The following description comes from the event organizer.

June 6 - 27, 2024
Opening: Thursday, June 6, 6:00 — 8:00pm
 

In Assimilations, John Feodorov examines his mixed Navajo (Diné) and Euro-American heritage, rooted in the complex history of the United States. Grappling with the enduring legacy of displacement, disconnection, and cultural imposition, his paintings respond to an early 20th-century Christian hymn book written in Navajo, which was passed down to Feodorov by his mother, and was once utilized by Pentecostal missionaries to influence tribal spiritual beliefs. Within their playful yet deliberate color fields, he incorporates the hymns, historical hometown maps, and other Native and American iconography.

“As a teenager, I secretly wondered what it meant to adopt the religion and worldview of the colonizer,” he says. “My unease grew in my early twenties and ultimately led me to split from Christianity. However, I began to recognize that the effects of colonization continued to linger within me despite my early efforts to purge them.”

Displayed with the paintings, a series of prints, titled Ambivalence, reference Feodorov’s love of old Westerns as a child, juxtaposing photographs of family members on horseback with stills of Hollywood Indians being shot off their steeds. Together, this pairing of work bridges personal narrative with broader sociopolitical discourse, prompting critical dialogue about identity, spirituality, and place—especially in the face of ongoing tensions surrounding nationalism, immigration, and decolonization across the country.

This exhibition was supported by a 4Culture Arts Project Grant.