The contemporary Native American Indians of the Great Basin region include highly respected artists. Some of them use strictly traditional imagery and craftsmanship in their work, others combine these aspects with contemporary materials and concepts.  No matter the approach taken, their artistry carries astute cultural and natural understanding of the landscapes of Nevada, California, and Oregon. 

Thank you for an outstanding show, Roger Perkins, Terrance Guardipee and Jason Parrish

Ledger artist Terrance Guardipee, Blackfeet; painter Jason Parrish, Navajo, and pop-art/multi-media artist Roger Perkins, Mohawk. These well-known artists show full engagement in their cultural histories with personal insights and imagery that express powerful shifts in contemporary art. 

Contemporary Native American artists show vital connections to traditional values and universal paradigms involving stereotypes, cultural shifts and environmental changes. Important stories told within art connect us all to our landscape and the rich creative forces that will never be subdued.

In the very earliest time, when both people and animals lived on earth, a person could become an animal if he wanted to and an animal could become a human being. Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference. All spoke the same language. That was the time when words were like magic. 

Elder Nalungiaq, Inuit woman (Knud Rasmussen, The Netsalik Eskimos)