Anya Montiel Livres

Form and Relation showcases the versatility of ceramics and its many forms through the work of seven contemporary Indigenous artists from across what is now the United States. Bringing together recent acquisitions, commissioned works, and loans directly from artists' studios, this book urges audiences to reconsider and expand their understanding of what constitutes Native American ceramics. The catalogue highlights the innovative and critical works of renowned artists Anita Fields, Courtney M. Leonard, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Ruben Olguin, Rose B. Simpson, Kali Spitzer, and Roxanne Swentzell through stunning photography by Addison Doty and critical essays by Hood Museum curatorial staff and outside scholars. In addition to shifting expectations, Form and Relation introduces new forms that demonstrate the ability of ceramics to hold complexity and wrestle with concepts like community, identity, gender, land, extraction, global climate change, colonialism, language, and responsibility.Exhibition Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 1–August 2, 2020

A highly illustrated,important volume inspired by the way craft artists have unitedduring the COVID pandemic and engaged in artistic conversations about race,gender, and inclusivity. During thesummer of 2020, the space outside the Renwick Gallery--the Smithsonian AmericanArt Museum's dedicated museum for contemporary craft and decorative arts--becamehome to a new discussion about racial justice on Black Lives Matter Plaza. Thecurators at the Renwick Gallery felt the need to align themselves with what wasgoing on right outside the Gallery's door, the organizing rationale forunderstanding the objects presented in this volume, many of which are newacquisitions. The title istaken from Alicia Eggert's 2019-2020 eponymous neon work, and the 85 objects inthe main plates section lead the reader from the idea of shelter, throughlayers of expanding spaces to the vast expanses of the universe. The volume looksat contemporary American craft "in the whirlwind of now" revealingpossibilities for contemporary makers to respond to a more empathetic future.