Native American exhibits prints, paintings in August

Paintings and prints by Al Hubbard, who resides on the Wind River Reservation, are on exhibit in the Robert A. Peck Arts Center Gallery at Central Wyoming College through September 4, when a closing public reception is scheduled from 6-8 p.m.

Hubbard was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho to a Navajo father, a mechanical draftsman, and Northern Arapaho mother, a skilled beadwork artist. Growing up away from both tribal reservations, Hubbard was taught at an early age to be proud of his native bloodlines. It is from both rich native cultures that he interprets the world around him.

His early work is detailed, realistic, and what he calls very mechanical. This style of reflecting his environment drastically changed after enrolling at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.

While earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts, Hubbard was provided with opportunities to experiment with forms of expression that he was careful to appreciate and integrate into his own personal vision.
“Painting and printmaking are the mediums I choose to interpret my surroundings as an artist and human being,” he said. “Printmaking requires degrees of discipline while accepting space for gesture and crude mark making. Painting is the liquid form of drawing that allows a freedom unlike mechanical reproductions of a press.”

His immediate attachment to innovative ways of speaking through the arts was nurtured by a handful of native leaders of their own fields of study. His projects have included everything from installation to printmaking. The unique manipulation of the materials he chooses reflect the complexity of living as a Native American in today’s world.

The Arts Center Gallery is open during regular college business hours.