SPRING/SUMMER 2016 new exhibitions // 03 continuing exhibitions // 08 mam programs // 10 education + outreach // 11 art classes // 12 art park // 14 MAM Award // 15 DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS | Laura J. Millin This year MAM proudly celebrates its 10th anniversary of the Lynda M. Frost Contemporary American Indian Art Gallery, a space devoted exclusively to programming of American Indian artists in perpetuity. The gallery is representative of MAM’s ongoing commitment to provide perspective, foster cultural understanding, and fight racism by exhibiting, collecting, and building educational programs on contemporary American Indian artwork and artists. 02 A turning point occurred in 1997 when Salish artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith started gifting her message-laden, energetic works on paper to MAM’s collection to create a holding of her work near her home, the Flathead Indian Reservation. The seed that Jaune planted, along with our sorely missed friend and patron Marshall Delano, has blossomed into the Lynda M. Frost Contemporary American Indian Art Gallery, and a concerted focus in the Permanent Collection of art by Indian artists that today consists of 170 objects and is recognized nationally. A recent bequest from the estate of Helga and Bill Hosford dedicated to purchases of Contemporary American Indian Art greatly assists our efforts to add to this collection. To honor and build on these achievements, MAM is planning to host a series of residencies and exhibitions with contemporary American Indian artists over the next few years that will provide new opportunities for living artists to create work, interact with the public, and generate new scholarship and public resource materials while strengthening and expanding this imperative collection. Upcoming residencies include collaboration with the UM School of Art and Matrix Press to bring Sara Siestreem back to Missoula in Fall 2016, followed by Molly Murphy-Adams in Spring 2017. Ryan Fedderson will create a site-specific installation designed for MAM. A bronze sculpture created by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith specifically for permanent placement in the Missoula Art Park is in the early design phase. In addition, Senior Curator Brandon Reintjes will teach an art history course at UM on Contemporary American Indian Art incorporating MAM’s collection and upcoming exhibitions. With these important programmatic initiatives, we strive to address an ever broader public with a fresh view of MAM’s mission, while defying traditional notions and stereotypes of art created in and about the West, Western art, and “Indians” which still dominate the region. Certainly we hope to reinforce MAM’s identity as the source for contemporary art in the region. In closing, I wish to express our sorrow over the loss of Rick Bartow (December 16, 1946 – April 2, 2016), who touched all of us deeply through his art in Dogs Journey: A 20-Year Survey, exhibited in MAM’s Frost Gallery in 2012, and with his generous and playful spirit as a storyteller and teacher in two visits to MAM in 2012 and 2014. We are pleased to present Rick’s expressive art again this summer in the group show Not Vanishing: Contemporary Expressions in Indigenous Art because, of course, his profound vision will live on forever though his art. Rick Bartow, Going as Coyote, pastel, charcoal, and graphite on paper, courtesy of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. 03 MAM’S STUDIO ART TEACHERS’ EXHIBITION June 1- August 27, 2016 // Lela Autio Education Gallery Summer Studio Art Classes, see pages 12-13 Every summer MAM hires a posse of To celebrate these artists/teachers and positively wonderful teachers to teach a to give the public a better sense of the high range of art camps and provide stimulating caliber and skill of MAM’s art teachers, we projects to MAM campers and students. asked our teachers to submit artworks to Thanks to these teachers, MAM’s classroom showcase their creative outpourings. The is busy all summer. MAM prides itself on its exhibition features work from well-established highly qualified teachers, many of whom artists and longtime art teachers such as Bev are professional artists who actively pursue Beck Glueckert, Kate Davis, Steve Krutek, their own art. The skills which make an Barbara Morrison, and Jennifer Odgen, and artist an artist—the ability to effectively emerging artists/teachers Janaina Viera- visually communicate, to take risks and Marques, Erin Roberts, and Michael Workman. experiment, to investigate different The eclectic exhibit features paintings, media and processes, and to articulate prints, and photographs as well as video and meaning—are all skills that are imparted to installation—something for everyone to MAM’s students and campers. admire from their favorite MAM teachers! Steve Krutek, The Other Movable Wall, mixed media. new exhibitions KAREN MCALISTER SHIMODA: FIELD NOTES June 3 - October 1, 2016 // Schott Family Gallery First Friday: June 3, 5-8 PM Gallery Talk: June 3, 7 PM A field note is a means for recording Shimoda moved from Missoula to Portland, an observation in order to remember OR, at the beginning of 2015. During her daily and better understand the particular walks in this new environment, she took notes phenomenon later. It can be data collected to learn the flora of the unfamiliar forest and as by a scientist, the careful observation of a a diary of observations. The observations and naturalist, notes taken during a hike, or a patterns worked their way into her art practice journal entry written after a day walking and are on display in this solo exhibition titled the river. In all instances field notes are Field Notes. The exhibit is organized around tools to aid greater understanding, be three bodies of work. it simple identification of a plant or an The six black and white ink drawings on in-depth study in behavioral science. They drafting film focus on the patterns found in are reminders of a subject, a reinforcement tree bark. Shimoda used the state trees of the 04 of memory, or the recollection of an Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana experience. The practice of keeping field as a point of departure for the drawings. notes is in part a search for knowledge but Considering the overall image, astute viewers can also be an existential quest for greater may identify the specific tree, but Shimoda’s understanding. detail-driven approach to drawing yearns for closer contemplation. The precise marks reveal a microcosm within the whole image and reflect on the meditative nature of Shimoda’s art-making. In contrast to the drawings are a series of painted six-inch cubes. Where Shimoda’s drawings are abstractions and use all over mark-making across the page, the cubes are instead purely reductive. Shimoda moves to a three-dimensional surface but one that is pure in form. The surface texture reveals layers of white paint worked over the dark marks underneath, erasing by addition, and reducing the final image to an elemental state. A counterpoint to the drawings and paintings is a set of small artist books. The pictures in the accordion folded books are representational drawings of flora and fauna that Shimoda has encountered on her walks. The realistic depictions of nature are an accessible entry into the work in the exhibition. Each body of work displays the contemplative and meticulous approach in Shimoda’s work, and encourages the viewer to look at the natural world in a different way. Karen McAlister Shimoda, Western hemlock, black and white ink on drafting film. 05 Greg Siple, Dream Fulfilled, silver gelatin print. BICYCLE ECLECTIC: PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREG SIPLE June 30 - August 27, 2016 // Travel Montana Lobby Bike Art Blast: July 17, 10 AM - 12 PM Artist Reception: July 17, 12-2 PM Sunday Streets: July 17, 12-4 PM In the summer of 1972, four intrepid cyclists set celebrate the upcoming American Bicentennial in off on an epic journey to pedal the geographic 1976. They mapped a route and got the word out to length of the Americas. Two couples from media outlets across the country. The summer-long Missoula, Greg and June Siple and Dan and Lys event was called Bikecentennial and more than Burden, planned an expedition to ride their 4,000 riders participated. This was the beginning bicycles from Anchorage, AK, to the southern of what is now the Adventure Cycling Association tip of Argentina. At the end of their first (ACA). summer, the riders arrived in Missoula with $100 As part of the 40th anniversary of between them. Bikecentennial and ACA, MAM is honored to Fortunately, National Geographic magazine help celebrate the ACA and Greg Siple’s lifelong agreed to give full support for them to continue dedication with an exhibition of his black-and- their journey. In 1973, it published a feature story white portraits of cyclists. Since 1982, Siple has about the zealous foursome and their arduous been photographing cyclists that stop at the 3,000-mile voyage from Anchorage to Missoula. ACA office while riding across the country. He That story is said to have helped usher in the has collected more than 4,000 photographs that modern era of cycling in America. capture the unique stories and personalities of While finishing their trip to Argentina, the each rider and create a wonderful record of the group conceived of a transcontinental bike trek to last three decades. 06 Neil Chaput De Saintonge, Hammond School, Carter County, MT, photograph. Devin Leonardi, Plains Near Anaconda, oil on canvas on panel, courtesy of Altman Siegel, San Francisco. DEVIN LEONARDI: IN MEMORIAM July 5 - September 10, 2016 // Morris and Helen Silver Gallery Artists on Artists Discussion: Devin Leonardi, July 23, 11 AM In 2014, Philipsburg-based artist Devin Leonardi His atmospheric paintings elicit the precise aesthetic tragically died.