ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
This project is the third and final exhibition in AMOCAâs âMaking in Betweenâ series, which brings together works by artists who explore identity, culture, and community.
In 2020, Making in Between: Contemporary Chinese American Ceramics featured works by six first- and second-generation artists who shared themes of cultural heritage, identity, language, politics, migration, and displacement. In 2023, Making in Between: Queer Clay shifted the lens to consider influences on identity, centering queerness as an unapologetic presence and featuring works by historical artists whose identities have remained largely unseen alongside contemporary makers.
Making in Between: Indigenous Americans exhibits works by Mercedes Dorame, Anita Fields, Courtney M. Leonard, and Cannupa Hanska Luger, artists who embrace their heritage and explore boundary-pushing themes of identity, culture, history, and community. MIB: IA introduces a breadth of unique narratives from these trailblazing artists and complicates viewersâ expectations of what constitutes contemporary Indigenous art.
The exhibition is accompanied by catalog featuring full color images and new essays by Kendra Greendeer, Larissa Nez, and Isabella Robbins.
Shinnecock, b. 1980
lives and works in Northfield, MN
Courtney M. Leonard is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonardâs current work embodies the multiple definitions of âbreachâ, an exploration and documentation of historical ties to water, whale and material sustainability. In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonardâs practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record.
Leonardâs work is in the permanent public collections of the United States Art In Embassies, the Crocker Art Museum, the Heard Museum, ASUâs Art Museum and Ceramic Research Center, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of the North, the Mystic Seaport Museum, and the Pomona Museum of Art.
Leonard has been the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and residencies that include The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Rasmuson Foundation, The United States Art In Embassies Program, and The Native Arts and Culture Foundation.