Nicolas Galanin: Awesome Tlingit Artist

Hanging with a wolf. I think we look foxxxy together.

Earlier this month I went to the Association for Native Development in the Visual and Performing Arts (ANDVPA) Members feast at the Toronto Free Gallery and was surprised with this awesome exhibit by Nicolas Galanin.

First I saw the Inert Wolf in the window and I was slightly scared, and then intrigued. It took me the entire dinner to work up the courage to go get a photo with him (thanks to Dee for the photo). It was slightly awkward because I was posing for a while and Clifford Cardinal was laughing at me about what a poser I was while his mother, Tantoo (yes the Tantoo), was staring at me strangely. Ha! It was all worth it though. Priceless photo.

“Mainstream society often looks at Indigenous or Native American art through a romantic lens, not allowing a culture like my Tlingit community room for creative sovereign growth. The back half of this piece is contained, a captured trophy or rug to bring into the home, while the front continues to move. It is sad and the struggle is evident." Nicolas Galanin on the Inert Wolf to My Modern Net

 ‘Inert Wolf’ by Nicholas Galanin

‘What Have We Become’ by Nicholas Galanin

 ‘Si’geika’awu: Ghost’ by Nicholas Galanin

‘The Imaginary Indian Series’ by Nicholas Galanin

"Nicholas Galanin's First Law of Motion is the movement of culture and its transformation. The first law of motion states that things will keep moving at a constant velocity unless some external force comes into play so if you make something stop it will want to stay immobile. Galanin examines the state of culture arrested by colonialism and kitsched by tourism." ANDVPA

Nicholas Galanin is a Tlingit and Aleut multidisciplinary artist born in Sitka, Alaska. He is also known as Silver Jackson, which is his musical alter ego. Check his work in NYC at the Peter Blum Gallery in Soho until January 28 or at the Vancouver Art Gallery from February 25 to June 23rd.

N.B. 

Nicolas Galanin's FB Page

Nicolas Galanin's Tumblr