Frank Buffalo Hyde at the Everson
Indigenous artist Frank Buffalo Hyde brings Indigenous culture alive and comments on society's inequities in his latest exhibit “Native Americana” showing now at the Everson Museum of Art.
Walking into the Everson, Frank Buffalo Hyde’s exhibit is up the stairs with two rooms designated specifically for his work. When approaching the top of the stairs you’re met with a large painting that is on four vertical canvases surrounded by two life-like astronauts. The painting has a herd of blue buffalos running towards the viewer, but instead of fields the herd are running on the moon being chased by UFO’s. From the very start of the show the audience is exposed to his creativity inspired by Indigenous art.
Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, but living seasonally on Onondaga Nation, located south of Syracuse, Buffalo Hyde would attend the Everson often. Steffi Chappell, curator and exhibitions editor at the Everson said that having a local artist on exhibit is “a really special experience...for us but also for the people living in the community.”
In the exhibit visitors will have the opportunity to see clips from the MTV reality show he appeared on, “The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist '' projected on a TV screen in the first room. On the show he was asked to right a historical wrong through a painting and he chose to paint Mount Rushmore before the President’s faces were carved, titling the piece “No More Rushmore.” Buffalo Hyde tells the story of how the mountain range was a sacred sight called the “Six Grandfathers” for the Lakota people, and how the natives were driven away and a worship site was defaced.
“I always say art is a weapon and people always have negative connotations of weapons.. weapons are powerful but they can also be used as a shortcut to discussion. You can wield a weapon to create..for change..for reverence,” said Buffalo Hyde.
The exhibit has been gaining lots of foot traffic on weekends in particular and people from Onondaga Nation have been coming to the show, said Amanda Liberati, an Everson employee.
Buffalo Hyde’s paintings take on issues about racism against Indigenous communities, issues that are still relevant today. He focuses at times on these topics to create moving pieces of art in his own way. “NDN Curator,” a painting in the show displays imagery of a Native Smurf holding a piece of corn. This image is representing the stereotypes of not only Native American people, but of Indigenous art that is expected at museums. Buffalo Hyde challenges this concept in his work on what Indigenous art truly is.
“It's a commentary on me about curators and the market in general of what people expect of Native art or Native art to be...the contemporary Native art scene doesn’t have to be rooted in tribal designs..it can be anything,” said Buffalo Hyde.