The Ringling Magazine | January – April 2023

RECLAIMING HOME CONTEMPORARY SEMINOLE ART

By Ola Wlusek Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

In March, The Ringling will open a very special group exhibition titled Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Gallery Wing. This exciting and timely exhibition will mark The Ringling’s first presentation of contemporary art by Native American artists with present-day connections and historical ties to Florida. An imperative step toward establishing a meaningful relationship with the Native American artistic community, Reclaiming Home will highlight the breadth and depth of the fantastic artwork by some of the most outstanding Seminole, Miccosukee, and mixed-heritage artists from Florida, including Noah Billie, Wilson Bowers, Houston R. Cypress, Alyssa Osceola, Jessica Osceola, Brian Zepeda, Corinne Zepeda, and Pedro Zepeda.

Alyssa Osceola (Seminole, b. 2001), Carolyn, 2022. Oil on wood panel, 36 × 36 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Elisa Harkins (Cherokee/Muscogee [Creek], b. 1978), Mekusape Fullana [video still], 2021. Digital video with sound, 12:45 minutes. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.

Presented with the important work by the internationally-recognized artists of Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole descent from Oklahoma and beyond—Elisa Harkins, C. Maxx Stevens, Tony Tiger, and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie—the exhibition will expand the conceptual framework of Native American art made in Florida today and provide a fuller understanding of the complexities of issues within the art of the Seminole diaspora.

Houston R. Cypress (Miccosukee, b. 1980), …what endures… [video still], 2021. Digital video with sound, 5:30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.

Tony Tiger (Sac and Fox/Seminole/ Muscogee [Creek], b. 1964), Mvskoke Boys, 2020. Etching, ink, serigraph hand-painted acrylic on paper, 12 × 14 in. Private collection. Courtesy of the artist.

As part of The Ringling’s ongoing commitment to acquire work by artists with a connection to Florida, the museum will unveil Jessica Osceola’s Portrait One, Portrait Two, and Portrait Three (2017) as the first work by a Seminole artist to be added to The Ringling’s collection of modern and contemporary art. The support of the Daniel J. Denton Florida Art Acquisition Fund allowed the museum to pursue this extremely impactful and meaningful acquisition, which significantly enriches the context of The Ringling’s collections and helps to fill a gap in the representation of Native voices within the museum’s holdings and exhibitions.

Brian Zepeda (Seminole, b. 1971), Fertility, 2003. Wool, felted wool, cotton, canvas, and glass beads, 33 × 16 in. Collection of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, ATTK Catalog 2003.287.1. Courtesy of the artist and the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, Big Cypress Indian Reservation, FL.

In addition to Jessica Osceola’s work in clay, the members of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Florida are represented by visual artists who work, or have worked, in textiles, woodworking, beadwork, and painting, as well as explore multidisciplinary approaches to their material practice—including installation art, digital art, and film—to offer a reflection on their present-day experiences. Their works offer an intimate look into the artists’ lived experiences and further a dialogue on Native visual sovereignty, ancestry and representation, urbanization and environmental issues, and interfaith and traditional ways of knowing in Florida’s Native communities.

C. Maxx Stevens (Seminole/Mvscogee, b. 1951), Last Supper (detail), 2011. Mixed-media installation. Collection of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Museum Purchase, 2012, SE-94. Courtesy of the artist and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Photo: Jason S. Ordaz.

Corinne Zepeda (Seminole/Mexican, b. 1997), For Your Trauma, 2020. Seed beads on leather with pin attachment, 3 × 1 in. Courtesy of the artist.

As Seminoles were one of the five Southeastern nations—along with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscogee (Creek)—who were forcibly relocated in the nineteenth century to present-day Oklahoma and other southern states as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the exhibition includes work by Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) artists based in Oklahoma and beyond in order to acknowledge this significant historical connection. Drawing from photo-based and digital collage techniques, performance, video, installation art, and mixed media, artists from the Seminole diaspora explore image-making, Muskogean languages, and offer diverse perspectives on issues of memory, relocation, identity, ancestry, health, and representation within their Native communities.

Pedro Zepeda (Seminole/Mexican, b. 1982), Cypress Canoe, 2022. Cypress wood, 198 × 21 × 19 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Noah Billie (Seminole, 1948–2000), Osceola Wearing an American Flag, 1990. Acrylic on canvas, 36 1/2 × 30 1/2 in. Collection of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, ATTK Catalog 1990.1.1. Courtesy of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, Big Cypress Indian Reservation, FL.

Reclaiming Home will result in the first collaboration between Florida’s Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum of Seminole culture and history, located on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation, as several important loans from the museum will be featured in the exhibition. The support of additional prestigious lending institutions, including the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana, allowed us to include work by some of the most renowned Native American artists working in the twenty-first century. Once again, The Ringling was able to partner with the team at Scala Arts Publishers, who have delivered an exhibition catalog with insightful essays by Durante Blais-Billie and Dr. Stacy E. Pratt, both of whom offer critical approaches on the role of museums and the representation of Native voices from Florida and Oklahoma within the contemporary art lexicon.

Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Taskigi/Diné [Navajo]/Seminole, b. 1954), Portraits Against Amnesia: Idelia, 2002. Digital platinum Lambda print, 30 × 20 in. Collections of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Museum purchase from the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, 2003.14.9. Courtesy of the artist and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN.

Wilson Bowers (Seminole, b. 1985), Fire Feather or Warrior Within, 2020. Digital design. Courtesy of the artist.

The poignant essay by exhibition artist Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, as well as an interview with artists Jessica Osceola and Tony Tiger, help to center Indigenous sovereignty and Native self determination at the heart of this project. Exhibition catalog will be available for purchase beginning in March.

Jessica Osceola (Seminole/Irish, b. 1984), Portrait One, Portrait Two, and Portrait Three (detail), 2017, bas-relief ceramic, 19 7/8 × 12 3/8 × 13/16 in. Collection of The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, purchased with the support of Daniel J. Denton Florida Art Acquisition Fund., 2022, 2022.8.3. Courtesy of the artist and The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art.