Javits Center, New York
September 5 – 8, 2024
Galleries Section: Booth 218
Platform Section: Nicholas Galanin
Peter Blum Gallery is pleased to exhibit a group presentation of work by nine artists for the Galleries Section. We will also be exhibiting a new, large-scale bronze sculpture by Nicholas Galanin for the Platform Section.
Nicholas Galanin
Alex Katz
Erik Lindman
Luisa Rabbia
David Rabinowitch
Martha Tuttle
Rebecca Ward
Robert Zandvliet
John Zurier
Platform Section
The unique bronze sculpture measuring around ten feet in height is cast from the pieces remaining after Nicholas Galanin split imitation totems into firewood size sections resembling logs. The imitation totems -- commissioned by Western dealers and carved in Indonesia from tropical wood -- reference the totemic art of numerous Indigenous Pacific Northwest Coastal people without an understanding of cultural knowledge. The bronze logs are welded in place to construct a disorganized figure: a reflection of the decimation of Indigenous culture by colonization. The work acknowledges Indigenous people's effort to rebuild with what remains (material and memory) and the difficulty of this task, due to generations of interference by settlers. An amalgam of material translations, this sculpture is made from a material long associated in the West with monuments and permanence, a concept the artist uses here to insist on the self-determination and self-representation for Indigenous peoples.
The Architecture of return hide painting series uses museum blueprints to map escape routes for Indigenous remains and cultural objects held in institutional collections to return home. Each of these works is a wayfinder for decolonization, beginning with return. Architecture of return, escape (Smithsonian CRC) is a mapped escape plan for remains and objects held in Smithsonian storage. The Smithsonian holds numerous human remains and ceremonial objects not intended for public view within museum archives. The cost and processes required to travel and visit these archives limits access to cultural knowledge and inheritance for Indigenous communities. The work marks the past and plans a productive way forward where stolen objects, human remains, and works sold under duress can return home for their own health, the health of the communities that created them, and for the health of the communities that took them.”
*All works are subject to availability; all prices are subject to change.
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