Panel conversation featuring contemporary Sámi artists and co-curators Thomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, and Britta Marakatt-Labba. Moderated by MoCNA Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man, the panel will explore artistic practices and themes of the exhibition, including political borders, land loss, threats to the environment, and cultural and language preservation.

Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous People

Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree), What Will I Say to the Sky and the Earth II, 2019, print on aluminum, 1200 x 800 mm, photograph courtesy of the artist.

The traveling exhibition Arctic Highways features 12 Indigenous artists from Sápmi (cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people) and North America, sharing stories of Indigenous people who live on different continents yet regard themselves as kindred spirits. Artworks explore what it means to be unbounded, pointing to the restrictions of political borders, often arbitrarily drawn without regard to landscapes that have been used by Sápmi and North American Indigenous cultures for thousands of years.

Arctic Highways includes photography, duodji (Sámi handicraft), sculpture, fiber art, and videos, offering viewers an opportunity to learn more about international Indigenous art and issues at play in Sápmi and the Arctic. Even though these artists hail from the far North, their art touches on themes that resonate deeply with many of MoCNA’s Native American communities in the Southwest. From border issues to land loss, to threats to the environment, and language and cultural preservation, these artists use their art to shed light on shared experiences and concerns.

Curated by Indigenous artists Tomas Colbengtson (Sámi, Sweden), Gunvor Guttorm (Sámi, Norway), Dan Jåma (Sámi, Norway), and Britta Marakatt-Labba (Sámi, Sweden), Arctic Highways includes their own works alongside those of artists Matti Aikio (Sámi, Finland), Stina Folkebrant (Sweden), Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq, Athabascan, Alaska), Maureen Gruben (Inuvialuk, Canada), Marja Helander (Sámi, Finland), Laila Susanna Kuhmunen (Sámi, Sweden), Olof Marsja (Sámi, Sweden), Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree), and Máret Ánne Sara (Sámi, Norway).

Accompanying Arctic Highways is a mural in MoCNA’s hallway created by Swedish artist Stina Folkebrant and IAIA alum David Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’17. Stina Folkebrant also collaborated with Arctic Highways artist Tomas Colbengtson on the installation Mygration, which will be on view in the exhibition. Folkebrant is known for her large-scale animal portraits and landscapes inspired by Chinese ink painting. Mural collaborator and painter David Naranjo creates designs for clothing and accessories, based on Pueblo pottery iconography that often refers to the Southwestern landscape and natural world.

For more information, please contact IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man at manuela.well-off-man@iaia.edu.