Thrift Store Art Finds: Authenticating Cryptic Northwest Coast Basketry

It's no big secret that I love Native American art. Throughout the last fews years, my interests have shifted from jewelry, to pottery, to paintings, and now my passion is basketry.  While purchasing historic and contemporary Native American basketry can be very expensive,  there are terrific pieces just waiting to be found in your local thrift store.  Since I seem to be a magnet for excellent thrift store finds, I have decided to periodically blog about them and share the information that I learn from the experts!

In the last few months, I have been a frequenter of thrift stores along the I-5 corridor in Washington State.  A couple of weeks ago, I was in a store in the Skagit Valley.  There amidst baskets of all types were three terrific baskets (one, which I think might be Cherokee, but goes unauthenticated as of yet, one from South America, or so I believe from the design and the materials employed, and one from the Northwest Coast).  When I first set eyes on the pictured basket, the plaiting and the twining on the piece led me to think that its origin was Makah.  The material appeared to be bear grass combined with cedar, which looked faded in color.

After forwarding photographs to a curator in British Columbia, I was able to learn that it is indeed Northwest Coast.  To her, it appears to be woven from bear grass and some kind of raffia--not cedar.  She also said that the base suggested Salish basketry, but that the plaiting (the square center weave as seen in the images) and twining (the weaving surrounding the plaiting) on the base led her to believe it was Makah style.  While the basket seemed somewhat hard to place, she said that it was likely made by either a Makah or a Quileute weaver.  My guess is that it could be early to mid-20th Century, but that goes uncorraborated. Regardless, it is a beautiful, compelling and decorative basket!

Did you know that both the Burke Museum in Seattle and the University of British Columbia have ethnology collections available for online viewing?  You can search by style of basket, tribe and other criteria and can enlarge photos to help you see crucial details. Check them out!

Contemporary Art Goes to the Birds in Vancouver

"I spent most of the last year making photographic, collage-based stop motion animation and installation work. With this body of work I’ve returned exclusively to painting as a way to reintroduce it amongst the other ideas I’m exploring..."--Jennifer Mawby

Regulars in the Vancouver, British Columbia art scene are familiar with the work of visual artist Jennifer Mawby.  This evening, Quinary Projects Pop Up Gallery will host an opening artist reception for a theatrical installation of expanded paintings by Mawby.  

What if an artist created a story in her head about what the outcome would be she went hunting, caught and skinned a painting and hung the pelt to dry? The end result?  The Aviary. 

Imagine walking into a large bird cage, over which a closed-eyed birdwatcher ironically keeps watch. Overall, the installation is a psychological landscape of what exists inside the mind of this silent film star-like protagonist.  

With many forms that have been cut out so as to appear like bricolage or photo-collage to "render them less precious and more animated," the oil paintings are created on loose canvas and clear Duralar.  Some assemblages take the form of Asian fighting kites and some are like hunting trophies. The Duralar pieces resemble single, cel (celluloid) animation frames. Both sides of the image are revealed through the material and the installation.  

The show will continue at Quinary Projects (Curated by Wesley Yuen and hosted by Dominion Grand Development)  with limited hours from July 19-21: Thursday, July 19th - 5pm to 8pm; Friday, July 20th - 5pm to 9pm; Saturday, July 21st - noon to 4pm. The gallery is located on the west side of Richards Street at Pacific in Yaletown (next to Trees Organic) in Vancouver. 

For further information contact Jennifer Mawby at 604.783.7178 or jjtmstudio@gmail.com.

Stonington Gallery Presents New Works and Lecture by Northwest Artist Barry Herem

Barry Herem and some of his pieces
(Photo: Stonington Gallery)

A lifetime of living in the Pacific Northwest and traveling up and down its coast will give a person an intimate familiarity with the people and the folklore that is so closely tied to them.  That's what artist and Northwest Coast scholar and lecturer Barry Herem has developed through his travels throughout the region, getting to know the indigenous populations and learning from his friendships with the likes of Bill Reid, Robert Davidson, Bill Holm and others.

Barry Herem's "Butterfly"
(Photo: Stonington Gallery)

Indigenous and indigenous-inspired art is always evolving keeping intact the traditional meaning, but pushing the envelope to expand how those meanings are conveyed.  In a new show at Seattle's Stonington Gallery, Barry Herem unveils a new body of work created using metal, glass and wood, which continues his formline experimentation with mixed media.

The exhibition and sale Beyond Beyond: A Barry Herem Solo Exhibit opens this evening July 5 with an artist's reception (6 p.m. - 8 p.m.) and continues through July 28.  On Sunday, July 8 at 6 p.m., Herem will present am illustrated lecture at Stonington Gallery entitled Received Boundaries: Stasis and Change, in which he will discuss his half-century love affair with Northwest Coast art and his numerous travels via canoe visiting remote locales in the coastal Northwest. 

"Raptor Gates" by Barry Herem
(Photo: Stonington Gallery)

"For most people the zeitgeist of world-wide iconoclasm and boundary breaking, i.e. liberation, is old hat, almost old school, except that it's still going on in many areas. Looking back on nearly 50 years in the modern 'renaissance' of Northwest Coast Indian style art - which lies below the beat of both modernism and post modernism in North American art generally - we can see where it had to go, and has. I want to show you something of how, what, when, where and right now. Also something about my work."

--Barry Herem

Stonington Gallery is located at 119 South Jackson Street in Seattle. For more information about Beyond Beyond: A Barry Herem Solo Exhibit or Herem's Sunday lecture call 866-405-4485 or visit the gallery web site at www.stoningtongallery.com.