Launched by an all-Chickasaw artist board with the goal of “introducing our art, history and culture to the world,” the traveling exhibition VISUAL VOICES: Contemporary Chickasaw Art features nearly 60 works of art by 15 painters, potters, sculptors, metalsmiths and weavers. The show offers a visual of the Chickasaw story told through a modern-day lens. It was curated by Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man and Karen Whitecotton and has been making its way around the United States since June 2018. The show is now on view at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

“There’s a really beautiful piece in the show called Prayers Rising, by Joanna Underwood Blackburn, that’s kind of the centerpiece of the exhibition,” says Michael Duchemin, president and CEO of the museum. The installation features a clay base with a sculpted ceremonial fire at center and four coiled steel spirals that hang above reflecting the smoke from the fire. Attached to the coiled steel spirals are 39 clay blocks that are incised with prayers from all 39 tribes in Oklahoma. The base reflects the four cardinal directions as well as the four seasons, which are integral to Chickasaw culture and one of the exhibition themes.

Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art will be on view at the Briscoe Western Art Museum until January 18, and among the works, at center, is Prayers Rising, by Joanna Underwood Blackburn.

Norma Howard (Choctaw/Chickassaw), Gathering River Cane, 2016, watercolor on paper, 11¾ x  15 5/8"

Blackburn also designed the logo for the exhibition, which references a map of the Chickasaw tribes and waterways as drawn by Squirrel King in 1723. The logo also features a center circle that holds dual meaning. As explained on the show website, “At its core, a place of scared fire where logs burn and smoke carries prayers to the Creator. Then, like cardinal directions, it extends outward, finding place among an evolving aesthetic community. Finally the motif of the seasons formulates a creative ecology, a continuum of visual voices guiding the beauty and rhythm of Chickasaw life and art”

Brenda Kingery (Chickasaw), 230 Pow Wow, acrylic on paper, 38½ x 30½ x 1½"

At the Briscoe, visitors will find the show loosely categorized by the seasons, as well as themes of nature and culture, but it also reflects the diversity in medium and aesthetics of the artists. Duchemin adds, “The artists are all very different. The exhibition shows the dimension and diversity on how you might construe and construct a tribal identity. There are a lot of different approaches in the show.”

Dustin Mater (Chickasaw), Cosmic Warrior II, 2015, mixed media, acrylic on molded plastic, rabbit fur, deer antler, blacklip oyster shell, canvas, 11½ x 11½ x 17"

Brenda Kingery’s artwork reflects her own experiences and how she interprets the environment. The abstract works, often depicting powwow dancers, are often done in multiple layers showing the color, movement and vibrancy. One of her paintings in this exhibition is 230 Pow Wow. As Duchemin explains, “There’s always such a blur and a swirl [to dancers as they move] and she captures that thought her paintings.”

Billy Hensley (Chickasaw), Young Chickasaw Man, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48"

Another work in the show is Dustin Mater’s Cosmic Warrior II, a sculpture of a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet, but with other elements attached to it. “It has an elk horn on top of it and it’s painted with red and green colors. There are also silver medallions as the ear pieces that have a tribal graphic and turquoise painted on each of them,” Duchemin says. “It takes that pop culture reference and modifies it or adapts it into the Chickasaw identity.” 

Other artists featured in the show, which will be on view at the gallery through January 18, are Kristen Dorsey, Brent Greenwood, Bill Hensley, Lokosh (Joshua D. Hinson), Norma Howard, Lisa Hudson, Paul Moore, Erin Shaw, Tyra Shackleford, Maya Stewart, Margaret Roach Wheeler and Dan Worcester. 

Through January 18, 2021
VISUAL VOICES: Contemporary Chickasaw Art
Briscoe Western Art Museum
210 W. Market Street, San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 299-4499, www.briscoemuseum.org

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