#native photographers

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Dezbah modeling an Eisenhower jacket and Jumpsuit by Anangookwe Wolf Model: Dezbah Designer: Anangookwe .

Amber (Choctaw)

Photography by: Ryan Young (Two Spirit Ojibwe) aka Me aka RM Young Photography

Please do NOT remove my credit.

with friends

We started with the 2016 Contemporary NW Art Awards. WTF is contemporary art these days anyways? I liked some of the work by Samantha Wall, Akio Takamori, and Lead Pencil Studio, but honestly why, Willem Volkersz, why?!? Neon birds on the Ace hotel building! Why??? And what curator thought that would be a cute introduction to his work? Stop! #PuttingABirdOnIt

My Wife's Lovers is a great painting! Go see how Kahler uses impasto for the long haired cats. Keep an eye out for the rythmic use of cat forms to offset the left-to-right diagonal composition, too.  #meowsterpiece

Then we got to walk through the modern & contemporary galleries on our way to the third floor.

Loving the weightlessness of the pink streak, like a cloud. Much better than her earlier painting that's also on view, Summer Scene. I've been to Provincetown and it doesn't look like that. I'd say someone aught to take it down, but one of the things I like about the PAM is the opportunity to see earlier, developmental works that larger institutions leave in storage until it's time for a retrospective. 

This was an unexpectedly delightful painting. After some Googling I haven't found much else by Raymond Parker I'm much of a fan of except this similar piece. I think the colors work better in this one, and I enjoy the varying thickness of the gestural brush strokes over the flat green the doesn't quite reach the edges.

Jacob Lawrence is easily one of my favorite artists. I saw the MoMA's recent exhibit on his Migration Series when I was last in New York. If life is art, then building must be like playing jazz.

You have to see this in person. The way the textured, but smoothed, oxidized steel contrasts with the inky black, reflective interior. It makes me feel in equal parts the desire to crawl inside it and wrap myself around it. Also, there's no listing for this work or any of DJudd's on the website. 

Finally, we were at the third floor where Paige Powell: The Ride and Kenny Scharf's Cosmic Cavern were. I gotta say I love neon, and anyone who commits as hard as Scharf does to their personal aesthetic has my respect. Take a selfie in there and see how flat it comes out!

After interviewing Paige Powell I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from The Ride. I do like it. I took at least one, and sometimes two, of every image you could because I have a giant wall in my apartment and no self-control when it comes to printed images. 

My only beef with both those shows is that it was a great opportunity to get deep intothe history of the NYC 80's art scene, and what else was going on around those artists, and that opportunity was wasted. I mean for me as a viewer I like to look at things, but I also like to learn something new when I go to an art museum. It was just a little too light for me. Low-fat art history.

Honestly I can't help but feel the same way about the Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy: Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star, Will Wilson exhibition. I love the concept. This kind of contemporary engagement with visual history is exactly what I'd love to see more of. But can we get some more details?

I wan't some specifics about what Native artists and communities are dealing with so I can connect with the images they're making. The lack of depth made it feel a little bit like an exhibit for grade school kids (not that we shouldn't be discussing representation with grade school kids) Especially the interactive response areas, but I can also imagine how having space for your voice in response to this exhibition could be really powerful. I understand there's a tumblr for them. I tried Googling to no avail. Where's that at?

Just sort of interesting to see how the museum as an educational space model is taking shape. I guess I'm old fashioned but the exhibition I got the most out of is Art from the Andes: Spanish Colonial Paintings from the Elvin A. Duerst Bequest. I'm reading the pdf at home because I didn't want to take ages reading and staring at everything.

Also A Netsuke Menagerie is full of super cute miniature animal statues!

The first picture is the design layout for a book I did the cover photography for. The second was the copy I received in the mail upon it’s publishing.

The Feb/March 2015 issue of Native Max Magazine is available for **FREE** download this week in honor of Native Max Magazine's 5 year anniversary since its launch. Check out some amazing pics I took of some wonderful IAIA friends and get your copy here:https://www.joomag.com/en/newsstand/native-max-magazine-feb-march-2015-sports-issue/0666867001423297228 

all photos are mine (c) RM Young Photography