February 3rd - 24th, 2017

The Strand Center for the Arts was thrilled to host a Native American Artists Exhibition in the Main Gallery in February, 2017. This exhibit featured artwork from several local Native American artists including: Sue Herne, Dukon Harris, David Fadden, Martin Loft, Leah Shenandoah, and Jordan Thompson.

 The artists brought together for this show have a wonderful diversity of styles with an equally diverse assortment of media and approaches to creating art. For instance, David Fadden, a painter and illustrator of national renown, paints what he sees around him, meaning the animals of the Adirondack Mountains and the Mohawk people of his community, with a recent focus on painting the human face and anatomy. But, the people he paints are not direct portraits. They are more imaginary portraits created to dispel the false portrayal of the stereotypes commonly associated with Native peoples by showing laughter and other emotions. Another artist, Dukon Harris, uses acrylic paints, colored pencils, and wood as his media to depict the images and scenes from his imagination and bring them to life for people to observe his thoughts, creations, and the culture of his rich heritage as well as the Mohawk Tribe of which his wife is a member. Yet another artist, Leah Shenandoah, an award winning singer/songwriter, jeweler and multi-media artist, creates art that is homage to the experience of love and life where she attempts to capture an emotion, or a moment in time of pure love.

 In reference to the exhibition, David Monette, gallery director at The Strand Center for the Arts stated, “The collection of incredibly talented artists and their work assembled for this show is truly amazing.  Take Martin Loft as an example, his work has been shown in the Smithsonian, in Germany, Italy, and Quebec. It’s pretty incredible that we have an artist of his caliber here in Plattsburgh. And he’s only one.”