Gerald Clarke: Falling Rock

About

Gerald Clarke: Falling Rock is the first mid-career survey and major solo exhibition of contemporary Native American artist Gerald Clarke. A member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, Clarke utilizes wit and humor to expose historical and present-day injustice, bringing a de-colonial perspective to critical social, economic, and environmental issues facing our world

Clarke is an artist, cowboy, university professor, tribal leader, and Indian (the artist’s preferred identity). He lives with his wife and two daughters on their ancestral land in Anza, California where he raises cattle as his father, grandfather, and other Cahuilla Indians have done since the Spanish Colonial period. Combining various media in his sculptures, paintings, and installations, Clarke derives artistic inspiration from his homeland’s cultural heritage and its desert and mountain environment, expressing traditional ideas in surprising and contemporary forms. His diverse artistic output resonates with histories of assemblage, pop, conceptual, and politically engaged art produced by both Native and non-native artists.

This exhibition is organized by Christine Giles, Curator, and features approximately 80 works in a range of media drawn from private and public collections. It will be accompanied by a major catalogue co-published by Hirmer Verlag and produced by award-winning designer Kimberly Varella of Content Object, and co-edited by Giles and Associate Curator David Evans Frantz.