Great Basin Native Artists Gallery
Better knowledge of the art and peoples of the Great Basin
ON EXHIBITION
Dancing for the Earth, Dancing for the People: Powwow Regalia and Art of the Great Basin
CLOSING JULY 1, 2023
Curator Melissa Melero-Moose (Fallon Paiute/Modoc) presents, “Dancing for the Earth, Dancing for the People: Powwow Regalia and Art of the Great Basin.” This exhibition features contemporary powwow dance regalia, photography, mixed media sculpture, Great Basin beadwork, digital graphic design and more. Participating artists include Phil Buckheart, Bucky Harjo, Linda Eben Jones, Jack Malotte, Lyndah Steele, Theo Steele, Janice Eben Stump, Chad Yellow John, and Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu.
“The exhibition is a small view into the powwow culture and how contemporary and historical regalia were never ‘costumes’ to the Indigenous peoples of this continent,” says Melero-Moose. “The contemporary powwow is a social gathering, a competitive dance contest, an art exhibition, a cultural exchange, and so much more. Evolving over the years from traditional tribal ceremony, which continues, and grows stronger, the powwow brings the people together many times each year in healing, dance, drumming and song,”
Phil Buckheart, Bussle, mixed media sculpture
Great Basin Native Artists Gallery Curator
Melissa Melero-Moose began her work with the Stewart Indian Commission in 2014, speaking about the Great Basin Native Artists (GBNA) at the Nevada Indian Territory Tribal Conferences. In 2019, Stewart asked her to be a part of the design consulting for the planning process of the Stewart Museum and then gallery curator for the Great Basin Native Artists (Wa-Pai-Shone) Gallery.
She is a mixed-media visual artist, writer and curator. She is a Northern Paiute enrolled with the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe with ties to Fort Bidwell Paiute, California. She lives in Hungry Valley, Nevada working as a professional artist, contributing writer for First American Art Magazine and founder/curator of the art collective the Great Basin Native Artists. She is a descendant of Stewart Alumni dating back from 1911 – 1974.
GBNA mission: To create better knowledge of the art and peoples of the Great Basin and to create opportunities for this underrepresented region in all forms of the arts.
GBNA goals:
- Maintain a Great Basin Native Artists archive and online directory
- Exhibiting opportunities as a group for local, national, and international Native art exhibitions
- Cultural arts education to the Native and non-Native community
- Art business workshops for professional and emerging artists
- Forum for Native artists and interested community members to connect
- Online presence for rural Native artists
The Evolution of a Native American Artists Collective – Webinar with Melissa Melero-Moose
Melissa attended an interview on the Double Scoop Podcast where she talks about the ongoing challenges Indigenous artists face in gaining visibility and recognition. Listen to the full interview here.
GBNA Gallery
Artwork by Ben Aleck (Pyramid Lake Paiute)
Beadwork
Beadwork-2
GBNA In The News
Meet the women
of Ah’-Wah-Nee
When was the last time you saw a group exhibition of work by Native women artists? I’ve been following Nevada art closely for 17 years, and, yeah, me neither. But that’s not because we don’t have plenty of talented, hardworking Native women in the community. Read more…
Getting eyes
on Native art
In 2011, Melissa Melero-Moose, a Northern Paiute enrolled with the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, and the founder of the Great Basin Native Artists collective, came back to Nevada after having her son. Read more….