Gerald Clarke

This survey brings together three decades of work by contemporary Native American artistGerald Clarke (Cahuilla). Utilizing wit and humor to expose historical and present-day injustice, Clarke brings a decolonial perspective to urgent cultural and political issues facing our world. Gerald Clarke is an artist, university professor, Cahuillatribal leader, cowboy, and Indian (the artist's preferred identity).

Combining various media in his sculptures, paintings, works on paper, videos, performances, and installations, Clarke derives artistic inspiration from his cultural heritage, expressing traditional ideas in contemporary forms that are both poetic and politically urgent. Clarke's artistic output resonates with histories of assemblage, pop, and conceptual art produced by both Native and non-native artists. This amply illustrated catalogue introduces Clarke's work at a moment when it is profoundly necessary.

About the Author

David Evans Frantz is associate curator at the Palm Springs Art Museum, where Christine Giles is curator of Western and Native American art. Gerald Clarke is an artist and an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is represented in several prominent museum collections including the Autry Museum of the American West, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Heard Museum, and Palm Springs Art Museum. Clarke is assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of California, Riverside.