A talk and conversation with Paul Chaat Smith, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Massive changes have taken place in the past decade about how Americans see American Indians, in pop culture and museums and political discourse. How are indigenous artists responding to these new realities, which include stunning victories and crushing defeats in a time that delivers a relentless barrage of both hope and despair? Smith will draw on his experiences as an activist, critic, and art curator to make sense of the contemporary landscape of indigenous art in the United States, and the ways it echoes and differs from the work of artists in Aotearoa.
Appointed Critic in Residence three times in galleries in the U.S. and Canada. He has lectured at the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Los Angeles. He is also the author of two books.
Paul is a member of the Comanche Nation. His middle name has no hyphen and rhymes with hot.
