Truths Be Told: Artists Activate Traditions

Truths Be Told: Artists Activate Traditions highlights a dozen international artists who engage with folk traditions from their respective communities in order to critique social inequities, reverse erasure, and be a catalyst for social change. By pushing the boundaries of longstanding ceramic, basketry, and textile practices, regalia, or song, these artists propose more complex narratives of how traditions empower communities. Truths Be Told invites us to consider how traditions can function productively as agents of debate, awakening, change, cultural revitalization, and imagining a better future.

Featuring the work of Roberto Benavidez, Mary Lee Bendolph, Ambreen Butt, Kathryn Clark, Sonya Clark, Nicholas Galanin, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Carolyn Mazloomi, Elyse Pignolet, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Beverly Y. Smith, Colectivo Subterráneos, Sarah Mary Taylor, Kukuli Velarde, and Marie Watt.

Image Credit: Companion Species (Tethered and Unbound), Marie Watt (Seneca), 2023. Reclaimed satin bindings, industrial felt, tin jingles, cotton twill.  © Marie Watt. Tia Collection, Santa Fe. Photo courtesy the artist.