America Meredith Explained

America Meredith
Nationality:Cherokee Nation
Field:art criticism, painting, curation
Training:MFA San Francisco Art Institute, BFA University of Oklahoma, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Institute of American Indian Arts
Movement:Cherokee art
Website:http://www.americameredith.com

America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) is a painter, curator, educator, and editor of First American Art Magazine.[1] [2] America Meredith is an artist and comes from a Swedish-Cherokee background who blends pop imagery from her childhood with European and Native American styles.[3]

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. Both of her grandmothers were Swedish-American. 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.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6]

Artwork

Meredith paints with acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and egg tempera.[7] 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.[8]

Art career

In addition to her studio practice, Meredith curates shows such as Frybread and Roses: Art of Native American Labor (2006)[9] and Freedom of Information: The FBI, Indian Country, and Surveillance, which she co-curated with Ishkoten Dougi (Jicarilla Apache) in 2010.[10] 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."[11]

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,[12] and co-curated with Callie Chunestudy (Cherokee Nation) Earth Shakers: The Influence of Cherokee Women at the Cherokee Heritage Center.[13]

Honors

Northeastern State University named Meredith its 2018 Sequoyah Fellow.[14] In 2006, Meredith tied for SF Weekly Best Painter award.[15] 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.[16]

Personal

Meredith serves on the board of the Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council, a grassroots community organization based in northeastern Oklahoma.[17] She is active in the movement to revitalize Indigenous languages. Meredith says she sees Indigenous tribal people as "the future, not the past, in our globalized world."[2]

Notable exhibitions

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Staff. CN citizen launches 'First American Art Magazine'. 28 September 2014. Cherokee Phoenix. 29 May 2013.
  2. http://www.wheelwright.org/exhibitions/America/ "Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith."
  3. Web site: America Meredith . 2023-09-23 . Rainmaker Gallery . en-GB.
  4. http://newsok.com/three-generations-of-artists-exhibit-work-at-standing-buffalo-indian-art-gallery-and-gifts/article/3450212 "Three generations of artists exhibit work at Standing Buffalo Indian Art Gallery and Gifts."
  5. 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.
  6. http://www.gwyartists.info/America_Meredith.html "America Meredith."
  7. http://www.arts.ok.gov/capitolart/peg/eg07/meredith.html "America Meredith: At the Crossroads."
  8. Botlz, Gina. Native Village Youth and Education News. Accessed 10 April 2011.
  9. http://www.blackash.org/frybread/ "Frybread and Roses."
  10. Golar, Staci. "Art and activism collide." Native American Times. 22 March 2010. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  11. Sanchez, Casey. "Low Overhead, High Experimentation: Ahalenia Studios." Santa Fe New Mexican: Pasatiempo via Free Online Library. 31 Dec 2010. Accessed 9 April 2011.
  12. Web site: Stories from the Land: Indigenous Voices Connecting within the Great Plains - Companion Exhibition . Kansas Humanities . 23 November 2019 . 2019.
  13. Web site: New Exhibit Showcases the Impact of Cherokee Women Throughout History . Native Knot . 23 November 2019 . 9 May 2019.
  14. Web site: America Meredith, 2018 NSU Sequoyah Fellow, to present at Symposium April 19 . Northeastern State University . 16 April 2018.
  15. http://www.sfweekly.com/bestof/2006/award/best-painter-tie-172888/ "Best Painter (Tie) - 2006: America Meredith and Mitsy Avila Ovalles."
  16. Web site: Vita. America Meredith Portfolio. 28 September 2014.
  17. http://cherokeeculture.org/home/about_us "About Us."
  18. Web site: Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting . National Museum of the American Indian . 23 November 2019.
  19. News: De Vore . Alex . It is to Laugh . 23 November 2019 . Santa Fe Reporter . 20 Nov 2019.
  20. News: Kelley . M. . Hearts of Our People Shows Native American Traditions Are Alive and Well . 14 November 2019.
  21. Web site: Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists . Minneapolis Institute of Art . 23 November 2019.
  22. News: Outspoken at WCU Fine Art Museum . 23 November 2019 . The Laurel of Asheville . Feb 2019.
  23. http://www.santafe.com/calendar/event/native-american-artists-go-lowbrow-in-low-rez Native American Artists go Lowbrow in Low-Rez
  24. Sanchez, Aurelio. "Lichtenstein Show Traces Union of Pop, Native American Art." Albuquerque Journal. 12 Feb 2006. Accessed 9 April 2011.

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