Ann Mitchell, Cactus Basket, 2017
A new exhibition is now on view at Syracuse University Art Museum featuring more than 52 contemporary artworks by Indigenous artists from all six Haudenosaunee Nations across what is now New York.
The exhibition takes a closer look at the multiple sources of inspiration in contemporary Haudenosaunee art, including treaties, the natural world, community and family members, ancestors, oral histories, and connection to land.
“Collectively, the artworks in this exhibition break convention by challenging the expected, disrupting stereotypes and interrupting non-Haudenosaunee historical narratives,” says Vanja Malloy, director and chief curator of Syracuse University Art Museum. “As the artists and their works demonstrate in this exhibition, the continuous trajectory of Haudenosaunee art has been in existence since long before 1607 and the arrival of Europeans.”
Erwin Printup Jr., Three Sisters, 2018
“Each One Inspired: Haudenosaunee Art Across the Homelands” will give visitors a sense of the dynamic, loud, punchy, glittering, somber and intricate ways Haudenosaunee artists respond to, react to and draw inspiration from their communities and histories; in doing so, this exhibition asks visitors to question their own relationships to Indigenous histories, people and lands.
The exhibition is curated by Gwendolyn Saul, curator of ethnography at the New York State Museum in Albany. The works in the exhibition come from the New York State Museum’s contemporary Native Art collection consisting of more than 150 original artworks by artists whose ancestral lands lie within what is now New York state. The majority of artwork featured in “Each One Inspired: Haudenosaunee Art Across the Homelands” comes from new art acquisitions made during the past six years.
“The exhibition beautifully accentuates Haudenosaunee aesthetic voices, creativity, resilience and resistance. It is important that these voices be honored at Syracuse University, which sits on the unceded lands of the Onondaga Nation,” says Sascha Scott, associate professor of Native American and Indigenous studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, who is a specialist in 19th- and 20th-century American art and Native North American art.
Carrie Hill, Untitled, 2018
Haudenosaunee is an alliance of native nations united for the past several hundred years by complementary traditions, beliefs and cultural values. Sometimes referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations, the Haudenosaunee consist of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Nations.
Special Events
Curator’s Tour: Each One, Inspired
12:15 p.m., Friday, Sept. 24
Join guest curator Gwendolyn Saul, Ph.D., for a curator’s tour of the newly installed exhibition “Each One, Inspired: Haudenosaunee Art Across the Homeland.”
Artist and Curator Talk: Each One, Inspired
4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 7
Curator Gwendolyn Saul, Ph.D., will join artist Hayden Haynes (Seneca) for a discussion on the art of antler carving, how Hayden became interested in this medium and what inspires his work.
Exhibition Reception
5-7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 7
Join the museum for a reception celebrating the fall exhibitions.
Artist Talk: Ronnie-Leigh Goeman
12:15 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3
“Each One, Inspired” exhibiting artist Ronnie-Leigh Goeman (Onondaga) will offer a lunchtime lecture about her artwork on display, as well as show examples of her other basketry work and discuss the various materials including samples of the tree and grass used.
Check the museum’s website for more public programs that will be added in the coming weeks. Members of the media may contact Emily Dittman, associate director of Syracuse University Art Museum, at ekdittma@syr.edu for more information or to schedule a tour.
