The Upsetters: A Painting Exhibition

Featuring Artists:


Amber Gunn Gauthier 

April Holder

Avis Charley

David Martin

Ryan Singer


“The Upsetters: A Painting Exhibition” wants you to rethink what you may (or may not) know about Native American art.  These artists, thinkers, activists and cultural practitioners have been forged by a punk rock and DIY ethos while maintaining strong cultural and familial ties to their communities.  This potent combination is helping to redefine Native American art through a myriad of experiences, cultures and personalities thus upsetting the status quo of what may be considered Native American art through painting.


July 20, 2024 - January 18th, 2025


Center for Native Futures

56 W. Adams St., Suite 102

Chicago, IL 60603


Artists


Amber Gunn Gauthier

Amber Gunn Gauthier is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, whose art focuses on her Menominee and Ho-Chunk (enrolled) culture, the empowerment of Indigenous Women, fighting against social injustices and telling survivors' stories. Gauthier attended The New School for Social Research, Parsons School of Design and The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City. Her artwork is displayed in galleries, museums, private collections and art markets across the country, As a SAG-AFTRA Actor, Amber has combined her talents to become the Art Director and Executive Producer on an upcoming Native limited series addressing the MMIP (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People) Crisis. She currently resides in the beautiful Southwest, enjoying motherhood and watching her daughter carry on the traits of creative, artistic and activist ancestors that came before.


April Holder

My name is April Holder and I am enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma. I grew up in Shawnee Oklahoma where I live with my family upholding our traditional Sauk practices and ways of life.
In 2003 I moved to Santa Fe New Mexico and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts where I earned my Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2008, With an emphasis on mix media installation work and sculpture.
Over the course of my art career I have incorporated my lived experiences and knowledge as an indigenous woman, to create a visual narrative of personal and historical memory and the inner generational relationship to my community and people. Part of my work focuses on our relationship To our ancestors and that historical memory that sits within our genetic make up and DNA. It is an expression of both trauma and joy through vibrant colors that reflect the complex emotions of our internal self and the ever changing world around us.  


Avis Charley

Avis Charley (Spirit Lake Dakota/Diné) is a visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles. She is a ledger artist and figurative painter chronicling the evolving Native American identity from pre-reservation period to the present day, from ancestral homelands to the contemporary urban context. Charley is a graduate from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


David Martin

David Martin, a citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, has been a full-time artist since 1996. His mediums include beadwork, sewing, oil painting and tattooing. David was raised in a traditional native household and has spent his entire life traveling to pow wows and ceremonies. He started his career in tattooing in Northern Indiana. By 2005 he was traveling to many tattoo conventions all over the United States and won over 30 international awards for his tattoo work between then and 2015. In 2007 he started to take oil painting commissions for various tribal governments and businesses and in 2022 made a commitment to oil painting full time and has participated in numerous markets and exhibits and has accumulated many awards in this short period of time and was featured in the 2023-2024 winter edition of First American Art. In 2023 he accepted a residency at Notre Dame for the 2023-2024 academic year and he currently serves on two committees, the Indigenous Consultation Committee at the Raclin Murphey Art Museum at Notre Dame and the Collections and Exhibitions Committee at the South Bend Museum of art. 


Ryan Singer

Ryan Singer is a Diné (Navajo) artist-painter based in Albuquerque, NM. Creating artwork based on his
Navajo heritage and incorporating pop culture elements including science fiction imagery. He weaves
stories of his childhood memories with nostalgic iconography. He has been included in the “Indigenous
Futurism” movement but has been drawing Star Wars characters since 1977. Ryan also enjoys creating
portrait realism of Native subjects with a contemporary appeal. His artwork is in collections of several
museums and collectors worldwide. Ryan had garnered several awards including from the renowned
SWAIA’s Santa Fe Indian Market. He has acquired his BFA in Art Studio from UNM, where he was in a
collaborative lithography class with the Tamarind Institute. He now plans on working towards his MFA.
Born in Cedar City, Utah, but originally from Tuba City, Arizona, Ryan is of the Tódich’iinii (Bitter Water)
clan and born for the Kinya’aani (Towering House) clan. Having grown up in various parts of the Navajo
Reservation, Ryan often reflects on his childhood in his artwork through his depictions of science fiction
and pop culture icons. Ryan’s other notable works of art include the popular “Mutton Stew” painting
which he modeled after Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Tomato Soup Can” series but with a distinct Navajo
twist; his iconic “Wagon Burner” which has become his trademark symbol. He has been part of
exhibitions featuring this new genre of art. He also co-curated an exhibition along with Tony Abeyta at
the Navajo Nation Museum about the “Long Walk”.

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