“We are the memories we don’t remember, which live in us, which we feel, which make us sing and dance and pray the way we do,” writes Tommy Orange in his debut novel, There There, published in 2018. Nearly 40 paintings from the National Museum of the American Indian’s permanent collection look at the ways native artists express the memories that live within. Working against the constraints often placed on them by established notions of what art should be, this show allows singular paintings by artists including Dick West (Southern Cheyenne), Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo), and America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) to speak for themselves. —J.V.
Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting
National Museum of the American Indian
Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20560, United States
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