Art by the late Osage artist Gina Gray will be showcased at the Osage Nation Museum from Sept. 28 to March 31, 2018.
The Opening Reception for “Traditional Values/Contemporary Vision; works by Gina Gray” will be held on Sept. 28 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Timely attendance is encouraged since the museum’s opening receptions are heavily attended.
“The ONM is humbled to honor Ms. Gray by presenting an assortment of her work,” said ONM Curator Hallie Winter. “Our goal is to celebrate her life, commemorate her achievements, share her talent, and honor her memory with this exhibition.”
Gray was a renowned artist throughout Indian Country. The Indian art community mourned her passing with obituaries appearing in Native publications such as Indian Country Today Media Network and Native American Times. She was known for her contemporary style of painting and monotype prints.
Educated at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., and the California Institute of Arts, where she studied commercial art, she also served as a Commissioner for the Secretary of the Interior for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board for a four-year term. Her artworks are featured in galleries all over the world.
She won the prestigious Southwest American Indian Art Association’s 70th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market Fellowship Award. She was also a Native American Right’s activist and in 1973 spent a month at the occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation.
Her children, Addie Roanhorse of Pawhuska and Dante Biss-Grayson of Santa Fe, are both up and coming artists in Indian Country.
“We are delighted with the outpouring of support for this exhibition and are grateful to the private collectors who loaned their work to the ONM for inclusion in the upcoming exhibition,” Winter said. “Community was important to Gina and it is appropriate that the celebratory exhibition in her hometown be a community endeavor.”
Winter said the upcoming exhibition is a cumulative endeavor, incorporating the permanent collection of the ONM and generous private collectors of Gray’s work. The upcoming exhibit embodies the kinship Gray had with her Osage and artistic communities, she said.
An exhibition catalogue will accompany the show and will be available for the suggested donation of $20. All proceeds from the catalogue will go to the Osage Nation Museum to help in fulfilling their mission of educating the public on Osage art, history, and culture, Winter said.
By
Osage News
Original Publish Date: 2017-09-18 00:00:00