Indigenous contemporary artists are 'rewriting the rules'

Contemporary Native American art is more visible than ever in media, museums and galleries around the U.S. and abroad. Nicholas Galanin, a Tlingít and Unangax̂ from Alaska, turned the Hollywood sign on its head for an installation that read, “Indian Land,” an image that circulated far outside of the art world into mainstream social media feeds. A sculpture by Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke/Crow) was displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., later finding a home at the Tippet Rise Art Center in southcentral Montana.

Those are just a few examples from recent years. Locally, Missoula Art Museum draws on its holdings for a new exhibition, “Good Relations: Contemporary Native Artists in the MAM Collection,” a show that can work as an introduction to the myriad avenues that Indigenous