Jaune Quick-To-See Smith

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Jaune Quick-To-See Smith

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith

Biography

Born: St. Ignatius, Montana, 1940
Resides: Corrales, New Mexico

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, an enrolled Flathead Salish, is one of the most acclaimed American Indian artists today. She has been reviewed in all major art periodicals. Smith has had over 80 solo exhibitions in the past 30 years and has done printmaking projects nationwide. Over that same time, she has organized and/or curated over 30 Native exhibitions, lectured at more than 175 universities, museums and conferences internationally, most recently at 5 universities in China. Smith has completed several collaborative public art works such as the floor design in the Great Hall of the new Denver Airport; an in-situ sculpture piece in Yerba Buena Park, San Francisco and a mile-long sidewalk history trail in West Seattle.

Smith calls herself a cultural art worker which is also apparent in her work. Elaboration on her Native worldview, Smith’s work addresses today’s tribal politics, human rights and environmental issues with humor.

“For all the primal nature of her origins, Smith adeptly takes on contemporary American society in her paintings, drawings and prints, looking at things Native and national through bifocals of the old and the new, the sacred and the profane, the divine and the witty.”

-Gerrit Henry, Art in America, 2001-

Artist Statement

Nature/Medicine, (from Survival, suite of four), 1996
Tribe/Community, (from Survival, suite of four), 1996
Wisdom/Knowledge, (from Survival, suite of four), 1996
Humor, (from Survival, suite of four), 1996

Pictured with found and drawn images are the four survival skills Jaune learned in the Flathead Nation: Nature/Medicine, Tribe/Community, Wisdom/Knowledge and Humor. No need to double-define humor. Images include references to cowboys and Indians, to science and industry and to art, all placed about a central figure, whether a Matisse-like dancing figure (nature), rabbit (tribe), skeletons (wisdom) or kachina dolls (humor). This set was published by Zanata Editions and printed by Mike Sims at The Lawrence Lithography Workshop.

Sticky Mouth, 1997

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith is an acute observer of the intermingling of mainstream popular culture and native tradition, as well as a strong activist for her People. A Native American of Salish, Cree and Shoshone heritage, she extracts from her roots from ancient oral myths and pictographic imagery that she juxtaposes with contemporary issues and images in a painterly montage style. “Sticky Mouth” is a translation of what her people called bears.

Wasatch Winter, 2002

This title refers to the Wasatch Mountain Range that lies alongside Salt Lake City, Utah where the Winter Olympics 2002 were held. This piece is made in honor of the Olympic athletes. It also features two of the mascots chosen for this Olympics: the coyote and the rabbit.

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