The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is opening a solo exhibition on Aug 4 by Dana Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota first Nation) entitled “Dana Claxton: Spark.” The exhibition focuses on the artist’s large-scale, backlit, color transparency photographs.
Claxton refers to her photographs as “fireboxes,” a play on the term “lightboxes,” to describe the energy she finds embedded in the art form, and to ground her work in her Indigenous roots.
“Spark” also includes objects from Claxton’s imagery as well as historical works from the BMA’s Indigenous art collection. The physical works add an opportunity for audiences to draw connections between objects and the photographs.
“Dana Claxton believes beauty is medicine,” said Dare Turner (Yurok Tribe of California) and Leila Grothe, co-curators of the exhibition. “Her vibrant vision and the finely tuned skill of her works demonstrate the powerful bond within Indigenous communities, from person to person and generation to generation.”
Claxton explores Indigenous beauty, the body, and socio-political expression in her work. Her “Headdress” series portrays Indigenous women as “cultural carriers.” Elaborate beading covers the figures of Indigenous women, incorporating objects and symbols preserved within their families for generations along with newer items that reflect their communities today.
The exhibition also includes several prior works from the series along with a new firebox commissioned by the BMA titled “Headdress — Shadae and Her Girlz (2023).” In this piece, Claxton celebrates generations of Indigenous women wearing inherited and newly made regalia. It features a mother and her two daughters wearing ribbon skirts reflecting Indigenous pride and honoring the resilience of their ancestors. The mother is also holding a newborn swaddled in a cradleboard, with ceremonial feather fans protecting her face. This firebox highlights some of the ways Indigenous women — mothers, especially — carry on traditions and pass on cultural knowledge through the generations.
Pieces from Claxton’s “NDN Ponies” series also appear in the exhibition. “Easy Rider NDN” (2022) is one of them. Claxton positions her figures in an open space evoking the vastness of the Great Plains and making reference to the Plains warrior societies. They are outfitted in ways that capture the male-centric identities, merging the symbols of warrior, cowboy, hip hop, and lowriding culture. By combining contemporary and historical imagery, Claxton asks the viewer to examine ways in which violent conflicts have and continue to shape North American Indigenous experiences.
Claxton’s exhibition is the eighth to open in BMA’s “Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum” initiative. This effort significantly increases the presence of Native voices, experiences, and works across the museum. Indigenous community members took a leading role in the initiative, leaving their mark on the museum’s permanent collection in addition to curating and creating special Native and Indigenous works specifically for the nine exhibitions. “Preoccupied” was co-curated by Dare Turner (Yurok Tribe of California), Curator of Indigenous Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and Leila Grothe, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art for the BMA.
“Dana Claxton: Spark” will remain on view through January 5, 2024. The BMA is located at 10 Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD.
