Will Wilson is a trans-customary Diné artist whose work explores Native ideas of the future blended with the past. Though Wilson is mostly known as a photographer, his work also encompasses installation, mixed media, and digital media. Anyone following the Portland Art Museum for the past few years might also recognize Wilson from an exhibition featuring his work along with other contemporary Native artists as they relate to the photographs of Edward Curtis.
Hosting this episode is the Portland Art Museum’s Curator of Native American Art, Kathleen Ash-Milby. Kathleen is also joined by John P. Lukavic, the Denver Art Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts. Both the Portland Art Museum and Denver Art Museum’s collections contain works by Will Wilson. Kathleen and John talk to Will about his career, especially the series Auto Immune Response, a photographic vision of a postapocalyptic future through a Navajo lens, which contains imagery that feels especially relevant today, as it deals with complex environmental and social issues.
This episode of Art Unbound is part of a series produced with funds provided by FRAME, the French American Museum Exchange, of which both the Portland Art Museum and the Denver Art Museum are members. FRAME is a consortium of 32 major museums in France and North America that promotes cultural exchange in the context of museum collaborations. FRAME fosters partnerships among its member museums to develop innovative exhibitions, educational and public programs, and professional exchanges among museum staff, and maintains a website to reach global audiences. For more information, visit the newly re-designed framemuseums.org
Featured in this episode
Kathleen Ash-Milby – Curator of Native American Art, Portland Art Museum
John P. Lukavic – Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts, Denver Art Museum
Will Wilson – Diné Artist
Mentioned in this episode
- Denver Art Museum
- Native American Art Studies Association
- Jaune Quick–to–See Smith
- Doug Miles
- American Indian Community House
- Heard Museum
- National Museum of the American Indian
- Santa Fe Indian Market
- New Mexico Museum of Art
- Wet Plate Collodion
- Bosque Redondo
- Cory Van Zytveld
- Deb Emhoolah – Photo #1
- Deb Emhoolah – Photo #2
- Edward Curtis
- Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy: Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star, Will Wilson
- Wendy Red Star
- Zig Jackson
- Auto Immune Response
- hogan
- Native Seeds Search
- Weaving the Sacred Mountains
- Four Sacred Mountains of the Navajo
- Dinétah
- Auto Immune Response Number 1
- Black Lives Matter
- George Floyd
- “I Can’t Breathe”
- Navajo Nation: Cleaning Up Abandoned Uranium Mines
- Santa Fe Community College Photography Program
- Rapid Prototyping
- Dances with Wolves
- Alien
- Predator
- Ben McPherson
- Indigenous Futurism
- Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
- Melanie Yazzie
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Erica Lord
- Kali Spitzer
- Hood Museum
- Cannupa Hanska Luger
- Eric-Paul Riege
- Demian Dinéyazhi’
- Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
- Nicholas Galanin
- PAM Panel Discussion featuring Nicholas Galanin
- Jeffrey Gibson
- Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist
- Yale University Artists-in-Residence Program
Additional artist recommendations from Will Wilson
Produced by Jon Richardson
Music by Mark Orton
