Kalyn Fay Barnoski (Cherokee Nation, Muscogee descent)
Assistant Curator of Native Art
Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa, OK (918) 748-5300, www.philbrook.org
What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
I am looking forward to Philbrook’s upcoming exhibition, Trade & Transformation, which opens in October 2023. I am excited about this exhibition because it has given me the opportunity to dive into Philbrook’s permanent collection of Asian, African and Native objects, alongside contemporary works, to engage with a beautifully interwoven and complex history. Inspired by the constantly evolving and transforming nature of objects, I am excited to share the stories they each hold in this upcoming exhibition.
What are you reading?
I am a non-linear reader—I have trouble sticking with one book at a time so I read multiple at once. Currently, I am reading three books. The first is Possessions: Indigenous Art / Colonial Culture / Decolonization by Australian-born anthropologist Nicholas Thomas. The second is Slow Scrape, a collection of poems by artist Tanya Lukin Linklater (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq). The last is The Questions We Ask Together, a publication in relationship to the now-defunct Open Engagement conference started by Jen Delos Reyes.
Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
An exhibition I have yet to see in-person but have been anxiously awaiting is Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map at the Whitney Musuem of American Art. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) is a multidisciplinary artist who has been a trailblazer for contemporary Indigenous artists, researchers, scholars and more. This exhibition, curated by Laura Phipps, brings together nearly five decades of the artists’ expansive work and I am beyond excited for not only Smith, but the entirety of Native community to see her work celebrated in this way.
What are you researching at the moment?
I am passionate about traditional frameworks for music and storytelling, especially from a Native lens. Currently, I am researching sound methodologies in various tribal nations within North America, and how these sound methodologies have intersected with and influenced the trajectory of popular music, classical music and sound art.
What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
So many evolutions have happened in the fields of science, mathematics, and law, thanks (in part) to artists’ willingness to imagine and explore new possibilities. With that in mind, I am interested in the important dialogue, discoveries and futures that happen when we share space with people from various fields—artists, scientists, musicians, gardeners, dancers, mathematicians, linguists, directors, activists and more. I think a dream exhibition for me would be one where these varying ideas and voices come together in relationship to art, and in a way that helps us all imagine a holistic future.
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