“SPIDER WOMAN EMBRACE”: This work by Koyoltzintli (formerly Karen Miranda-Rivadeneira) is part of “Native America: In Translation,” on view February 5 through April 24 at the Princeton University Art Museum’s Art on Hulfish gallery. An opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, February 5 from 1 to 4 p.m.

A new exhibition debuting February 5 gathers work by Indigenous artists who consider the complex histories of colonialism, identity, and heritage. The exhibition spans a diverse array of intergenerational practitioners, offering new perspectives by artists who reimagine what it means to be a citizen in North America today.

“Native America: In Translation” features works by Rebecca Belmore, Jacqueline Cleveland, Martine Gutierrez, Duane Linklater, Guadalupe Maravilla, Kimowan Metchewais, Alan Michelson, Koyoltzintli, and Marianne Nicolson. It will be on view at the Princeton University Art Museum’s Art on Hulfish gallery, located in downtown Princeton, through April 24.

“Native America: In Translation” is curated by Wendy Red Star, a Portland, Oregon–based artist raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation. The exhibition is organized by Aperture Foundation, New York, and extends Red Star’s work as guest editor of the fall 2020 issue of Aperture magazine.

“The Museum’s new photo-focused gallery space, Art on Hulfish, is an ideal venue in which to examine how this cohort of both leading and emerging artists traces the complexities of the past and embraces their future,” said James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, director.

In the exhibition, artists from throughout what is now called North America — representing various Native nations and affiliations — offer diverse visions that build on histories of image-making. This includes Kimowan Metchewais’ meditative assemblages and Polaroid collages, which pursue a “self-made Native imagery;” evocative installation works by Alan Michelson that investigate colonial histories; Koyoltzintli’s speculative mythologies, which document imperiled Indigenous oral traditions; and Guadalupe Maravilla’s fictional and autobiographical narratives. Martine Gutierrez’s high-fashion self-portraits present a revolving roster of interchangeable, often Indigenous, identities that ask what makes a “Native-born woman,” while Rebecca Belmore’s photographs comment on labor and the environment and confront the pain of state violence against Indigenous people. Jacqueline Cleveland recounts foraging as a form of knowledge transmitted through family rituals tied to the seasons of her coastal Alaskan village. Marianne Nicolson’s photographs use forms of light to tell stories about community, the impacts of capitalism and the ongoing tension felt by Indigenous peoples in relation to settler colonialism.

On Thursday, February 3, a live curator talk with Wendy Red Star will be held over Zoom. Red Star will provide an overview of the project and a consideration of how the selected artists engage with photography and film in their work.

On Saturday, February 5, an exhibition opening celebration will be held at Art on Hulfish from 1 to 4 p.m.

Art on Hulfish, located at 11 Hulfish Street, showcases a roster of exhibitions led by photography that consider issues of profound impact on 21st-century life. Admission is free. The gallery, which is open daily, will present four exhibitions each year until late 2024, when the Museum’s new building designed by Sir David Adjaye is projected to open. For more information, visit artmuseum.princeton.edu.