Eiteljorg Native American Contemporary Art Fellowship 2021
Shifting Boundaries
about
shifting boundaries
The boundaries of Native art, particularly contemporary Native art, are shifting. This shifting, like tectonic plates, is exciting to experience because like the forces of Earth, Native art is an energy. This energy is growing, bold and free from confinement. Contemporary Native art does not ignore its origins nor does it exclude. The artists in the 2021 Fellowship epitomize this dynamic shift, taking their mediums beyond a 180 degree-turn, taking them past any boundaries.
![Sonny Assu (Ligwiłda’xw of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nations) Pay No Attention to that [Band Council] Behind the Curtain! Digital intervention on an Emily Carr painting (Indian House Interior with Totems, 1912-13), 2020 Archival pigment print, Edition 3 / 5 Loan from the artist and Equinox Gallery, Vancouver](https://contemporaryartfellowship.eiteljorg.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Shifting-Boundaries.jpg "Shifting Boundaries")
A Continuum of Thought
The work I make signifies a continuum of thought, knowledge, and the essence of who we are as indigenous people living in a modern, chaotic, and challenging world.”
Anita Fields, Osage, (Invited Artist)
meet the 2021
fellowship artists
meet the 2021
fellowship artists
Sonny Assu
Ligwiłda’xw Of The Kwakwaka’wakw Nations
Sonny Assu was born in 1975 in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Raised by his grandparents in a suburban setting in North Delta, BC, he did not learn about his Kwakwaka’wakw heritage until he was eight years old.
Catherine Blackburn
Dene, English River First Nation
Catherine Blackburn was born in Patuanak, Saskatchewan in 1984. Blackburn is of Dene and European ancestry and a member of the English River Dene First Nation.
Athena Latocha
Húŋkpapȟa Lakota / Keweenaw Bay Ojibwe
Athena LaTocha was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1969 to a Polish father and a mother from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Michigan.
Steven Yazzie
Diné / Laguna Pueblo
Steven J. Yazzie was born in Newport Beach, California in 1970. He is a member of the Navajo Nation and a veteran of the Gulf War serving honorably with the United States Marine Corps from 1988-92.
about our
Invited Artist
Anita Fields
Osage / Muscogee
Born in Hominy, Oklahoma in 1951. Anita Fields is a member of the Osage Nation and a descendant of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Fields attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was exposed to different media including sculpture and clay.
pave the way for
future fellowships
Help us secure a future in which Native American voices are heard through contemporary artwork. You can help by giving to the Eiteljorg, or by helping us in our search for artists for the next fellowship.
pave the way for
future fellowships
Help us secure a future in which Native American voices are heard through contemporary artwork. You can help by giving to the Eiteljorg, or by helping us in our search for artists for the next fellowship.