"Clan Stories"

Chickasaw Country Exhibit Highlights Clan Stories

“Clan Stories” Will Be on Display at Exhibit C Gallery Starting November 1, 2022.

OKLAHOMA CITY (October 31, 2021) — Exhibit C Gallery, Oklahoma City’s premier First American art gallery, will explore the unique heritage of seven artists during its new “Clan Stories” exhibit this November.

Showcasing artwork inspired by the artists’ personal backgrounds and identities, the exhibit will feature the work of April Holder, Bobby C. Martin, Hoka Skenandore, Lokosh (Joshua D. Hinson), Kennetha Greenwood (Nyi K’omi), Roy Boney and MaryBeth Timothy.

“This exhibit highlights the varying attributes of numerous First American clans, and how that experience has influenced each artist and their artistry,” said Paige Williams Shepherd, Chickasaw Nation’s Director of Corporate Development and Tourism.

From traditional painting, graphic art, beadwork, printmaking and more, “Clan Stories” will be on display at Exhibit C Gallery from November 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022. Media assets are available at this link. For more information about the artists, or other art at Exhibit C Gallery, visit www.exhibitcgallery.com.

April Holder, a Sac and Fox Nation tribal member from Shawnee, Oklahoma, was raised in an environment of creativity where she learned an appreciation for art in all forms, from modern painting to traditional song. The influence of her mother’s beadwork, her uncle’s draftsmanship and the many traditional talents of her grandmother, aunts and uncles helped shape Holder’s unique view of the world. Earning her BFA from Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Holder has exhibited in many distinguished art shows throughout the United States and has won several awards, most recently for best representation of a native woman tribal member at the Red Cloud Heritage Center.

Bobby C. Martin is an artist/educator/facilitator, who’s artwork is exhibited and collected internationally and has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions, the most recent being a one-person exhibition entitled “But You Don’t Look Indian.” His current project, “Altars of Reconciliation” is a three-person show focusing on the experiences of the artists as First Americans and as Christians. An enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma, Martin currently holds a Professor of Visual Arts position at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and he frequently leads printmaking workshops and artist retreats around the world.

Hoka Skenandore’s multicultural roots include the Oneida of Wisconsin, the Oglala Lakota, the La Jolla Band of Luiseno, as well as Chicano heritage. He grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he learned to appreciate Traditional Native Art alongside Fine Art. On his own, he embraced the D.I.Y. ethos of Punk Rock and Hip-Hop Culture and painted Graffiti Art, eventually transitioning to working on murals in the Albuquerque metro area. Specializing in Degenerate Fine Art with roots in Indigenous art combined with Style Writing (aka Graffiti) influences and Fine Art training, as well as printmaking and murals. He earned his BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and his MFA from the University of Oklahoma.

Lokosh (Joshua D. Hinson) is an award-winning artist of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Cherokee and Euro-American ancestry and is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Hinson, whose Chickasaw name Lokosh translates as “Gourd,” is Imatapo (Their Tent People) house group and Kowishto' (Panther) clan. His artistic production includes mixed-media painting and drawing, working in Southeastern themes heavily influenced by Chikasha oral tradition. He has created traditional arts including stickball sticks, rattles, shell jewelry and painted drums, and is also a maker of fochosh holba’ (duck decoys) used for subsistence hunting on tribal lands in the Chickasaw Nation.

Kennetha Greenwood (Nyi K’omi) is Bear Clan of the Otoe-Missouria tribe and is an award-winning artist known for her graphic art and beadwork and other various mediums. She is influenced by the designs of her Otoe-Missouria people and was encouraged at a young age by working with her mother and grandmother on their ribbon work patterns as they sewed traditional clothing. Being a woodlands tribe, the Otoe-Missouria were surrounded by the beauty reflected in the flowers and the plants. They showed their respect for the blessings and provisions in their environment by using these floral and abstract geometric designs in their creations which she still honors in her work today.

Roy Boney Jr. is a full blood citizen of the ᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᏰᏟ Cherokee Nation living in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. An award-winning filmmaker, artist and writer, his work has been shown throughout the United States and internationally. Boney holds a BFA in Graphic Design from Oklahoma State University and a Master of Art in Studio Art from the University of Arkansas – Little Rock. He is the writer, director, producer and animator of several animated short films spoken in the Cherokee and Muscogee languages including “On a Spring Day and Incident at Rock Roe” and has worked on several documentary films, including as an illustrator on the National Park Service production “Trail of Tears”.

MaryBeth Timothy is a Native Oklahoman who is pursuing her dreams of creating art and working toward making it accessible to all walks of life. A member of the Southeast Indian Artist Association, a registered TERO artist and enrolled Cherokee Nation, Timothy is a full-time artist, illustrator and business owner. A self-taught multimedia artist, Timothy’s artwork overall features an array of subjects and themes, though she leans towards her love of wildlife and shares her affinity for Oklahoma wild birds, animals and wildflowers. Her work has adorned a variety of magazine covers and is featured in outlets such as Indian Country Today, Green Country Living, Art Tour International and Oklahoma Magazines.