FREE
Auditorium, Knox Building 

Join us for a live conversation between artist G. Peter Jemison [Seneca Nation (Heron Clan)] and curator and VoCA Board Member Andrea R. Hanley (Navajo). After the discussion, there will be a Q&A session for the audience.

Through his art, G. Peter Jemison has explored various topics, from creating political works that portray contemporary social commentary to those that reflect his relationship with the natural world. Widely shown and collected, Jemison’s works are rooted in the framework of Native American art. Known for his naturalistic paintings and series of works done on brown paper bags, his art embodies Orenda, the traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) belief that every living thing and part of creation contains a spiritual force. His paintings, videos, and mixed media works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. He is also an esteemed administrator, curator, editor, and writer. This conversation will reflect on Jemison’s decades-long career, diverse accomplishments, and worldwide impact.

VoCA Talks is a series of public programs featuring artists and their collaborators discussing the challenges and rewards inherent in making, showing, and preserving contemporary art. VoCA Talk: Peter Jemison will be the inaugural event in the Native Voices series, supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art. This initiative illuminates the art-making practices and materials of contemporary Native American artists alongside their personal and social histories while advancing best practices for the long-term preservation of their essential work. 

This VoCA Talk is free and open to the public, and seating will be first come, first served.

G. Peter Jemison

G. Peter Jemison’s career spans decades across a wide swath of diverse accomplishments with a worldwide impact. His paintings, videos, and mixed media works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. He is also an esteemed administrator, curator, editor, and writer. In 2004, he was elected Board Member at Large of the American Alliance of Museums (formerly the Association of Museums). He was also the founding director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City. Jemison’s works are included in significant collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Heard Museum, Phoenix; The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe; The Denver Art Museum, Denver; The British Museum, London, UK; and the Museum der Weltkultern, Frankfurt, Germany.

Andrea R. Hanley

Andrea R. Hanley is the chief curator at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is dedicated to the work of contemporary Native American artists and the Native American fine art field. Over thirty years of experience in the field, including National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., as both special assistant to the director and exhibition developer/project manager, the fine arts coordinator/curator for the city of Tempe, executive director of ATLATL, Inc., a national service organization for Native American arts, the founding manager of the Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum, and the membership and program manager for the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. She serves on the board of directors for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, Santa Fe Indian Market, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Roswell Artist in Residence Foundation, Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA), and Axle Contemporary. She also sits on the 516 ARTS ambassador council, the Native American advised fund for the Santa Fe Community Foundation, Ucross Foundation national advisory council, and the Native American advisory board for Nest. She was on the Santa Fe Arts Commission from 2019–2021. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.