Jim Denomie

Perhaps best known for his surrealistic painting style and cartoonish, “revisionist” depictions of Native American history and themes, Denomie has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including a 2009 Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art and a 2008 Bush Artist Fellowship. Denomie received a BFA degree from the University of Minnesota in 1995 and has since shown extensively in both Europe and the United States.

Gail Tremblay, artist and instructor at Evergreen State University, described Denomie’s work as that which both “sings and stings.”

“To penetrate Jim Denomie’s work and to engage with its imagery, one has to let go of all stereotypes one has about American Indians and their art,” Tremblay writes in the Eiteljorg-published book “Art Quantum.” “Indeed, few artists poke fun at stereotypes or at the romanticized images of ‘Noble Savages’ or primitive Indians with Denomie’s vigor.”