Since its founding in 1914, the Montclair Art Museum has been renowned for its extensive collection of Indigenous North American art. In recent years, however, its iconic Native American gallery began showing its age.
A new iteration, a three-year-long collaboration with Native artists and scholars, opened last fall. “Interwoven Power: Native Knowledge/Native Art” juxtaposes contemporary and historical works in two newly renovated galleries.
“I wanted to impress upon people visually how important Native artists have been to the 20th-century canon,” says Laura Allen, the museum’s new curator of Native American art.
A turkey-feather cape by Lenape artist Rebecca Haff Lowry. Photo: Courtesy of Montclair Art Museum/Jason Wyche
Setting the stage outside the exhibit is one of the museum’s neoclassical sculptures, surrounded by a fringe of translucent beads, by Indigenous artist Holly Wilson. A tribute to Native American dance shawls, it puts a Native lens on a traditional work.
Inside, large hanging soft sculptures by Eric-Paul Riege, representing earrings, form a ritualistic space where the Indigenous artist can perform.
Other dramatic works include a turkey-feather cape by Lenape artist Rebecca Haff Lowry, significant because the museum sits on Lenape land. A totem pole, juxtaposed with a self-portrait by Indigenous artist Nicolas Goon, who is half obscured, represents the effect of the colonial art market.
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