Murdock Gallery

The YAM is thrilled to announce a series of annual exhibitions that feature the recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists. We are kicking off this partnership with Marking Time featuring the work of Heidi Brandow (Diné/Native Hawaiian) and Luzene Hill (Eastern Band of Cherokee). The exhibition features powerful drawings and installations from Hill as well as Brandow’s colorful yet thought-provoking mixed media work. This exhibition calls attention to larger issues such as the missing and murdered Indigenous women in the US and Canada as well as personal narratives from both artists.

Heidi K. Brandow is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work is commonly filled with whimsical characters and monsters that are often combined with words of poetry, stories, and personal reflections. Hailing from a long lineof Native Hawaiian singers, musicians, and performers on her mother’s side and Diné storytellers and medicinepeople on her father’s side, she has found that her pursuitof a career in the arts was a natural progression. Primarily a painter, printmaker, and social practiceartist, Brandow’s work is centered on the inclusion of Indigenous people, and perspectives in the development of ethical and sustainable methods of creative engagement. Heidi K. Brandow is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, studied Industrial Design at Istanbul Technical University, and is currently a Master of Design Studies in Art, Design, and the Public Domain at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Luzene Hill is a multi-media artist, best known for socially engaged conceptual installations and performances. Her work reflects interdisciplinary scholarship in visual art, women’s studies, Native American culture – topics that are integral to her background and personal journey. Through work informed by pre-contact culture of the Americas Hill advocates for indigenous sovereignty – linguistic, cultural and personal sovereignty. These concepts form the basis for her installations, performance, drawings and artist’s books. Recent work, employing indigenous matrilineal motifs, asserts female agency and challenges male dictated hierarchies. An enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Hill lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Russia, Japan and the United Kingdom. Her awards include the 2019 Ucross Fellowship, the 2016 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts, the 2015 Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship and 2015 First Peoples Fund Fellowship. Hill’s work is featured in Susan Powers’ book, Cherokee Art: Prehistory to Present and in Josh McPhee’s book, Celebrate People’s History!: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution, and the PBS Documentary, Native Art NOW!.

exhibition sponsors

The Homer A. & Mildred S. Scott Foundation
Deborah Anspach & Dr. John Hanson