interTribal series

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stormy interTribal contemporary Indigenous Native American abstract expressionist acrylic painting with tribal geometry circles adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (brown, grey, pink, black and gold color)

contemporary Native American abstract expressionist and pan-tribal geometric painting by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (green, yellow, white, black and copper color)

trickster tail - acrylic on canvas abstract painting by Native Canadian painter Winter Brown

dark matter 1 contemporary Indigenous Native American abstract expressionist washed acrylic painting with tribal geometry circles adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (black and bronze colors)

untitled stardust with red chevron contemporary Native American abstract expressionist washed acrylic painting with tribal geometric chevron adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (red, black, grey and bronze color)

osihchikewin 4 contemporary Indigenous Native American abstract expressionist washed acrylic painting with tribal geometry chevron adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (copper and white colors

untitled grey with gold zigzag contemporary Native American abstract expressionist painting with pan-tribal geometric chevron adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (dark blue and gold color)

untitled grey with red dots contemporary Native American abstract expressionist painting with pan-tribal geometric circle adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (dark blue and red color)

These paintings feature grounds painted with color fields and/or free-flowing washes that are then adorned with what I call 'interTribal' patterns.

These pan-tribal geometric designs draw from both contemporary and historical First Nations traditional regalia and items. I've been particularly impacted by very contemporary things I've seen during much time spent on the pow-wow trail, and while researching pre-colonial items in museum collections. Additionally, my artworks most often contain an expression of genetic memory, and always of interaction with the Spirit world.

In this series I'm both seriously embracing and (often playfully) exploring what's considered (visually) tribal. In my contemporary slants on traditional tribal geometries, some patterns become interrupted, are left incomplete, or are arranged with more irregularity than commonly found in traditional patterns. Others are embedded with unexpected and/or digitally generated markings, and so on.

I also enjoy the relationship with and contrast between the expressionistic, organic looking painted grounds and the geometric patterns and shapes. I'm intrigued by how this contrast in and of itself also evokes aspects of more traditional items and genres, and yet can play strongly in the creation of something very contemporary.

In Plains Cree (and other plains Nations) culture/s, the creation of abstract imagery is traditionally a fem-centric activity. In being contemporary extensions of traditional tribal adornment and abstract patterns, my paintings involve recognition, reclamation, honoring and continuation of our Indigenous women’s ancient abstraction practices. This includes, and celebrates, their spiritual nature and their import within both Native and Settler cultures (including their influence on Western modernist painting)

As part of this gynocentric cultural continuance, circles are a central geometry in the interTribal paintings, reflecting the role of circularity in First Nations culture, where everything is seen to happen in or revolve around a circle or circular motion. Even the way time unfolds is understood to be non-linear. This ancient cultural knowledge is now reflected in Western science's more recent ability to see the circle's foundational place in molecular structure of all things, and that time is in fact, not linear. In my artworks, both the circles themselves, and their endless patterning, create what I call a non-linear narratives, alluding to our relationship to time and the Creator.

There's a lovely quote from Black Elk (Oglala Holy Man) about circles:

"You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."

The circles carry additional cultural allegory by functioning as visual and metaphoric portals. They often create multiple realities within one painterly environment, questioning or shifting the viewers perception of which one is more dominant or 'real’, a device that, amongst other things, reflects both Indigenous perceptions of life, and the dichotomies of colonized environments.

They are also inherently satisfying, both aesthetically and as part of my painting process. Additionally, I employ them as an extension of Plains use of circles (predominantly on tipis) to represent the stars. So my paintings, in becoming contemporary symbolic abstractions of fields of stars, further represent the wonder, the unfathomable, and endless potential of the Great Mystery, and within ourselves as part of it.

This use of pan-tribal geometries extends to some of my other series, including the putting on beads and feathers and nikihk series.

Due to repeated unsanctioned appropriation of signature elements of my work, in the interest of protecting work in vulnerable stages of development, I now keep my newest pieces on a private page until they, and/or other closely related works, have been seen in public venues and/or by my peers and/or arts professionals in a context where there is a public record of the production and timeline of signature elements and artworks in my practice.

Feel free to contact me for more info about this.

Interested curators, collectors or other arts professionals may also contact me to request access to private work webpage/s at winter@winter-brown.com.

Hiy hiy,
Bebonkwe ᐱᐳᐣ