Cherokee Nation
www.ahalenia.com
As a Swedish-Cherokee artist, America blends traditional styles from Native America and Europe with pop imagery of her childhood. Her influences range from the Bacone school of painting, the Arts and Crafts movement, 60s cartoons, to Moundbuilder shell engravings. She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and a hereditary member of Aniwodi, the Red Paint Clan. The Cherokee language and syllabary figure prominently in her work, as they are the strongest visual imagery unique to her tribe. She works in pen and ink, serigraphy, monotype printing, and beadwork, but her primary focus is painting – in acrylic, egg tempera, gouache, and watercolor. Splitting her time between Oklahoma, Santa Fe, and San Francisco, America earned her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and her BFA from the University of Oklahoma. She has shown throughout the United States and in Canada and Europe in the last thirteen years and has won awards at the Heard and SWAIA's Indian Market as well as at numerous competitive shows. She won the IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts in 2007 and was voted SF Weekly’s Painter of the Year in 2006.
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Solo Exhibitions 2007 At the Crossroads, East Gallery, Oklahoma State Capitol, Oklahoma City, OK 2006-7 Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, NM. Catalog 2006 Between Cultures: Conflict and Common Ground, North 4th Art Center, Albuquerque, NM 2005 San Francisco Art Institute Graduating MFA Show, Herbst Pavilion, Fort. Mason Center, San Francisco, CA. Catalog 2004 Loyal, Lomega Lion's Club Building, Loyal, OK 2003 Solo Exhibition, Indianapolis University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Cultural Arts Gallery, Indianapolis, IN 2001-2 Solo Exhibition, Southern Plains Indian Museum, Anadarko, OK. Catalog Selected Group Exhibitions 2009 Indian Market, SWAIA, Santa Fe, NM. Annual participant since 2003 Fueled by Color: Three Cool Chicks Art Show, Third Street Arts, Albuquerque, NM. With Marla Allison and Melissa Melero 42nd Annual Red Cloud Art Show, Red Cloud Museum and Heritage Center, Pine Ridge, SD United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Art Show, United Nations, New York, NY 4 Seasons: 4 Women, Arkansas Valley Art Center, Buena Vista, CO. With Heidi Bigknife, Kelly Church, and Linda Lomahaftewa Unconquered Imagination, Okalee Contemporary Art Gallery, Seminole Tribe of Florida. Curated by Will Wilson Heard Museum Indian Art Market, Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ. Annual participant since 2004 From the Woodlands, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO. With Sallyann Paschall Mementos and Milestones, Lloyd Kiva New Gallery, IAIA Museum, Santa Fe NM. With Kelly Church and Tammy Rahr. 2008 Creatures and Spirits of American Indian Lore, Standing Buffalo Gallery, Norman, OK Cherokee Nation Intertribal Art Market, Catoosa, OK. Annual participant since 2006 Blazing Saddles, Pop Gallery, Santa Fe, NM My Way, Humble Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Cherokee Homecoming, Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah, OK. Annual participant since 1995, except 2001 From the Four Directions, SOMA Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA Speaking from the Earth, Think Visual, Point Arena, CA Trail of Tears Art Show, Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah, OK. Annual participant since 1995 Year of the Rat, Humble Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Graphic Storytelling as Activism, Euphrat Museum of Art, Cupertino, CA 2007-8 Current Realities: a dialogue with the People, IAO Gallery, Oklahoma City, OK; Southern Plains Indian Museum, Anadarko, OK; Living Arts of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 2005-8 Impacted Nations, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY. Traveling exhibit. 2007 Internal Exile, SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2007 %$(# Art Let's Ride, This Is Not a Shop, Dublin, Ireland The Plants Are Our Allies: New Work by Seven Cherokee Artists, Gary Farmer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Looking Indian, Untitled Art Space, Oklahoma City, OK. Catalog Do Not Park Bicycles: Aboriginal Bike Culture, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Catalog America the Beautiful, Steckline Gallery of Newman University, Wichita, KS Art from Indian Territory: 2007 the state of being American Indian, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford, OK; Southern Plains Indian Museum, Anadarko, OK; Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City, OK. Catalog American Icons through Indigenous Eyes, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC Green Art Show, Myers Studio, Tahlequah, OK. Catalog 2006 Highlights from the Bill Wiggins' Collection of Native American Art, Gallery I and 11 of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR Columbuscide, IAIA Museum, Santa Fe, NM Lawrence Indian Arts Show, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS Relations: Indigenous Dialogue, IAIA Museum, Santa Fe, NM Humor Without Reservations, Tribes Gallery, Norman, OK Native Pop, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM Welcome Back, Art SF, San Francisco, CA 2005-6 Earth and Sky, City Arts, Oklahoma City, OK. With Ben Harjo and Charlie Pratt. Ghosts of Little Boy: Artists for Peace, NJAHS Peace Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2005 Postcard Show, The Lab, San Francisco, CA Native American Contemporary Art, Jewish Community Center Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA Lawrence Indian Art Show, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS Shaking the Tree, Lloyd Kiva New Gallery, IAIA Museum, Santa Fe, NM. With Heidi Bigknife Native American Voices, Friends Gallery, Pasadena, CA Instinctual Distractions, Ar+space Gallery, San Francisco, CA Belief, Art SF, San Francisco, CA 2004 Ad-Hoc, Crucible Steel Gallery, San Francisco, CA Cahokia Mounds Contemporary Indian Art Show, Cahokia Mounds Museum, Collinsville, IL Red Earth Festival, Red Earth Indian Center, Oklahoma City, OK Contemporary Cherokee Art, Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah, OK 2003 Eiteljorg Indian Art Market, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN 4 Views, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM Green Before Spring, Whitney Young Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA 2000 Five Civilized Tribes Art Show, Five Civilized Tribes Museum, Muskogee, OK. Annual participant 1995-2000 1999 Watercolour Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy of Drama and Art, Glasgow, UK Eilbotekultur, Lucky Sevens, Zurich, Switzerland Three Sisters, Jacobson House, Norman, OK Locals, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA Exhibitions Curated 2009 Sweat: Native American Provocative, Max’s, Santa Fe, NM 2008 Anti Anti Anti Anti, Hall of Flowers, San Francisco, CA 2007 Regeneration, Hall of Flowers, San Francisco, CA Velocity: The Art of San Francisco Bike Messengers, Balazo 18 Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2006 Frybread and Roses: The Art of Native American Labor, traveling exhibit. Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah, OK; Daily Brews Café and Gallery, Wayland, MI; Counterpulse Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Included poetry readings and drum performance Insubordination, Hall of Flowers, San Francisco, CA 2005 Haunted, Crucible Steel Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004 Facing East: Cherokee Art in the New Indian Territory, Red Earth Indian Center, Oklahoma City, OK 2002 Deliverance, Lo-Fi Gallery, San Francisco, CA Friends of Thunder: A Celebration of Cherokee Culture, Jacobson House, Norman, OK. Catalog and art market 2000 Right of Way, Space 4040, Philadelphia, PA 1999 Da: Half of a Surrealist Movement, Epicenter Zone, San Francisco, CA 1996 Cycle Messenger World Championships Art Show, Acme Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1993 Laughing at the Face of Death, Komotion Gallery, San Francisco, CA Awards And Honors 2009 SWAIA Indian Market, First Place, Abstract Watercolor Painting National Museum of the American Indian, Visiting Artist Fellowship Red Cloud Indian Art Show, Second Place, Painting Division II Trail of Tears Show, Honorable Mention, Painting Division 2008 Cherokee Art Market, Best of Division and Second Best of Class San Francisco Arts Commission, Native American Arts and Cultural Traditions Individual Artist Grant Trail of Tears Show, Honorable Mention 2007 Cherokee Homecoming, Judge's Choice Award SWAIA Indian Market, IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts SWAIA Indian Market, First Place, Realistic Acrylic Painting 2006 SWAIA Indian Market, First Place, Abstract Watercolor Painting SF Weekly, Best SF Painter of 2006 (tied with Mitsy Avila Ovalles) Trail of Tears Show, Honorable Mention, Painting Heard Museum Indian Art Market, Honorable Mention, Painting 2005 Cherokee Homecoming, Honorable Mention, Painting SWAIA Indian Market, First Place, Opaque Water-Based Miniature Painting San Francisco Art Institute, Graduate Fellowship, 2002-5 2004 SWAIA Indian Market, Third Place, Opaque Water-Based Painting, Realistic Cahokia Mounds Contemporary Art Show, Third Place, 2-D Art Trail of Tears Show, First Place, Painting Division Heard Museum Indian Art Market, Honorable Mention, Painting 2003 SWAIA Indian Market, First Place, Opaque Water-Based Painting, Realistic SWAIA Indian Market, Second Place, Opaque Water-Based Miniature Painting Eiteljorg Indian Art Market, Honorable Mention, Painting Division 2001 Cherokee Homecoming, First Place in Visual Arts Division 2000 Cherokee Homecoming, Honorable Mention, Painting Division 1999 Five Civilized Tribes Show, Honorable Mention, Graphics Division 1998 Five Civilized Tribes Show, First Place in Painting Division 1997-8 City College of San Francisco, Native American Students Organization, Vice-President and Princess Teaching Experience 2008-9 Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Adjunct instructor of Native American Art History 2003 Cherokee Humanities Course, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. Presented eight one-hour slide lectures on contemporary Cherokee visual art with handouts Presentations 2009 Presentation of Historical Cherokee and Ancient Southeast Art Work, Tahlequah OK, sponsored by the Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council, and Standing Buffalo Gallery, Norman OK. National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC. Presentation of personal artwork. With Kelly Church, Tommy Joseph, and Debbie Head. Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe NM. “The Cherokee Spokespeople Project: Bikes, Language, and Art” as part of the Intellectual Capital lecture series Institute of American Indian Arts, “Facing Stereotypes.” With Ryan Singer and Melissa Cody. Fort Lewis College, Durango CO. Lecture about Edmonia Lewis, Angel DeCora, and Ellen Neel. 2008 American Indian Culture and Education Program, Ways of Our Ancestors Camp, Briones Regional Park, Orinda. Three craft classes for elementary school children. Cherokee Humanities Course, Tahlequah, OK. One-hour discussion about Cherokee values in personal work with digital images University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Two one-hour lectures with handouts about the evolution of tribal governments in tandem with federal Indian policy Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. Cherokee Art History, 18th Century to Present, presented to the Stanford Cherokee Student Organization 2007 De Anza College, Cupertino, CA. Three one-hour slide presentations about Cherokee Art History 2007 De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. Watercolor painting demonstration Cherokee Society of the Greater Bay Area, Berkeley, CA. Slide lecture about Cherokee Art History, ]8th Century to the Present 2005-6 University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Interactive art piece about Native American identity, slide lecture on personal artwork 2005 City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Five slide lectures about personal art University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ. Four days of monotype and linocut printing demonstrations. One-hour slide lecture about personal artwork Cherokee Humanities Course, Park Hill, OK. Discussion about personal artwork. 2004 DeAnza College, Cupertino, CA. Three one-hour slide lectures about personal art 2003 Studio Gallery, Hays, KS. Slide lecture about contemporary Native American art 2002 Jacobson House, Norman, OK. Slide lecture about personal artwork 1997 Friends of St. Francis School, San Francisco, CA. Presentation about Cherokee culture 1997 Park Presidio Pre-School, San Francisco, CA. Presentation about Cherokee culture 1996 Moscone School, San Francisco, CA. Presentation about Native American cultures 1995 Institute of American Indian Art Museum, Santa Fe, NM. Native Voices Reading Series 1994 Westminster Middle School, Oklahoma City, OK. Lecture about current issues in Native America Gallery Representation Okalee Contemporary Art Gallery, Seminole Tribe of Florida, 34725 W. Boundary Rd., Clewiston, FL 33440. Robin Kilgo, curator, (893) 902.1113 or email: RobinKilgo@semtribe.com Standing Buffalo Gallery,
106 E. Main Street, Norman, OK 73069. Tom Farris, owner, 405.818.7238,
standingbuffalogallery@ Selected Bibliography Bear, Mariah, executive ed., American Indian: Celebrating the Voices, Traditions & Wisdom of Native Americans. San Francisco: Gold St. Press, 2008: 266-7. Blomberg, Nancy J., ed. [Re]inventing the Wheel. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2008: 122-3. DeFrange, Ann. "Cherokee Spokes Woman: Oklahoma native gives voice to many in San Francisco." Daily Oklahoman, 20.September.2005: E- I Diaz, RoseMary. "Send in the Clowns." Santa Fean, August.2003: 174-5 Fauntleroy, Gussie. "Groundbreakers: America Meredith, Painting in Cherokee." Native Peoples, Jan/Feb.2008: 36-7 Fogelson, Raymond D., volume editor. Handbook of the North American Indians, V. 14. Southeast. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 2004: 752, 765 Garrigues, Lisa. "Cherokee artist America Meredith puts words on wheels." Indian Country Today. 25.July.2007: I Harjo, Suzan Shown. "A Generation of Innovation." Santa Fean Indian Market Magazine, August.2007: 117,211 Lippard, Lucy. "Out of the Box." Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith, Santa Fe NM: Wheelwright Museum, 2006: 5-8 Martin, Charles. "Animatribe." Oklahoma Gazette, 2 I.February.2007: 46 Pleshaw, Gregory. "Faceoff." New Mexican: Winterlife, Winter 2006 Pleshaw, Gregory. "Tribes + Tribulations." Santa Fean Indian Market Magazine, August.2006: 197-199 Power, Susan C. Art of the Cherokee: Prehistory to Present. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 2007: 201 Randall, Teri Thomson. "America Meredith: shattering stereotypes with cartoons." The New Mexican, 22- 23 August 2003: 74-75 Sardy, Marin. “American Meredith on Painting and Cherokee Pride.” Santa Fean Indian Market Magazine. August/September 2009: 67-8. Stevens, Amanda. "Art Draws Inspiration from Ancestors." Rio Rancho Journal, 8.September.2006: 3 Swanhuyser, Hiya. "Look Carefully: Art that goes bump in the night." SF Weekly, 27.April.2005: 53 Swindell, Carol. "America Meredith artwork to be showcased in museum." Anadarko Daily News, 16.November.2001: 1 Walker, Amy. "Artist American Meredith Gives Spoke Cards a Cherokee Spin." Momentum #28, May- June.2007: 19 Wasserman, Shoshana. "Earth and Sky." Art Focus Oklahoma, Nov ember/December.2005: 1,8 Weideman, Paul. "Of different minds and mixed legacies: America Meredith, Visible and Indivisible." Pasatiempo: 17-23.November.2006: 41, 43 Woodard, Joseph. "Rare, Native American Visions." Santa Barbara News Press, October.2005 "Art from the Three Sisters Show." Femspec, 2.2: 2001 "America Meredith: Paintings." SPIMA News, November.2002: 5 "Loyal Art Show." Watonga Republican, 7.July.2004: 4 Education 2003-5 MFA, Painting, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA 2000-2 BFA with Distinction, Painting, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 1996-2000 AA, Applied Art, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 1996 University of Science and Arts in Oklahoma, Chickasha, OK 1995 Institute of American Indians Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
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