A new exhibit at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings reflects the rocky, High Plains climate of northeastern Wyoming, where the artists created the pieces during their residencies with the UCross Foundation.
The more-than 40-year-old Ucross art residency program is located east of Sheridan, at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains that cross into southeastern Montana.
This exhibit, “Language of the Land,” opens June 20 and showcases work from the 2024 alumni of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Artists.
It was curated by another former Ucross artist, Sean Chandler, who’s from Glendive and a member of the Aaniinen, or Gros Ventre, Nation.
Chandler in a Yellowstone Art Museum article writes: “Months ago, when I was immersing myself in the potential work for this exhibition, there was a common link that connected them — the land.
“The 2024 recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists and Writers, Steven J. Yazzie (Diné/ Pueblo of Laguna, European Ancestry), Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock), and Danielle Shandiin Emerson (Diné), are outstanding communicators of a language that informs audiences to enter each of their respective experiences in contemporary society.”
Themes include identity, healing and relationship to the land, past and present. Chandler will give a curator’s talk at the Yellowstone Art Museum on Thursday, July 24. The exhibit will be up through October 5.
