Crafton Hills College Art Gallery Hosts Concurrent Exhibition with Palm Springs Art Museum of Contemporary Native American Artist Gerald Clarke, February 18th — April 3rd; Reception and Artist Talk, February 26th.

Publish Date: Feb. 24, 2020

If you visit the intimate and brightly lit space of the Crafton Hills College Art Gallery in the coming months you might spot a rather incongruous looking gumball machine in the far corner of the room. This isn’t a fixture of the college providing students and staff with something to chew on—or at least not in the literal sense—but is instead an intelligent and incisive commentary on the frustrations of contemporary politics. The machine, entitled “Democracy for Sale,” dispenses real gumballs, each containing a shredded fragment of the American flag.

And like the other works on display at Crafton, this art object is a humorous and incisive take on its subject that is both accessible as art yet also a thoughtful expression of artist Gerald Clarke’s personal and racial identity as a Native American Cahuilla Indian. But don’t let that fool you and don’t come expecting basket weaving. “I don't make Native American art,” Clarke writes on his website. Instead, he expresses his “Cahuilla perspective as a 21st Century citizen of the world.” His ultimate goal as an artist? To communicate “the passion, pain, and reverence I feel as a contemporary Cahuilla person” while having “a meaningful interaction with the viewer.”

Clarke “takes the traditional ideas of Native American art and updates them,” Renée Azenaro, Professor of Fine Arts at Crafton says, and while he remains “very much a part of his community,” Clarke’s take is not what you might expect. So, instead of basket weaving, guests are greeted by a 10’ day-glow yellow road sign with the word “Ne’at,” or “basket” printed on it. The effect—Azenaro shared—is one of the disorientingly familiar; the form is recognizable, but the content and context is transformed, and must be experienced first-hand to be truly appreciated.

Gerald Clarke Exhibit Poster

Remarkably, the CHC exhibition of Clarke’s work is taking place concurrently with a mid-career retrospective of his work at Palm Springs Art Museum. This means that there is no better time to seize the opportunity and come engage with the thought-provoking work of this nationally recognized artist in the intimacy of a local space before perhaps visiting the larger exhibit in the desert.

A special feature of the exhibition at CHC will be a Reception and Artist Talk by Clarke on the 26th of February. This is an event not to be missed, according to Prof. Azenaro who explains that as an educator as well as an artist—he teaches at the University of California at Riverside— Clarke is “a great speaker” and “you will get a lot out of it,” she confides. “He’s very engaging; he’s totally honest.” Certainly, if the works on display at Crafton are anything to go by it will be an unforgettable experience for all visitors.

“Creative Sovereignty works by Gerald Clarke” will be on display in the CHC Art Gallery February 18 through April 3, 2020. There is a reception on February 26th from noon to 2 p.m. and an Artist Talk from 2 – 3 p.m.