U C R O S S A R T G A L L E R Y
STEVEN J. YAZZIE JEREMY DENNIS DANIELLE SHANDIIN EMERSON
CURATOR: SEAN CHANDLER
PHOTO BY SHAWN PARKER, SHERIDAN COUNTY TRAVEL AND TOURISM
ABOUT UCROSS Ucross fosters the creative spirit of artists and groups by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains while serving as a responsible steward of its historic 20,000-acre ranch. The vast spaciousness of its Wyoming location has a powerful and life-changing impact on artists, writers, composers, choreographers, and collaborative groups. Since its first residencies were awarded in 1983, nearly 3,000 artists have received the gift of time and space at Ucross. The artists featured in The Language of the Land are recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Artists in 2024. Funding for the fellowships and associated public programs have been provided by grants from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund and the Wyoming Arts Council.
(FRONT COVER, TOP TO BOTTOM)
STEVEN J. YAZZIE (DINÉ, PUEBLO OF LAGUNA, EUROPEAN ANCESTRY) WIND CUTS THROUGH IT , 2023 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH 28 X 28 INCHES JEREMY DENNIS (SHINNECOCK INDIAN NATION) ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH TALL BLADES , 2024 16 X 24 INCHES
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT Ucross Foundation acknowledges with respect that it is situated on the aboriginal land of several Indigenous communities, including the Cheyenne, Crow, and Lakota nations. Indigenous people continue to live in this area and practice their teachings and lifeways. Today, this region remains an important place for many Indigenous peoples. As a Wyoming institution, we recognize and respect this historical context and are working to build reciprocal relationships with the Native nations on whose lands we are situated. In partial fulfillment of that commitment, Ucross established Fellowships for Native American Visual Artists in 2017, Writers in 2020, and Performers in 2025. Selected fellows are given a four-week residency on Ucross’s ranch, which includes uninterrupted time, private studio space, living accommodations, and meals by a professional chef. Ucross also provides each fellow with a stipend of $2,000 and the opportunity to present work publicly.
random placement of things around him when he creates his photographs. For example, on his first day there, he observed a ladder leaning against the building where he would reside for two weeks. He immediately saw this as an opportunity to create an interesting piece that perhaps looks like his “invading” of Ucross, as shown in the work, The Present Day . Jeremy’s work places a humorous yet truthful visual on issues that have real impacts on Indigenous People — treaty rights, identity, or interpretations of history. The random opportunities that Dennis finds to, as he says, “sneak our way into the present” create a discourse about non-Natives’ fear of acknowledging treaties signed between the U.S. Government and sovereign tribal nations. When she arrived at Ucross, poet Danielle Shandiin Emerson was immediately struck by the qualities of the rocks. Not only does she have a love of rocks and petrified wood, but these sacred items reminded her of her home. Her words evoke deep emotion, and how she displays them makes one feel the juxtaposition of the sharpness/smoothness of the rocks and the hardness/cushion of the ground. It is with the hardness and softness of our parents’ parental skills or their trauma that we naturally inherit from them and our grandparents. In Sunburnt , she conveys the challenges of her father while she carries the weight of what he had to endure, knowing that eventually, maybe her own children will bear her weight.
During his stay at Ucross, Steven J. Yazzie not only spent time creating but immersed himself in the landscape to “remember where I’m at and remember where I’m from” to acknowledge those Indigenous Peoples’ whose land he is within while empowering his own Diné identity. American Indian people have this deep reverence for the land, whether they are 1,000 miles away from their own People’s ancestral territory or whether they are standing within it. Overall, Steven’s work in this show demonstrates his composition’s sacred abstractness while inserting his interpretation of the natural world to visually manipulate and challenge the viewer’s “perceptions of space.” His photographs of his nation’s landscape hold the lens from which he views his people’s stories and values. Interestingly, he contrasted that with an unknown contemporary voice, who had scrawled an image and English words, demonstrated in the work entitled, No Shit . I suppose each generation must record his or her mark for the next. Photographer Jeremy Dennis recalls his time at Ucross as a freeing and positive reinforcement experience. In his inspired mode, he says he tends to go with the flow of the environment and embraces the
The Language of the Land is how Indigenous Peoples have experienced this land from which we were created, the Americas. We may call it: ‘ki, dinétah or byíít ʔʔ ɔ́ wuh. Since the beginning of time, all of our senses have known earth, its grasses, its dirt, its living beings, its rocks, its rivers, its air, its spirit, and its teachings. The land holds our identity, our stories, and our truth about ourselves. Much later in time, our land would witness misconceptions held by others, which have tried to redefine Indigenous People. As I sit here writing about these amazing artists, photographers, and poets of life, I feel the weight of their own feelings, philosophies, traumas, and their strength to express themselves within their respective works. Months ago, when I was immersing myself in the potential work for this exhibition, there was a common link that connected them — the land. The 2024 recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists and Writers, Steven J. Yazzie (Diné/ Pueblo of Laguna, European Ancestry), Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock), and Danielle Shandiin Emerson (Diné), are outstanding communicators of a language that informs audiences to enter each of their respective experiences in contemporary society.
She stated, “people need to heal,” and she wanted to help her brother.
When we have heard and spoken the language of the land, we are always timelessly connected to the land wherever we travel, wherever we go, wherever we pray, and wherever we think. Chances are, these are places where our ancestors lived, died, cried, danced, sang, and received their names.
To do that, she began a program in clinical psychology, but upon enrolling in an introductory fiction writing class, she found her voice that she had been expressing in her youth. It turns out that she is healing people in her creative writing and poetry, just as she would have been doing had she chosen a path in clinical psychology. Steven, Jeremy, and Danielle all conveyed, with their own unique voices, how the land speaks to them. These are places familiar to them; they are familiar to all of us. Familiar because we have been there before, and they are places where we still exist. The spiritual connection to these places is not lost to them, for they were born there; we all were. ABOUT THE CURATOR Sean Chandler is an artist and enrolled member of the Aaniinen (Gros Ventre Nation). He is also the President of Aaniiih Nakoda College located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. In 2016, Sean was appointed to the Montana Arts Council, and in 2022, he was appointed to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Sean acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Art in 1997, as well as a Master of Arts in Native American Studies in 2003 from Montana State University-Bozeman. He also attained a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from The University of Montana in 2014. He has always been involved in art, starting at an early age when his father taught him the traditional arts of his ancestors, including hide and tipi painting. Integrating those early teachings, Sean voices his own style to communicate the contemporary life he lives. Themes of racism, loneliness, depression, anger, humor, stereotypes, sovereignty, dependency, and cultural genocide reside within his work. Sean’s work has been collected by the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis, MN, and the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, MT. Most recently, Sean was selected as one of five artists for the 2023 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship of the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. He resides in Harlem, Montana, where he creates most of his artwork in his home studio.
SEAN CHANDLER (Aaniiih)
I would like to thank Ucross’s leadership and staff for having the confidence in me to participate as a curator of this exhibit. I would also like to thank Steven, Jeremy, and Danielle; I have been honored to be involved with these great creatives. They have the power to find the words, designs, or thoughts to put into a poem or photograph to speak to the power of the language of the land. Like them, I also had a stay at Ucross and experienced many of the same feelings that they have expressed, specifically in terms of the solitude and freedom that exists in that space and place of Ucross. Most importantly, these artists made me feel emotions that I tend to keep close to myself; this is an impactful exhibit to bring to the public. I hope it brings viewers what it has brought me, for it is the language of the land that heals.
— Sean Chandler, (Aaniiih)
Curator, The Language of the Land
“UCROSS IS A PLACE WHERE THE MIND CAN ROAM FREELY AND CREATIVITY CAN FLOURISH. IT CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM WITHIN THE VAST AND EXPANSIVE LANDSCAPE.”
— Steven J. Yazzie, (Diné, Pueblo of Laguna, European Ancestry)
Spring 2024 Recipient, Ucross Fellowship for Native American Artists
STEVEN J. YAZZIE CANYON, 2023 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH 20 X 44 INCHES
Through my photography, I engage in a meditative exploration of place, weaving together concepts of identity, memory, and perception. My process often parallels my video work, capturing still images alongside moving footage as a way to reframe and deepen my experiences in the environment. These images serve dual purposes: documenting the tangible while searching for an enigmatic quality that transcends the immediate and connects to something immense and ineffable. Photography, with its ability to create illusions of boundless time and space, becomes a tool for contemplating the natural world and its layered meanings. It reveals landscapes not just as physical terrains but as politicized, bureaucratic, or metaphorically sacred spaces. Each image challenges the viewer to consider the tensions between the natural and constructed, the ephemeral and eternal, and the personal and collective. The post-production process is integral to my practice, serving as a creative space where the inexplicable in an image is accentuated. Experimenting with color tones, textures, and compositing, I construct multi-layered narratives that blend observation and imagination. An example of this is my work, Canyon , a composite created from drone footage. In editing, I was struck by the stark contrast between the black shadows of slot canyons and the sunlit, washed- out landscape, evoking the night sky. By juxtaposing the canyon with a starry expanse, the image transforms into a dialogue between earth and cosmos, light and dark. The canyon’s shadows frame the stars like a natural canvas, a reminder of the interplay between opposing forces and the beauty born of their interaction. Through this practice, I aim to offer viewers a deeper contemplation of the natural world, challenging perceptions of place and inviting reflection on the connections between the material and the infinite. STEVEN J. YAZZIE (Diné, Pueblo of Laguna, European Ancestry)
(FACING PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM)
HOW TO SEE, 2023 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH 28 X 28 INCHES TOWARD BEAUTY, 2023 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH 28 X 28 INCHES FALLING, 2023 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH 28 X 28 INCHES
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GERALD PETERS CONTEMPORARY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Steven J. Yazzie (b. 1970) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, installation, video/film, photography, and community collaboration. Steven is a member of the Navajo Nation and a veteran of the Gulf War, serving honorably with the United States Marine Corps, 1988-1992. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Intermedia at Arizona State University and was named 2014 Outstanding Graduate for the Herberger Institute for Design and Art. Steven was a Community Scholar for the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (in)Equality, University of Denver, Colorado, 2019-20. Additionally, Steven was a founding member of Postcommodity, an indigenous arts collective, and the co-founder of the Museum of Walking. Steven’s notable exhibitions include the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Phoenix Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Tucson Museum of Art, AZ. Steven has been selected for the 2025 Sharjah Biennial 16, UAE. Steven has participated in residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME; Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art Winnipeg, Canada; Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Social Engagement Residency, Santa Fe, NM; Native Artist in Residence, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; and Center for the Future, Slavonice, Czech. Steven is a 2022 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow, Indianapolis, IN, and a 2024 recipient of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Artists, Ucross, WY. He lives and works in Denver, CO.
DANIELLE SHANDIIN EMERSON (Diné) Growing up, my father used to read car manuals to me. In the kitchen, he’d sit me on his lap and go over engine maintenance instructions. I’d watch as his calloused fingers flipped through yellowed pages — or so I’m told. I don’t remember him ever reading me car manuals, but throughout my life, especially once I developed a deep, early love for reading and writing, he’d tell people, “I used to read Danielle car manuals when she was little.” The more he said it, the more I believed it. Even now, sometimes I use it in icebreakers. When I think of storytelling, I think about my grandmother, my father, and my uncle. They all did artwork. My father and grandmother sculpted with clay, while my uncle painted. I was amazed by all the stories they told through their artwork. As a Diné family, storytelling has always been at the heart of our being. During the winter, my siblings and I gathered around a cast-iron stove, soaking in the fire’s warmth and our grandmother’s words. We were told stories about the animals, the seasons, the Díyin Diné’é (Holy People), their early lives, and their time out chasing cattle. Through my maternal grandparents, I was told stories about the earth, about farming and caring for plants, about the animals during the winter, and about the constellations — my cheii (maternal grandfather) used to tell us, “When Dilyéhé (the Seven Sisters, but more commonly known as the Pleiades) is in the sky, that’s when you start planting.” As I got older, my father began to rely on me and my love for written words. I edited his resume. I deciphered tricky government documents. I double-triple-quadruple- checked his spelling while he filled out paper job applications. And somewhere down the line, I started writing my own creative pieces. In third grade, my teacher made me stand at the front of the class and read a short story I wrote about a fox who didn’t know spring. I remember she called it cute. I think she kept the book. Elementary-school Danielle was so flattered that she didn’t hesitate to give her story away. I regret not keeping it, not hugging it closer to my chest. I write to strengthen my voice. I write about what I desperately needed to talk about as a child. I write to heal, or to reach something close to healing. I write to feel closer to home and my culture. In undergrad, I realized why I write: If I can help those who feel the
same way as me — lost and silenced by trauma or by family or longing for home, familiarity, and understanding — then maybe one day, we’ll all be in a better place. This feeling of wanting to be in a better place, of reaching something close to healing and writing about what needs to be said, is stitched at my core. My father read car manuals to me because I didn’t have access to literature written by Native and Indigenous women. It’s important to me, as a Diné woman, that Native and Indigenous voices are uplifted. I’d love to contribute to a growing storm of published Native and Indigenous writing — to tell the stories I’ve been wanting to write for months, if not years. I want to craft the types of stories that reach both beyond and within my past, my home, my culture, my loved ones, and the car manuals supposedly read to me as a child. This is why I’m a proud fiction writer, poet, and playwright. Ahe’hee’. Regions, these subjects are my friends and relatives. Together we stage photographs to tell stories that we feel (together) are important and give back to our Native community. My photographs explore our collective Native histories, and the ways in which our indigeneity expresses itself in modern times. I firmly believe Native peoples are as Indigenous today as we were prior to the advent of colonialism.
ABOUT THE ARTIST Danielle Shandiin Emerson is a Diné writer from Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Tłaashchi’i (Red Cheek People Clan), born for Ta’neezaahníí (Tangled People Clan). She has a BA in Education Studies and a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She has received support from GrubStreet, Lambda Literary, The Diné Artisan + Author Capacity Building Institute, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and Sundress Publications. She has work published and/or forthcoming from swamp pink, Uncharted
Magazine, Poets.org, Yellow Medicine Review, Thin Air Magazine, The Chapter House Journal, and others. Her writing centers on healing, kinship, language-learning, and family. Danielle also writes personal narrative and short fiction.
SHALE ALONG, SHÍTSILÍ & SHÍ . 2024 POEM ON ACRYLIC PANEL 28 X 28 INCHES
JEREMY DENNIS (Shinnecock Indian Nation)
My photography explores Indigenous identity, cultural assimilation, and the ancestral traditional practices of my tribe, the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Though science has solved many questions about natural phenomena, questions of identity are more abstract, and the answers more nuanced. My work is a means of examining my identity and the identity of my community, specifically the unique experience of living on a sovereign Indian reservation and the problems we face. Digital photography lets me create cinematic images. Nowhere have Indigenous people been more poorly misrepresented than in American movies. My images question and disrupt the post-colonial narrative that dominates film and media and results in damaging stereotypes, such as the “noble savage” depictions in Disney’s Pocahontas . As racial divisions and tensions reach a nationwide fever pitch, it’s more important to me than ever to offer a complex and compelling representation of Indigenous people. I like making use of the cinema’s tools, the same tools directors have always turned against us — curiously familiar representations, clothing that makes a statement, pleasing lighting — to create conversations about uncomfortable aspects of post-colonialism. For example, in my 2016 project, Nothing Happened Here , stylized portraits of non- Indigenous people impaled by arrows symbolize, in a playful way, the “white guilt” many Americans have carried through generations and the inconvenience of co-existing with people their ancestors tried to destroy. By looking to the past, I trace issues that plague Indigenous communities back to their source. For example, research for my ongoing project, On This Site, entailed studying archaeological and anthropological records, oral stories, and newspaper archives. The resulting landscape photography honors Shinnecock’s 10,000-plus years’ presence in Long Island, New York. Working on that collection has left me with a better understanding of how centuries of treaties, land grabs, and colonialist efforts to white-wash Indigenous communities have led to our resilience, our ways of interacting with our environment, and the constant struggle to maintain our autonomy. Despite 400 years of colonization, we remain anchored to our land by our ancient stories. The Indigenous mythology that influences my photography grants me access to the minds of
my ancestors, including the value they placed on our sacred lands. By outfitting and arranging models to depict those myths, I strive to continue my ancestors’ tradition of storytelling and showcase the sanctity of our land, elevating its worth beyond a prize for the highest bidder.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jeremy Dennis is a contemporary fine art photographer, an enrolled Tribal Member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, New York, and lead artist and founder of the nonprofit Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc. Jeremy holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, New York. In his work, he explores Indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation. Jeremy was among 10 recipients of a 2016 Dreamstarter Grant from Running Strong for American Indian Youth for his project, On This Site — Indigenous Long
Stories, From Where We Came , The Department of Art Gallery, Stony Brook University; Trees Also Speak , Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College, Old Westbury, NY; Nothing Happened Here , Flecker Gallery, Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY; On This Site: Indigenous People of Suffolk County , Suffolk County Historical Society, Riverhead, NY; and Pauppukkeewis , Zoller Gallery, State College, PA. Jeremy has participated in residencies at Ucross Foundation, Andy Warhol Visual Arts Program, SmokeSygnals, Lightworks, Santa Fe Art Institute, Yaddo, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, MDOC Storytellers’ Institute, Saratoga Springs, New York, Byrdcliffe Art Residency, Eyes on Main Street Residency & Festival, Wilson, NC, Watermill Center, Watermill, New York, and the Vermont Studio Center hosted by the Harpo Foundation. He lives and works in Southampton, New York, on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.
Island , which uses photography and an interactive online map to showcase culturally significant Native American sites on Long Island. He also created a book and exhibition from this project. In 2020, Jeremy received Dreamstarter GOLD from Running Strong for American Indian Youth. Most recently, Jeremy received the Artist2Artist Fellowship from the Art Matters Foundation in New York, New York. Jeremy is also known for his ongoing 2018 series, Rise and Nothing Happened Here. These works present themes of belonging, reconciliation, decolonization, and invisibility to the viewer from an Indigenous lens. In 2013, Jeremy began working on the Stories — Indigenous Oral Stories, Dreams, and Myths series. Inspired by North American Indigenous stories, the artist staged supernatural images that transform these myths and legends into depictions of an actual experience in a photograph. Jeremy has been part of several group and solo exhibitions, including So Spoke the Earth, the Past, and the Present , Mason Gross Galleries at Rutgers University, NJ; Stories — Dreams, Myths, and Experiences , The Parrish Art Museum’s Road Show;
HAUNTED HOUSE , 2024 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT
BIKE RIDE 2 , 2024 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT
PHOTOGRAPH 16 X 24 INCHES
PHOTOGRAPH 44 X 66 INCHES
(THIS PAGE) JEREMY DENNIS (SHINNECOCK INDIAN NATION) MOCCASINS , 2024 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PHOTOGRAPH 16 X 24 INCHES
(BACK COVER) DANIELLE SHANDIIN EMERSON (DINÉ) ON MY FINGERS , 2024 POEM PRINTED ON ACRYLIC PANEL 33 X 20 INCHES
“I AM GRATEFUL FOR THE TIME, RESOURCES, AND SPACE UCROSS HAS PROVIDED.”
— Jeremy Dennis, (Shinnecock Indian Nation), Spring 2024 Recipient
Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists
JANUARY 29 - MAY 10, 2025 APRIL 18, FREE & OPEN TO ALL 11 a.m. ARTIST TALK, Sheridan College 6 p.m. EXHIBITION RECEPTION, Ucross Art Gallery
The Language of the Land will also appear at
YELLOWSTONE ART MUSEUM June 20 - October 5, 2025
2401 N. 27th St, Billings, MT 59101 406.256.6804 artmuseum.org
GALLERY & CAFÉ HOURS: Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This project is supported in part by an award from the Wyoming Arts Council, with funding from the Wyoming State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
30 Big Red Lane, Clearmont, WY 82835 | 307.737.2291 | info@ucross.org | ucross.org
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker