PIVOT, curated by Duane Koyawena (Hopi) and Landis Bahe (Diné), featured original works created on a unique canvas—skateboard decks. The exhibition included more than 114 decks by Native American and Indigenous artists, offering insight into the contemporary Native art landscape while acknowledging the traditional cultures that shape the identities of the artists.
The exhibition explored the concept of navigating between traditional lifeways and contemporary daily experiences. Through the fusion of traditional motifs and modern artistic practices, the participating artists expressed personal, familial, and tribal narratives, highlighting the dynamic nature of Indigenous identity.
Guest curators Duane Koyawena and Landis Bahe described the exhibition’s themes as follows:
“This exhibition reflected our lives—unique yet universal. PIVOT referred to the quick transitions we make between our traditional and day-to-day lives. We often worked in cities while continuing to contribute to our ancestral communities and homelands.
As individuals, we learned to shift between these incongruous societies and to integrate them within ourselves. As artists, we developed motifs melding traditional themes with contemporary experiences. As in life, we all started with the same naked canvas and brought to it unique talents and experiences—personal, familial, and tribal. Everything we experienced added to our art—the people we met, the places we went, and the things we did. We dreamed, observed, reflected, and gathered inspiration. We influenced and inspired each other across the permeable boundaries of culture. We chose our tools—brush or knife, paint or ink—and created with the same agility that we used to navigate through the maze of days and between cultures. At any moment, we could switch directions. At any moment, we could change the picture, paint over, sand back to bare wood, and transform what was into what would be. We balanced in that moment between where we had been and where we were going, placing our mark in the pivotal ‘now.’ Art reflected life, and we hoped this art would also inspire.”
Pictured: Tlingit artist James Johnson with his skateboard decks.
PIVOT Artist Videos:
PIVOT Video: Retrospective on a Successful Collaboration
PIVOT Video: Artist Roundtable