See ‘Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass’ in Cincinnati

A small Inuit girl walks across an icy tundra with a husky puppy peering out of her hood. The image is from the piece “Melt: Prayers for the People and the Planet” by Angela Babby and is one of more than 100 works of art featured in “Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass” at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The exhibition, on display through April 7, features works by 33 contemporary Native American and Indigenous Pacific-Rim artists who expand expectations of traditional Native art.

“Many Native glass art pieces reflect living in two worlds: the world of mainstream society and a more traditional society,” says Letitia Chambers, who curated the exhibition.

Babby created “Melt: Prayers for the People and the Planet” by heating sheets of glass into a shimmering kaleidoscope of gray, blue, pink and tan that looks like melting snow and ice. A statement on climate change, the piece exemplifies how the art in this exhibition blends historical imagery and designs with modern ideals and techniques.

The traveling exhibition originated at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and showcases the Native glass art movement that began in the 1970s. It began when Lloyd Kiva New, a founder of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), also in Santa Fe, collaborated with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to create a glass-blowing program.

RISD sent glass artist Dale Chihuly to the IAIA to help establish the program and the glass-blowing studio. Chihuly’s influence on the program and Native artists’ influence on his own work is explored in the exhibit by way of a few pieces made by the renowned glass artist.      

Angela Babby’s “Melt: Prayers for the People and Planet” (courtesy of the artist, © Angela Babby, photography courtesy of Angela Babby) and Preston Singletary’s “Raven Steals the Sun” (courtesy of the artist, © Preston Singletary, photography by Russell Johnson)

“Native artists have, for the most part, been fairly quick to adopt new media and media that has not been traditionally used,” Chambers says. “The interesting thing is that they bring their traditional design, patterns and aesthetics to glass art just as they do to the more traditional media.”

Ultimately, Chambers wants exhibition visitors to see Native artists in a contemporary light.

“American Indian artists are living, dynamic people,” she says. “One of the things that these artists have often been faced with is being put in anthropological museums instead of fine art museums. Lloyd Kiva New was instrumental in helping change that.” 

953 Eden Park Dr., Cincinnati 45202, 513/721-2787, cincinnatiartmuseum.org