"Native Pop Presents: Strong Women: Reclaiming Imagery": Live Art Demos and Reception

• Event Date: Friday, March 30, 2018
• Time: 7:00 pm–10:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Age: All Ages
• Cost: Free Admission

• Special Event

Live Art Demos and Reception

Native American House, Women’s Resources Center, University YMCA, and Spurlock Museum welcome three artists from Native Pop, an organization that brings Native pop art and art-making to widespread venues and communities. In a weekend of events titled “Native pop presents: Strong Women: Reclaiming Imagery”, MaryBeth Timothy (Cherokee), Serena Penaloza (Navajo and Maricopa), and Brent Learned (Cheyenne-Arapaho) bring their art, insights, and skills to variety of programs.

About the Artists

MaryBeth Timothy

MaryBeth Timothy is a native Oklahoman and an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She was born in Pryor, but lived more than half her life in central Oklahoma. She also spent a few years living in Fort Gibson in order to be closer to her family and her native roots. The award-winning self-taught artists works in many mediums and draws on her love of nature and her heritage to inspire her work. Her sculptures, graphics, and paintings have been selected for awards and honors throughout the Southeast.

Serena Penaloza

Serena Penaloza was born and raised in the Navajo reservation of Church Rock, New Mexico, also known as the heart of Native American art. Her tribes are Navajo and Maricopa, clans Towering house, Bitter water people and Quail. Most of her paintings are mixed media acrylic and she is known for her animals and artistic nudes. Penaloza says “I enjoy capturing expression, may it be aggression, happiness, sadness or tranquility, along with graceful movement focusing on the hands and feet. After each piece is completed I feel as if they are pieces of myself I'm putting out into the world. With my nude paintings I am pushing boundaries that are considered taboo not only for my people, but all tribes. I feel through my art, the thought process on this type of art expression of beauty is freely accepted.”

Brent Learned

Brent Learned is an award winning and collected Native American artist who was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. Brent graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor degree in Fine Arts. Learned draws, paints and sculpts the Native American Indian in a rustic, impressionistic style and is known for the vibrant colors seen in many of his works. He has always appreciated the heritage and culture of the American Plains Indian and tries to to capture the essence, accuracy and historic authenticity of the American Plains Indian way of life through his art. His work can be found in museums and private collections, including the Smithsonian Institute-National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., the Cheyenne/Arapaho Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma, and many others. In addition, he was a curator for Wintercamp at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, an exhibition of new artists in the community. Most importantly, this was the first all Native American show to feature contemporary Oklahoma Native American art.

Co-sponsors

• Native American House (external link)
• Women’s Resources Center (external link)
• University YMCA 1001 S Wright St, Champaign (external link)

PAID FOR BY THE STUDENT CULTURAL PROGRAMMING FEE.

Image Credit: Tobacco Warrior by Serena Penaloza