Featuring over 100 works from the 1960s through today, Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 centres performance as an origin point for the practice of artists from across Turtle Island. This exhibition is on view from 23 May through September 21, 2025.

MacKenzie Art Gallery will be the first Canadian venue to present this landmark exhibition of contemporary art by Native American, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Alaska Native artists. Curated by leading scholar and curator Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation) and originally presented at the Hessel Museum of Art, Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 traces the history of experimentation that emerged in the late 1960s and continues to inform the practice of Native, and Indigenous artists today. The exhibition brings together over 100 works by over 40 artists and collectives.

“This exhibition marks a critical contribution to contextualizing contemporary Indigenous art as part of a larger artistic movement whose history has been understudied and overlooked,” said Tom Eccles, Executive Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, and Founding Director of the Hessel Museum of Art.

“This exhibition takes its impetus from a modest, yet significant document: Indian Theater: An Artistic Experiment in Process, published by the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) in 1969,” explains Hopkins. “The treatise was the first to attempt to define ‘New Native’ theater, ushering in a new way of framing the long practice of performance in Indigenous societies across Turtle Island; they were also creating a template for its future. “Inspired by this document, the exhibition, Indian Theater is attuned to the intersections between objects, performance—in its expanded forms—film and video, and visual sovereignty in Native North American contemporary art.”

The exhibition begins chronologically and cites the 1969 document, Indian Theater: An Artistic Experiment in Process, published by the IAIA. It then progresses to early documentation of IAIA theater performances, along with recently digitized footage of Spiderwoman Theater’s (Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel (all Rappahannock and Kuna)) evocatively titled 1978–1980 play Cabaret: An Evening of Disgusting Songs and Pukey Images. The longest running theatre group in the United States, Spiderwoman Theater emerged from the feminist movement of the 1970s and the disillusionment with the treatment of women in radical political movements of the time.

The exhibition progresses with a survey of film, video, performance, sculpture, painting, drawing, and beadwork that pay homage to the legacy of innovative Native aesthetic traditions as well as continuing practices of experimentation and performativity.

“From documentation, to conceptual work, to maximalist installation, Indian Theater is a masterclass in Indigenous art and performance,” says MacKenzie Art Gallery Executive Director & CEO John G. Hampton, “I am so grateful to be able to share such important work by Candice, and all of the participating artists.”

Exhibiting artists include: KC Adams (Métis), asinnajaq (Inuk), Sonny Assu (Ligwiłda’xw Kwakwaka’wakw from Wei Wai Kum Nation), Natalie Ball (Klamath/Modoc), Rick Bartow (Wiyot), Rebecca Belmore (Member of the Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe)), Bob Boyer (Métis), Dana Claxton (Lakota), Theo Jean Cuthand (Plains Cree, Scottish, Irish), Ruth Cuthand (Plains Cree, Scottish, Irish, Canadian), Beau Dick (Kwakwaka’wakw, Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nation), Demian DinéYazhi’ (Diné), Rosalie Favell (Métis (Cree/ British)), Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin, Czech and Dutch), Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂), Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee), Ishi Glinsky (Tohono O’odham), Raven Halfmoon (Caddo), Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill (Métis), Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians), Maria Hupfield (Anishnaabek, Wasauksing First Nation / Canada),, Kite (Oglala Sioux Tribe), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota), Tanya Lukin Linklater (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq), Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw), James Luna (Payómkawichum, Ipai, and Mexican), Rachel Martin (Tlingit/Tsaagweidei, Killer Whale Clan, of the Yellow Cedar House (Xaai Hit’) Eagle Moiety), Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba)), Audie Murray (Métis), Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), New Red Order (Adam Khalil (Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians), Zack Khalil (Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians), and Jackson Polys (Tlingit)), Jessie Oonark (Inuk), Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Walter Scott  (Kanien’kehá:ka [Mohawk]), Spiderwoman Theater (Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel (all Rappahannock and Kuna)), Charlene Vickers (Anishinaabe), Kay WalkingStick (Citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and Anglo), Marie Watt (Seneca and German-Scot), Dyani White Hawk (Sičangu Lakota), and Nico Williams (Anishinaabe).

 

ABOUT THE MACKENZIE

The MacKenzie Art Gallery envisions a world where art inspires and heals across generations. Located in Treaty 4 / oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, the MacKenzie is Saskatchewan’s oldest public art gallery, with a 50-year history of championing Indigenous art from Indigenous perspectives. The MacKenzie embraces its unique position within the Canadian and international art landscape, celebrating the diverse perspectives of all artists within the Plains region and Canada. It has a focus on Indigenous and contemporary art, contextualized through select historical and international work.   

MEDIA CONTACT

Angela Lackey
Communications Coordinator
MacKenzie Art Gallery
alackey@mackenzie.art
(306)-584-4250 x4271

 

Image credit: Installation image from Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, June 24 – November 26, 2023. Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Photo: Olympia Shannon, 2023.

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