Please join our newly arrived IAIA Artist-in-Residence (A-i-R) artists, Jerry Brown (Diné) ’95 and Golga Oscar (Yup’ik) ’20, for dinner and a chance to experience their artistic processes firsthand. Dinner is served from 5–6 pm, and a visit with the artists in their studios is from 6–7 pm. Brown and Oscar will be in the A-i-R Studio in the Academic Building. Free and open to the public.

For more information about the A-i-R Program, contact Angelica Gallegos, Interim A-i-R Manager and Museum Studies Visiting Faculty, at agallegos@iaia.edu or (505) 424-2369.

Golga Oscar

Golga Oscar

April 15–May 10

Golga Oscar (Yup’ik) ’20 is an artist from Southwest Alaska. Oscar is an artist who pursues modern textiles that reflect his cultural identity. Within his practice, he seeks not only to revitalize ancestral art forms but also to include and incorporate contemporary material and design.
Oscar works with and explores mediums ranging from leather and skin sewing to grass weaving, walrus ivory, and wood carving. A strong cultural identity is evident in his work. Through his knowledge of traditional art forms and his sewing skills, he creates cultural attire, a vital visual element in his photographic imagery. Oscar’s work has been collected by several museums, which include the Anchorage Museum, the Burke Museum, and the Museum of International Folk Art.

Oscar’s images of Indigenous people exhibit the importance of Native heritage and the validity of their existence. Through his work and traditional knowledge systems, he strives to Indigenize spaces in Western environments.

Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown

April 15–May 10

Jerry Brown (Diné) ’95 is a 1995 graduate of the Institute of American Indian Art. Brown has always viewed the world through the lens of abstraction, and his time at IAIA opened a whole new world for him. Brown says it freed him to explore and create what he wanted, not what others expected.

Brown is committed to keeping his home base in Mariano Lake, New Mexico. He says his land is where he draws his energy and creativity from. This is where the emotion, color, movement, and gestures in his work come through him. When Brown paints, he feels like he is releasing the turmoil of a tough childhood, his traditional spirituality, and his love of nature on paper and canvas. Brown loves to create abstract works. The abstraction allows him to paint that space between his traditions and himself, “the place of family, laughter, ceremony.” Brown says that as he creates a piece, it takes on a life of its own. Daily life seeps into his work, and his life is in the many layers he puts down on the canvases.

Brown has always viewed art as a means of expression, speaking his message to the viewer. Artists have always created work that speaks to social justice issues. Like those before him, Brown strives to use his art to raise awareness about social justice issues and attempts to start a conversation that could bring positive change.

If you are an individual with a disability in need of any type of auxiliary aid or service to attend events, please contact IAIA’s ADA Office at least seven calendar days before the event or as soon as possible at adaoffice@iaia.edu or (505) 424-5707.