Nicholas Galanin is a Tlingit/Unangax̂ artist whose work offers perspective rooted in connection to land and broad engagement with contemporary culture. Galanin’s works are vessels of knowledge, culture, and technology — inherently political, generous, unflinching, and poetic. He employs diverse materials and processes to expand and forward dialogue on what artistic production is and how it can be used to envision possibility. Galanin allows his concepts to determine his materials and processes. His practice is expansive and includes numerous collaborations with visual and recording artists.

Galanin received a BFA from London Guildhall University in England and an MFA from Massey University in New Zealand. He has also apprenticed with master carvers and jewelers, including his father. Galanin participated in the Venice Biennale in 2017, the Whitney Biennial in 2019, and the Biennale of Sydney in 2020. He was named a United States Artists Rasmuson Foundation USA Fellow in 2012. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Denver Art Museum, LACMA, Peabody Essex Museum, Princeton Art Museum, and Vancouver Art Gallery. Galanin lives and works in Sitka, Alaska.

“The goal of colonization is often consumption and extraction, and then it just continues on. But it’s through memory and connection to places—and sharing that memory and connection—that we can demonstrate, share, and educate about ways of being in a world that are healthy for not just us but our future generations. [My practice involves] challenging what forms of Indigenous art might look like, or how it’s activated through conversation and community.” 

Ashley Holland is the Associate Curator at the Art Bridges Foundation. Prior to her current position, she was the Assistant Curator of Native Art at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis. Holland is also a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Art History at the University of Oklahoma, Norman with a focus on Indigenous identity, cultural memory, and issues of diaspora in Cherokee contemporary art. She received her M.A. in Museum Studies from Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis and B.A. in Art History and Religious Studies from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Holland is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and currently lives in Rogers, Arkansas.