Keweenaw Bay Ojibwe. Her work has been shown across the country in places such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM; CUE Art Foundation and Artists Space, NYC; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, SD; and the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Stony Brook University. This project—a companion exhibition to The First Water Is the Body—is organized by VACNJ curator, Mary Birmingham. (Above, right: Athena LaTocha in her studio. Photo courtesy Athena LaTocha Studio)

In celebration of Indigenous People’s weekend, the opening of both exhibitions will take place on Saturday, October 9, in the form of a Community Opening Day. Occurring between 1­–6 PM, the event will include tours of the exhibitions, samples of Indigenous foods, and performances throughout the day by the Silver Cloud Singers & Dancers, an intertribal Native American singing and dance troupe that weaves together traditional and contemporary Native song and dance. The event will begin at 1 PM with a blessing and land acknowledgment recognizing that the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is situated in Lenapehoking, the ancestral land of the Lenape people, and honoring all Indigenous communities, past, present, and future. For more information on the Community Opening Day, and the public programs that will take place over the course of the exhibitions visit artcenternj.org.

About the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey

For over 85 years, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey has been exclusively dedicated to viewing, making, and learning about contemporary art. Recognized as a leading non-profit arts organization, the Art Center’s renowned Studio School, acclaimed exhibitions, and educational outreach initiatives serve thousands of youth, families, seniors, and people with special needs every year.

WHERE: The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is located at 68 Elm Street in Summit, NJ. Gallery hours: Monday– Thursday, 10 AM–8 PM; Friday, 10 AM–5 PM; and Saturday & Sunday, 11 AM–4 PM. Admission must be reserved in advance. Please call 908.273.9121 to confirm holiday hours. Visit artcenternj.org for more information. 

Support

Major support for the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is provided in part by the Peter R. & Cynthia K. Kellogg Foundation; the Wilf Family Foundations; and Art Center members and donors.