For the first time in over 30 years, the Detroit Institute of Arts is hosting a Native American art exhibition. The DIA’s Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation features 92 works. These works were produced by more than 60 Anishinaabe artists across the Great Lakes Region. The oldest piece was created in 1892; the most recent in 2025.
Familiar Faces
The show features some of the contemporary Anishinaabe art genre’s best-known artists. One of the first pieces that meets visitors’ gaze on the walkthrough is the vibrant and dreamlike Four Days and Four Nites, Ceremony (2020). The prolific Jim Denomie completed the oil painting just two years before his untimely death. Near the exhibition’s end is Denomie’s Untruthful (2014). This piece exemplifies the late artist’s biting wit in an imagined exchange between The Lone Ranger and Tonto.
Works from the late Norval Morrisseau can also be admired. Nicknamed “Picasso of the North,” Morisseau is recognized as the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. DIA regulars may be familiar with his piece Cycles (1984). This is displayed in the museum’s permanent Native American art exhibit on the ground floor.
In the new exhibition, Morrisseau’s signature florescent colors and spiritual themes can be admired in three displayed works: Bear, Fish, Bird — Interdependence (1990), Elder Teaching the Next Generation to Communicate in Harmony with All Living Beings (1991-1992), and Punk Rockers Nancy and Andy (1989).
“Are We Telling the Truth?”
“It’s amazing to be with these other artists that I’ve admired my entire life,” says artist Kent Estey.
A Continuation marks the first time Estey’s work has been displayed in a national gallery. His piece is titled Debwewin (2018), the Anishinaabe word for “truth.”
Estey is a member of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe in Northwestern Minnesota. He says the color choices — a swirling of reds, golds, whites, and blues over black — were inspired by the woods and the water near the piece of land where he’s lived for 65 years.
Around the time he painted it, Estey had been doing research on the history of Native American boarding schools. The schools, operated by the federal government and churches, were designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into Anglo-American society.
Excluded for years from many history books were the horrific abuses the children endured. Additionally, last year, a report from the U.S. Department of Interior confirmed the deaths of nearly 1,000 Indigenous children while they attended these schools, though it acknowledged the number is likely greater.
Estey says his research during that time, paired with what he was hearing and seeing on the news, led him to wonder aloud: “‘Are we telling the truth?’ …I thought, how do I represent that feeling, that uncertainty? How do I represent that on a canvas?”
When asked whether the painting represents “truth” itself, or simply the feeling of searching for it, Estey replies, “I’m always searching. The only thing I can trust is what I paint. It’s my truth. It’s my story.”
Mediums and Modes
Other recent works in the exhibition include Basil’s Dream (2024). In the piece, painter Jonathan Thunder invites the viewer inside the dream of late Indigenous author Basil H. Johnston.
Nearby, Rabbett before Horses Strickland’s Right to Consciousness (2024), on its massive canvas, displays violent and surreal imagery. It shows a group Ojibwe people defending themselves from a violent attack. In the caption, Strickland gives the following directive: “Do not let the lack of film and photographs take away from the fact that there was a genocide.”
The exhibition features a wide variety of mediums, including clothing, jewelry, bags, and a boat (Ronald J Paquin’s Birchbark Canoe [2018]).
About 20 Michigan artists made the cut, including Detroit-born Konstance Patton, whose G-Ma’s Sharp Objekts (2011) is a small three-dimensional work resembling the Venus figurine. Made from resin, gold, needles, and wood, the piece pays tribute to the time Patton spent with her grandmother.
Bringing The Exhibition to Life
Dr. Denene De Quintal, the DIA’s associate curator for Native American Art, notes the exhibition took about a year and a half to assemble. The curating took place in collaboration with an advisory panel made up of five Anishinaabe tribal members from around the Great Lakes region.
To gather work from the artists, submissions were initially “by invitation only”. Initially, submissions were capped at two works. However, a “glitch” in the online forum allowed five. As a result, many of the invitees ended up sharing the link with their friends.
“So, it got bigger!” De Quintal says. “The show was originally going to be 40 works. But by the time we saw everything that was coming in, and [after] discussion with the artists, we agreed to 90 works.”
In Their Own Words
As De Quintal points out, a majority of the pieces at the DIA’s Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation were lent by the artists themselves. Each of the captions can be read in both Anishinaabemowin and English. The translation work was done by Helen Fuhst, a member of the Wiikwemkong First Nation in Canada. Many are captioned with an artist’s statement. This allows the visitor to engage with the intent behind them, and what it took to bring them to life.
For instance, a visitor drawn to Cressandra Thibodeaux’s Fever Visions I and II (both 2023) will learn that the landscape photos taken in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were inspired by a real fever she fell ill with that caused her to experience vivid hallucinations.
Or, visitors can learn that David Martin’s Family Hunt (2024), which depicts otters teaching their young to catch a crawdad, was one of the artist’s first successes at tattooing a buffalo hide.
Maggie Thompson’s On Loving (2022-23) features three star quilts that resemble body bags. The artist created the quilts with members of her community. These quilts commemorate “the collective loss and grief of the COVID-19 pandemic.” They also pay “homage to the Indigenous communities that were impacted at higher rates.”
Discovering the Theme
During the curatorial process, the art for the exhibition was selected before any concrete themes emerged. De Quintal says this was, “important, because I think that one of the best ways in which art is able to be shown is if it’s allowed to show itself.” She added, ” …If you have a conversation about the art, it usually leads to a fuller exploration and discussion.”
An example of a recurring motif that came after is the Abagami’igan’ (war club), a weapon carried by the Indigenous Ohgithidaag (warriors). The club is on display in multiple forms: it can be seen as a wood/brass carving (Gerald White’s Biikwakadoo-bagaamanganan: Anishinaabeg [2025]); on the legs of a cabinet (Dennis Esquivel’s Out of the Woodlands: Standing Cabinet [2012]); and as earrings (Robin Waynee’s Warclubs [2023])
The Final Film
The comedic and poignant Happy Thanksgiving (2024) is the exhibition’s final stop. The heist-inspired short film was directed by Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby, who was born and raised in Grand Rapids. He is a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The 8-minute short tells the story of an Anishinaabe man who takes a “Happy Thanksgiving” wish “very, very personally.”
But Wait: There’s More
Besides the contemporary Anishinaabe art exhibition, the DIA is hosting additional programming to highlight Anishinaabe cultures and language throughout October and November. This will include showings of Star Wars: A New Hope dubbed in Anishinaabemowin at the Detroit Film Theater, and a book signing with New York Times bestselling author Angeline Boulley on Oct. 13 (Indigenous People’s Day).
“I just think that the staff here and the curators of this exhibit have really honored us in a special way,” Estey says. “But I think the most important thing is they’re going to introduce contemporary Anishinaabe artists to the rest of the world. That’s so important and needed.”
The DIA’s Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation is on display through April 5, 2026. The exhibition is free to view for all residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. General admission to the museum is also free to anyone with a tribal I.D. for the duration of the exhibition. For more information, visit dia.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
