Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in July will open two solo exhibitions of Native American artists Nicholas Galanin (Lingít and Unangax̂) and Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache). The exhibitions are part of “Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum”, the initiative to center Native voices and works at BMA.
There are already six open exhibitions at the BMA that are part of the “Preoccupied” initiative, so the opening of these new exhibitions in July will bring the total to eight. There are nine planned.
Galanin’s exhibition is called “Nicholas Galanin: Exist in the Width of a Knife’s Edge,” with new and recent works addressing the consequences of European colonization and occupation of Indigenous homelands. His work focuses on theft and erasure of belongings, Land, resources, and cultural knowledge from Indigenous communities.
“Through his forceful exploration of the past, present, and future, Galanin interrogates the long-term impact of colonialism within collecting art institutions by inviting a close look at the practices and motivations behind possessing Indigenous cultural belongings,” said co-curators Dare Turner (Yurok Tribe) and Leila Grothe. “His work embraces the transformative potential of art as a catalyst for change and understanding, speaking truth to power with a resolute voice.”
The center of Galanin’s exhibition is an installation featuring 60 porcelain daggers embodying Lingít Indigenous design and technology, decorated with Russian ceramics patterns. Russians ravaged Indigenous communities along the islands and coast of present-day Alaska in the 1700s.
“With this installation, fragile and decorative representations of powerful weapons speak to the restriction of Indigenous people’s right to resist settler violence and legislation, tolerant of only fragile and decorative Indigenous people,” Galanin said. “The suspended blades hover at the height they would be wielded in battle. Frozen in mid-air, their capability to cut emerges from their ability to shatter. If these daggers break, their destruction would produce sharp projectiles and edges, rendering new forms to use as tools or weapons.”
“Nicholas Galanin: Exist in the Width of a Knife’s Edge” opens on July 14, 2024, and will remain on view in the BMA’s contemporary wing through February 16, 2025.
“Laura Ortman: Wood that Sings” is a focus exhibition exploring Apache musicality. The film “My Soul Remainer” (2019) by Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) will be shown alongside an early 20th-century Apache tsíí edo’a’tl (fiddle) from the BMA’s collection made by Amos Gustina (Western Apache).
The instrument is created from the hollow stalk of an agave plant. It is played with the wide end against the musician’s chest. The instrument’s name in Apache means “the wood that sings.” Apache oral traditions trace stringed musical instruments to the beginning of the earth.
In the film “My Soul Remainer,” Ortman plays her violin throughout the southwestern United States against different backdrops, like in a forest clearing, on a mountainside, and within a rocky stream.
Ortman wrote the score for the film and sampled a piece by German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847). “By building upon and ultimately departing from the overwhelmingly white and male history of Western classical music composing, Ortman insists upon her own Native autonomy,” reads the press release.
“Laura Ortman poignantly reflects on the enduring thread of cultural continuity, where music emerges not just as a form of expression but as a lifeline connecting past, present, and future within Indigenous communities,” Turner and Grothe said. “In honoring the profound role of music in sustaining cultural lifeways, Ortman’s work speaks volumes to the power of art as a vessel for preservation, celebration, and the perpetuation of heritage for generations to come.”
Ortman is a multi-instrumentalist, versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin, and often sings through a megaphone. She’s a composer and collaborator across multiple platforms.
“Laura Ortman: Wood that Sings” opens on July 17, 2024, and will be on view through January 5, 2025.
Baltimore Museum of Art is located at 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD.
