A dozen Native men and women sat for portraits in Daniel Heyman’s remarkable and extremely timely series Native Impressions: In Our Own Words, which opens tonight. Heyman and Lucy Ganje traveled to four North Dakota reservations for the project, and the resulting prints and letterpress broadsides are quite moving and three-dimensional. At a restaurant called My Auntie’s, a cook lets customers wash dishes if they can’t afford a meal. Other subjects include a former marine, two university presidents, and a grieving mother, while recurring motifs include climate, energy, and the legacy of boarding schools. In another room, Heyman’s less weighty pieces include eight-eyed men and a cacophony of animals.
image: Daniel Heyman, Gibbon With Camel’s Hump (2013)