Celebrating Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Flomenhaft Gallery's Inaugural Virtual Exhibition
18 Page Catalog Available
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In honor of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s inclusion in the major exhibit Plains Indians: Art of Earth and Sky, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Flomenhaft Gallery is proud to present a virtual art exhibit from the gallery collection. Through her art, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith works for the betterment of the Native American community and indeed for all humanity.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is one of the most acclaimed American Indian artists today. She is from the Salish & Kootenai tribes in Western Montana. Smith often compares Native America to the Judaic experience. “Like the holocaust that occurred in Europe, there were millions here that were exterminated in the Americas. The estimate of how many were here when Columbus came run as high as one hundred million although our history books often say something like eight to ten million. But my art is not about my hate aimed at the government. It’s about the government’s hate aimed towards us.”
Smith has been reviewed in all major art periodicals. She has had over 80 solo exhibits in the past 35 years and has done printmaking projects nationwide. She calls herself a cultural art worker which is also apparent in her work. With a unity of idea and material, Smith elaborates on her Native worldview and addresses today's tribal politics, human rights, and environmental issues with passion, and often with humor. When she addresses the subject of war, which she abhors, her emphasis is forthright and absent of any humor. She has said, “I think probably my strongest suit is as someone who enlightens the greater community about our native view of life. Our Native traditional belief has no hierarchy. Humans are not in control of any of the environment or of nature, but are simply part of nature, which includes all plants, animals and insects; everything that’s living. Basically there is a common thread that runs through all indigenous tribes, that all of nature has an equivalency because it’s made of air, water, earth, and the minerals of earth, and there is a life force that blows through all of that connecting us together. So what we damage eventually comes back to haunt us later.”
The works on view are a mini-review that reaches back to the early 90’s.