LARRY McNEIL: Alaska Native Artist Exhibition Dec 10 Alaska House NYC

Larry McNeil, a Tlingit Artist at the start of the 21st Century
Photograph (c) T'naa McNeil /All Rights Reserved

"1491" From The Feather Series

Back in 1992, the 500 year anniversary date of when Columbus arrived on the shores of the Americas, a group of artists were asked by Theresa Harlan to participate in the Message Carriers exhibition that was graciously hosted by the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. I used a feather as a metaphor for indigenous identity and really love it that the media is black & white film because it referenced the world culture of 1992 so well. It represents the future denied us in 1491- a reminder that indigenous people still have a future that we can make our own. All of humanity for that matter. I like to think of it as kind of like a photograph on a blank page for you to fill in with how you imagine yourself to be.

YUPIK LADIES SERIES
Vintage Photograph (c) Larry McNeil /All Rights Reserved

YUPIK LADIES SERIES
Vintage Photograph (c) Larry McNeil /All Rights Reserved

YUPIK LADIES SERIES
Vintage Photograph (c) Larry McNeil /All Rights Reserved

"I find myself simply wondering how humanity would have evolved had the humans indigenous to the Americas been allowed to continue to evolve without European interference. Can you imagine a world not in the midst of a human- induced ecological melt-down?"

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LARRY McNEIL, Tlingit/Nisgaa, was born in 1955 in Juneau, Alaska. He's won numerous awards for his photography, including the National Geographic "All Roads Photography Award", the prestigious "Eiteljorg Fellowship" and the "New Works Award" from En Foco. His biography goes on to say "his photographs are about American Mythology, Ravens, the intersection of cultures, and finding the sacred in unlikely places. It is about the sacred not being for sale, but being able to be rented at reasonable rates. It is about being able to fly by night."

Eiteljorg Video Interview / Eiteljorg Biography

Larry McNeil's WEBSITE Follow his BLOG

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Dec 10, 2009 6:30 - 8:30pm
DRY ICE: Alaska Native Artists and The Landscape
Alaska House, 109 Mercer Street (Prince x Spring), New York

An exhibition of Alaska Native artists, including Brian Adams, Susie Bevins-Ericsen, Perry Eaton, Nicholas Galanin, Anna Hoover, Erica Lord, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and Larry McNeil. Each explores their relationship to the landscape, through a variety of interpretations and media, combining traditional and innovative forms from mask-making and skin sewing to photography and installation. Dry Ice is curated by Julie Decker, Ph.D., of Anchorage, Alaska. Decker is the director of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, a frequent guest curator of the Anchorage Museum and the author of numerous publications on art and architecture of Alaska.