Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch
Bowling Green New York, Hamilton Ontario: Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2023
ISBN 9781897407356
"Shelley Niro is widely known for her ability to explore Traditional Stories, transgress boundaries, and embody the ethos of her matriarchal culture. A member of the Kanyen’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, she uses a wide variety of media, including photography, installation, film, and painting to bring greater visibility to Indigenous women and girls.
"Pushing the limits of photography, Niro incorporates imagery from Traditional Stories to focus on contemporary subjects with wit, irony, and parody. Throughout her work — in her portraiture, sculptures, landscape paintings, photography, and film and video work — Niro challenges common preconceptions about gender, culture, and Indigenous Peoples.
"Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch brings together 215 reproductions from Niro’s expansive oeuvre, including work published here for the first time. Also included in this career retrospective are three major essays about Niro’s work by Melissa Bennett, Greg Hill, and David W. Penney, as well as texts from seven guest artists, scholars, and curators.
"Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Hamilton with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), with curatorial support from the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). Co-curated by Melissa Bennett, AGH Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Greg Hill, Independent Curator, formerly Audain Senior Curator, Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada, and David Penney, Associate Director of Museum scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian." (Taken from Art Gallery of Hamilton website.)
Contents: Foreword, by Shelley Falconer; Shelley Niro Surrenders Nothing Always, by Tobi Bruce; It Starts With a Whisper, by Mesillsa Bennet; Who is Sky Woman? by Madeline Lennon; Calmly and Fearlessly, by Lori Beavis; Becoming Shelley Niro, by Bryce Kanbara; You're Coming with Me, by Nancy Marie Mithlo; An Incredibly Short Interview with Shelley Niro, by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie; An Artist That Uses Beads, by Adriana Greci Green; Shelley Niro Matters, by Greg Hill; Resting with Warriors, by Sally Frater; Shelley Niro Lenses, by David W. Penney; List of Plates; Acknowledgements; Contributor Biographies.
ITEM 2023.003 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
It Starts with a Whisper – Shelley Niro
It Starts with a Whisper – Anna Gronau
Resting With Warriors – Shelley Niro
Sky Woman – Shelley Niro
Waitress – Shelley Niro
Red Heels Hard – Shelley Niro
The Shirt – Shelley Niro
The Shirt – Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
The Shirt – Veronica Passalacqua
Raven's World – Shelley Niro
1779 – Shelley Niro
Thinking Caps – Shelley Niro
Tree – Shelley Niro
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – Miloš Forman
The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw – Shelley Niro
Kissed by Lightning – Shelley Niro
Borders – Shelley Niro
La Pieta – Shelley Niro
This Land is Mime Land – Shelley Niro
Standing on Guard for Thee – Shelley Niro