Gina Adams is an American interdisciplinary artist and activist of Ojibwe and Lakota descent.
Background
Gina Adams grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and moved to Maine in her early adolescent years. She has a BFA from the Maine College of Art and an MFA from the University of Kansas. She studied visual art, curatorial practice, and critical theory. She was a professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, in the visual arts faculty. She joined Emily Carr University in August of 2019 as Assistant Professor, Foundation. Adams is a descendant of both Indigenous and colonial Americans. Her grandfather was Ojibwe and was forcefully placed and assimilated into Carlisle Boarding school, a residential school for Native Americans. Her grandfathers educational experience continues to shape her own Native identity, as well as her artistic practice. Adams is best known for her antique quilt artwork; however, her work spans a wide range of styles, including mediums such as: sculpture, ceramics, painting, printmaking and drawing.
''The Quilt''
Adams's work revolves around broken treaties between the U.S. and Native American tribes. In the past year her artwork has been published in notable publications such as The New Yorker, Hyperallergic, and The Huffington Post. The quilts are made from old, antique material to demonstrate the connection between language and implied weariness, which still exists in treaties. The sewn quilts embody the deception and violence which is used to marginalize Native Americans in the United States. Her work is a slow, peaceful form of political protest against the settler colonialism and domination over Native Americans, and specifically is a sign of support for the uprising at Standing Rock. The quilts feature intentionally obscure wording to symbolize the contrived and confusing words which have been broken by the U.S. The exhibition “Its Honor is Here Pledged: Broken Treaty Quilts” represents painful, modern moments of white men continuously breaking promises with Native American Tribes. The quilts feature cut up letters of Broken Treaties which promised the tribes money and power in exchange for land, but failed to provide money and instead simply took their land. Her art recognizes the violence of settler colonialism and uses it as a tool of resistance to their control. She incorporates modern aspects into traditional forms of art, illustrating resurgence, to recognize the spirit of survival that has sustained communities. The goal of Adams’ quilts and artwork is to demonstrate the need for change in language and clarity in treaties meant to protect Native Americans, not manipulate them.
Additional work
Gina's work was also featured in the "March Madness" exhibit in the Meatpacking district of New York. Her work displayed vintage photographs of a girls' basketball team at Osage Boarding School; a school which attempted to assimilate Indigenous children by erasing their Native culture. This school denied children the right to speak their native language, and even denied the right to say their own name.
