Exhibit C, Oklahoma City’s premier Native American art gallery, will be showcasing two world-renowned artists for their first major collaborative exhibit beginning this March. “Music for The Great Sun” will debut the work of Marcus Amerman and Preston Singletary, two First American artists whose list of awards propels them to international acclaim.

The one-of-a-kind exhibit name derives from ‘The Great Sun,’ a divine god-king of the Cahokia Moundbuilders. This civilization, of which Amerman is a descendant, saw The Great Sun as the political and religious leader of the ancient, class-stratified society. Many of the pieces Amerman and Singletary are using for inspiration were originally made by imperial craftsmen for the demands of the ruling class and The Great Sun.

The collaboration is seen as creativity through performance, or ‘music’ for a civilization and its divine entities that is often overlooked and unremembered in history. The two have joined forces to create glass work by Singletary with designs of each piece created by Amerman, influenced by the forms and symbols of the ancient mound builder cultures of North America.

“We believe Preston and I’s decision to collaborate was ‘by royal appointment of The Great Sun,’” said Amerman. “I tell him that we have been mythologically thrust into cooperation to ‘squeeze the Juice of the Stone’ and create luminous and lyrical works of glass that will bring light and attention to a once-great, now-forgotten people of America.”

Preston Singletary: The show is the first time for Singletary (Tlingit) to exhibit in Oklahoma, with much of his work found in Pacific Northwest galleries. However, Singletary’s singular glassblowing techniques have sent his work across the globe. From the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. to Château-musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer in France to the British Museum in London, his works have garnered respect around the world.

Marcus Amerman: Amerman (Choctaw) has also had international success in his preferred mediums of beadwork and fashion, including a runway show in Johannesburg, South Africa. The pieces reflect his Choctaw roots, using the imagery of the Mississippian peoples to blend contemporary and traditional designs. Amerman’s glass pottery and beadwork is currently collected at the George Gustav Heye Center, the Heard Museum and the Smithsonian, the latter of which led to his partnership with Singletary.

“Music for the Great Sun” will be on display from March 1 to June 30, 2021.