America Meredith

America Meredith is a Swedish-Cherokee painter, curator, educator, and editor of First American Art Magazine.[1][2] She is enrolled in the Cherokee Nation and based in Norman, Oklahoma. Her work is known for its humorous approaches to social and environmental issues and for combining Native American and pop imagery.

America Meredith
Born1972
NationalityCherokee Nation
EducationMFA San Francisco Art Institute, BFA University of Oklahoma, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Institute of American Indian Arts
Known forart criticism, painting, curation
MovementCherokee art
Websitehttp://www.americameredith.com

Background

America Meredith was born in 1972 to Howard Meredith, a Cherokee author and American Indian Studies professor, and Mary Ellen Meredith, a Cherokee museum director and curator. Meredith's maternal grandfather was William Thomas Milam, a Cherokee photographer and aeronautical engineer from Oklahoma. W. T. Milam's uncle was J. B. Milam, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and his great-uncle was Will Rogers, a Cherokee humorist, actor, and movie producer.[3]

During much of the 1990s, Meredith worked as a bike messenger in San Francisco, California, where she was active in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6's organizing campaign of the Bay Area urgent delivery industry.[4]

Meredith earned her AA at City College of San Francisco; her BFA in painting from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma; and her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California in 1995. She also attended the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[5]

Artwork

Meredith paints with acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and egg tempera.[6] In the series, The Cherokee Spokespeople Project, handmade paintings and drawings illustrate Cherokee words that are reproduced as spokecards, which were distributed to cycle couriers and cyclists worldwide.[7]

Art career

In addition to her studio practice, Meredith curates shows such as Frybread and Roses: Art of Native American Labor (2006)[8] and Freedom of Information: The FBI, Indian Country, and Surveillance, which she co-curated with Ishkoten Dougi (Jicarilla Apache) in 2010.[9] At Ahalenia Studios in Santa Fe, Meredith and other Native American artists, such as Melissa Melero-Moose (Northern Paiute/Modoc) and Sam Haozous (Chiricahua Apache), curate shows "too edgy, too silly, or otherwise inappropriate for other local galleries."[10]

In 2019, she co-curated with Jean Merz-Edwards Stories from the Land: Indigenous Voices Connecting within the Great Plains at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery,[11] and co-curated with Callie Chunestudy (Cherokee Nation) Earth Shakers: The Influence of Cherokee Women at the Cherokee Heritage Center.[12]

Honors

Northeastern State University named Meredith its 2018 Sequoyah Fellow.[13] In 2006, Meredith tied for SF Weekly's Best Painter award.[14] She was awarded with a Cultural Equity Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, and she participated in the National Museum of the American Indian visiting artist fellowship. She has received numerous awards in juried art shows at the Cherokee Heritage Center, SWAIA's Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum, and others, including the 2007 IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award - For Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts.[15]

Personal

Meredith serves on the board of the Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council, a grassroots community organization based in northeastern Oklahoma.[16] She is active in the movement to revitalization indigenous languages. Meredith says she sees indigenous tribal people as "the future, not the past, in our globalized world."[2]

Notable exhibitions
  • 2019–21: Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native American Painting, National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center, New York, NY[17]
  • 2019–20: Laughter and Resilience: Humor in Native American Art, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, NM[18]
  • 2019–20: Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Frist Art Museum, [19] Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Philbrook Museum of Art[20]
  • 2019: Outspoken: Paintings by America Meredith, Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee[21]
  • 2012-13: Octopus Dreams: Works on Paper by Contemporary Native American Artists, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM; Samara Regional Art Museum, Samara, Russia; Novosibirsk Biennial of Contemporary Graphic Arts, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia; Togliatti Art Museum, Togliatti, Russia; Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
  • 2010–14: Indigenous Brilliance: Contemporary Native American Art Exhibition, Highgate Institute, London, England (2012); Palazzo Vecchio, Seborga, Italy; Casa de la Señoría, Olocau, Spain (2013); Amsterdam; curated by Elijah Vandenberg and Lyle Toledo Yazzie.
  • 2012: Reconquête par l'Art, Festival America de Vincennes 2012, La galerie Orenda, Vincennes, France
  • 2012: Messengers, Rainmaker Art Gallery, Bristol, England, curated by Joanne Prince.
  • 2012: Low-Rez: Native American Lowbrow Art, Santa Fe, NM[22]
  • 2009 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Art Show. United Nations, New York, New York.[15]
  • 2006-7 Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith. Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico.[2]
  • 2007 Do Not Park Bicycles: Aboriginal Cycling Culture. Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.[15]
  • 2006 Native Pop. New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.[23]

Notes
  1. Staff (29 May 2013). "CN citizen launches 'First American Art Magazine'". Cherokee Phoenix. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  2. "Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith." Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. 2006. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  3. "Three generations of artists exhibit work at Standing Buffalo Indian Art Gallery and Gifts." NewsOK. 31 March 2010. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  4. Curtis, Kim. "S.F. bike messengers aim to form own union They want higher wages, vacations, health benefits." Deseret News. 1998. Accessed 10 April 2011.
  5. "America Meredith." Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine Southeastern Indian Artists Association. 2011. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  6. "America Meredith: At the Crossroads." Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Arts Council. 2007. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  7. Botlz, Gina. "Cherokee Artist America Meredith Puts Words on Wheels." Native Village Youth and Education News. Accessed 10 April 2011.
  8. "Frybread and Roses." Archived 2011-04-29 at the Wayback Machine Blackash.org. 2006. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  9. Golar, Staci. "Art and activism collide." Native American Times. 22 March 2010. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  10. Sanchez, Casey. "Low Overhead, High Experimentation: Ahalenia Studios." Santa Fe New Mexican: Pasatiempo via Free Online Library. 31 Dec 2010. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  11. "Stories from the Land: Indigenous Voices Connecting within the Great Plains - Companion Exhibition". Kansas Humanities. 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  12. "New Exhibit Showcases the Impact of Cherokee Women Throughout History". Native Knot. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  13. "America Meredith, 2018 NSU Sequoyah Fellow, to present at Symposium April 19". Northeastern State University. 16 April 2018.
  14. "Best Painter (Tie) - 2006: America Meredith and Mitsy Avila Ovalles." Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine SF Weekly. 2006. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  15. "Vita". America Meredith Portfolio. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  16. "About Us." Archived 2011-02-06 at the Wayback Machine Cherokee Arts & Humanities Council. 2009. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  17. "Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting". National Museum of the American Indian. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  18. De Vore, Alex (20 Nov 2019). "It is to Laugh". Santa Fe Reporter. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  19. Kelley, M. (14 November 2019). "Hearts of Our People Shows Native American Traditions Are Alive and Well".
  20. "Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists". Minneapolis Institute of Art. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  21. "Outspoken at WCU Fine Art Museum". The Laurel of Asheville. Feb 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  22. Native American Artists go Lowbrow in Low-Rez, Santa Fe.com, accessed 8-12-2012
  23. Sanchez, Aurelio. "Lichtenstein Show Traces Union of Pop, Native American Art." Albuquerque Journal. 12 Feb 2006. Accessed 9 April 2011.
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