August 10, 2013–June 15, 2014
New York, NY

Juxtaposing more than one hundred contemporary and modern works with historic, ancestral objects revealing the stories, experiences, and histories of Anishinaabe life in the Great Lakes region, Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes features works by modern masters such as Norval Morrisseau, George Morrison, Blake Debassige, Daphne Odjig, and others, who, each in their own way, sought visual expression for the spiritual and social dimensions of human relations with the earth. These same sources of inspiration are visible in traditional Anishinaabe arts, such as dodem or clan pictographs on treaty documents; bags embroidered with porcupine quills; painted drums; and carved pipes, spoons, and bowls. The continuity of Anishinaabe art emphasizes traditional Anishinaabe spiritual perceptions that are very much part of Anishinaabe identity today. The exhibition provides visitors with an understanding of the Anishinaabe as contemporary citizens of North America with deep indigenous roots in the traditional Anishinaabe homeland of the Great Lakes.