Dana Claxton: Spark is part of Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, a major initiative focused on enhancing the presence of Native voices throughout the BMA
BALTIMORE, MD — On August 4, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will open Dana Claxton: Spark, a solo exhibition that focuses on the artist’s large-scale, backlit, color transparency photographs. Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation) refers to her photographs as “fireboxes,” playing on the commonly used term “lightboxes” to capture the elemental energy that she finds embedded in the form and to root her work in Indigenous sensibility and perspectives. In addition to Claxton’s photographic works, Spark includes objects from the artist’s imagery as well as historical works from the BMA’s Indigenous art collection. By including the physical works, the exhibition provides audiences with an opportunity to draw connections between the beauty and value of the objects and the experience of the photographs. Dana Claxton: Spark will remain on view through January 5, 2025, as part of the BMA’s wide-ranging initiative, Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum.
“Dana Claxton believes beauty is medicine,” said co-curators Dare Turner (Yurok Tribe) and Leila Grothe. “Her vibrant vision and the finely tuned skill of her works demonstrate the powerful bond within Indigenous communities, from person to person and generation to generation.”
Claxton’s practice explores Indigenous beauty, the body, and socio-political expressions and happenings. For her Headdress series, she portrays Indigenous women as cultural carriers. Their figures are covered in elaborate beading that incorporates objects and symbols preserved within their families for generations as well as contemporary items reflective of their communities today. The exhibition includes several prior works from the series along with a new firebox commissioned by the BMA, titled Headdress—Shadae and Her Girlz (2023). Here, Claxton celebrates generations of Indigenous women in both inherited and newly made regalia. The standing figures—a mother and her two daughters—wear ribbon skirts that communicate Indigenous pride and honor the resilience of Indigenous ancestors. The mother also holds a newborn, lovingly swaddled in its cradleboard, with ceremonial feather fans protecting her face. The image spotlights some of the many ways that Indigenous women—particularly mothers—maintain traditions and cultural knowledge through time.
More information: https://artbma.org/
