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Indie Folk: New Art and Sounds from the Pacific Northwest

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Abstract 3-d artwork shown on a grey floor and white background
Abstract 3-d artwork shown on a grey floor and white background

Indie Folk: New Art and Sounds from the Pacific Northwest

February 24–June 30, 2024

Guest Curator: Melissa Feldman

 

This exhibition was organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman. Soundtrack compiled by Mississippi Records, Portland.

The Museum of Craft and Design’s exhibitions and programs are generously supported by Anonymous, the Windgate Foundation, and Grants for the Arts. Support for MCD’s MakeArt Accessible program is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IGSM-253544-OMS-23).

 

Media Partners

KQED Logo  SF Magazine for MCD

The Pacific Northwest is home to a unique artistic ecosystem involving craft traditions, pre-industrial cultures, and Indigenous and settler histories. Like folk art, the exhibition features handmade works that are unpretentious, and often blur the line between functionality and aesthetics. Artisanal woven baskets and tooled-wood objects mix with works that are makeshift, improvisational, and often employ salvaged materials. For the artists—patchwork quilters and abstract painters alike—a rural and working-class ethos of passed down knowledge and making do with what you have is as foundational as academics and studio technique.

The exhibition features an intergenerational array of 17 notable artists from throughout the region including Marita Dingus, Warren Dykeman, Joe Feddersen, Blair Saxon-Hill, Sky Hopinka, and Cappy Thompson. A playlist of Indie Folk music selected by Portland’s Mississippi Records, a record label and shop, will accompany the exhibition, filling the galleries with the sound of the Pacific Northwest.

Above Image: Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Mourner, 2013. Courtesy of the artist; Adams and Ollman, Portland; Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen

Brian Beck

Marita Dingus

Warren Dykeman

Joe Feddersen

Gaylen Hansen

Andrea Joyce Heimer

Sky Hopinka

Denzil Hurley

Jessica Jackson Hutchins

D.E. May

Jeffry Mitchell

Blair Saxon-Hill

Vince Skelly

Whiting Tennis

Cappy Thompson

Joey Veltkamp

Mary Welcome

PRESS RELEASE

View the press release for Indie Folk here.

March/April, SF/Arts Monthly
Museum Highlights 

Winter Issue 2024, American Craft Council
Craft Happenings: February Openings

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A photo from MCD's VIP/Member Preview of "Fight and Flight: Crafting a Bay Area Life" courtesy of Dallis Willard

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February 23 @ 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

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Curator Ariel Zaccheo and artist Nasim Moghadan speak at the last Curator Walk-Through

MCD Curator Walk-Through: Indie Folk: New Art and Sounds from the Pacific Northwest

February 24 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

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MakeArt Family Day

March 2 @ 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

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