Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown hosts six artists’ work with ties to Outer Cape
PROVINCETOWN — At the beginning of the pandemic, Berta Walker placed art in her gallery windows on Bradford Street so people would have a place to walk with their dogs and see art.
She’s still doing it now that galleries are welcoming visitors inside — starting a story in the windows and extending it into the gallery for further exploration.
The story now told in the gallery’s windows is an exhibit running through Sept. 26 as part of Provincetown 400, with work by contemporary artists of Native American descent living in or connected to Provincetown.
“Provincetown, as usual, is the center of spirit of the United States,” Walker said. “This place is the center of everything. Not just that the Pilgrims landed here. It’s where people come for their liberty; it’s where people come to experiment with life.”
For this show, Walker wanted to find Native American people creating art on the Outer Cape, amplifying work that visitors may not know about.
“This celebration is about Provincetown being the landing place for Pilgrims 400 years ago, and the landing place for pilgrims today,” Walker said. “Provincetown was the landing place of American Theater, and of the modernists who came here from Europe when the war started.”
The artists in this exhibition range from emerging to established, including Nathan Balk-King (Lakota Nation), Ride Hamilton (Cheyenne), Yeffe Kimball (claimed Osage), Sky Power (Cherokee), Deb Mell (River People, Northern Cherokee Nation) and Duane Slick (Meskwaki Nation of Iowa and Ho-Chunk Nation of Nebraska).
“It is interesting to see the variety of work,” Walker said of the group. She is fascinated, she said, with the mix of creative souls.
Deb Mell, a Cherokee storyteller and artist, confirms that.
“Berta doesn’t just show one type of artist,” Mell said. “They are all different ages and all different media, from figurative to landscape to mix media. It’s going to be a very interesting show, with narrative of where we came from and who we are.”
Mell’s mother didn’t talk about their Native American heritage because where she grew up it wasn’t “the right thing to be,” she said. “When I had my children that’s when I found out I have Native American and also African blood.”
Mell says her work became more narrative when her kids were growing up, as she started making work about the stories of her past. “I’ve always borrowed from every culture and used parts of their myths and legends. I feel like I can use the Native American tricksters and myths and legends that I grew up with as part of my oral history.”
When she came to Provincetown, Mell knew Budd Hopkins from the Brooklyn Museum, where she was a Max Beckmann Memorial Scholar, and she knew about the artist community here.
“I think there’s still a lot of people who come here knowing that it’s a strong artist community,” Mell said. “It’s different obviously from the ’50s and ’60s but it’s still a great place for artists to gravitate towards. We’re all following each other, all of us artists.”
Like Mell, Sky Power’s Native American roots were downplayed growing up. “In the South people don’t embrace Native Americans, but I was always aware of that part of me,” Power said. “I’ve lived my life coming from that place of being who I am.”
“My experience with making art is that I go deep in myself to a place of trust,” she said. “I’m connecting with the universe but I’m also connecting with my deeper self. From that perspective, when a person is viewing art they connect to that same place within themselves. Art can help people understand life better because it helps them understand their relationship to others.”
In the book “All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture,” Power read that the Cherokee referred to characters of their alphabet as “talking leaves.” Around that time, she was tuning a piano out in the woods in Wellfleet. It was getting to be fall and the leaves were fluttering in the wind, making a beautiful, subtle sound.
“I realized that’s what they’re talking about, because the leaves do talk in the wind,” Power said. “Abstract art really is unspoken communication. People can try to identify something representationally or they can be moved in their heart or their mind. It’s an internal relationship.”
The exhibition also includes work by Yeffe Kimball, whose claim of Native American heritage is a source of contention.
“As a kid I remember when the Chrysler Museum was here,” Walker said. “He did a show for Yeffe Kimball the same year he had Warhol. There are those who say Yeffe claimed to be Native American so she could get attention as an artist — as a woman she could get none. But she took a stand and protected Native rights most of her life.”
Walker’s long interest in and focus now on Native American culture is important, Power said.
“Everyone focuses on the Pilgrims; I loved that she did an exhibition focusing on the Native Americans,” Power said. “I think that people will start seeing the world through the eyes of indigenous people, and this exhibition will bring more attention to the diversity in our community and in this country.”
For Walker, Provincetown continues to be that protective place to land. “I love that I’m here witnessing this odd year through Provincetown’s eyes,” she said. “Provincetown is different from anywhere else.”
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