News

The Portland Art Museum has acquired Alison Bremner’s piece, “Two”, for their permanent collection.

“Two” is a pendant from the Potlatch Dollar series. The copper shield, or tináa, was an object of wealth and prestige among the Northwest Coast First Nations people. It was brought out to display during potlatch, and represented more than just the value of the copper. Potlatch Dollars jewelry came out of considering the concept of money, as any self employed artist will do. Tináas once held a money-like value that today is held by dollar bills. A light came on, and Potlatch Dollars were born by superimposing images of money onto copper shields.

Bremner is thrilled to have her work join the Portland Art Museum.

“Two new acquisitions help the British Museum tell the story of the coppers.”

The British Museum’s blog recently published an informative post on copper shields, or tinaás. Alison Bremner’s “Five” pendant from her Potlatch Dollar series is included as one of two new acquisitions.

Bremner’s piece will be on display at the British Museum’s Anthropology Library and Research Centre until December 2014.

http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/10/01/potlatch-coppers-wealth-and-power-on-the-northwest-coast/

Alison Bremner’s work will be shown in the upcoming exhibition, Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired at the Burke Museum in Seattle.

Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired features work by artists whose practice has been inspired by the objects in the Burke’s collections, demonstrating how today’s artists and art historians learn from past generations. The exhibit will include contemporary works in a variety of media alongside the historic pieces that artists identify as key to their learning.

Here & Now celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Bill Holm Center and explores the dynamic relationship between the Burke Museum and the Northwest Native art, artists, and scholars.

The exhibition runs from November 22, 2014 – July 27, 2015.

Alison Bremner is pleased to share she has been accepted for a thematic visual arts residency at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta.

The six week program will take place between November and December of 2014.

“Raymond Boisjoly will facilitate a residency for artists interested in what it means to question “in kind.” This program will offer artists the opportunity to discuss, explore, and understand the questions informing the practices of their fellow participants in proximity to their own concerns.

“In Kind” Negotiations will draw upon diverse perspectives, our own as well as those of others, to consider the idea that there is no particular way things are supposed to have been. From this position, we may begin to articulate current circumstances in order to situate our work as a strategic negotiation of a world in process. In anticipation of a present that will not always be our own, our questioning provides a provisional path outside and beyond things as they are now.

Through self-directed studio investigations, weekly gatherings, screenings, suggested readings, and casual discussions, participants may come to realize the potential of working in relation to one another in a complex, mutually delineated world.” – The Banff Centre website

The Banff Centre is a leading arts incubator located in Banff National Park.

Alison Bremner was selected as the 2014 Santa Fe Indian Market Artist Designed Collection Fellow. In addition to designing the t-shirts and merchandise for the market, Bremner will be selling her work at Booth 623 PLZ.

The Market will take place August 23-24 in the Santa Fe Historic Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

7:00-5:00 Saturday
8:00-5:00 Sunday

The Market is free and open to the public.