When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California features contemporary art by First Californians and other American Indian artists with strong ties to the state. Spanning the past five decades, the exhibition includes more than sixty-five works in various media, from painting, sculpture, prints, and photography, to installation and video. More than forty artists are represented, among them pioneers such as Rick Bartow, George Blake, Dalbert Castro, Frank Day, Harry Fonseca, Frank LaPena, Jean LaMarr, James Luna, Karen Noble, Fritz Scholder, Brian Tripp, and Franklin Tuttle, as well as emerging and mid-career artists. Taking cues from their forebears, members of the younger generation often combine art and activism, embracing issues of identity, politics, and injustice to produce innovative—and frequently enlightening—work. The exhibition, along with the accompanying catalogue, transcends borders, with some California artists working outside the state, and several artists of non-California tribes living and creating within its boundaries. Diverse cultural influences coupled with the extraordinary dissemination of images made possible by technology have led to new forms of expression, making When I Remember I See Red a richly layered experience.

Published in association with the Crocker Art Museum

Exhibition dates:
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento: October 20, 2019–January 26, 2020
Institute of American Indian Arts, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe: August 14, 2020–January 3, 2021
Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles: July 18, 2021–February 27, 2022

About the Author

Frank LaPena was an artist, curator, poet, and scholar who was at the center of California Indian art for six decades. He was Professor Emeritus at Sacramento State University.

Mark Dean Johnson is Professor of Art at San Francisco State University. He is also an artist, curator, and scholar.

Kristina Perea Gilmore formerly held the position of Associate Curator at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California.

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Foreward
Edmund G. "Jerry Brown Jr."

Director's Message
Lial A. Jones

Forward
W. Richard "Rick" West Jr.

California Indian Traditional
Tribal Territories

Introduction
The Continuity of Change: The Fifth World
Frank LaPena

Artists

One
Still Here
Malcolm Margolin

Two
Reflecting the Creative Spirit
Julian Lang

Three
San Francisco's American Indian Contemporary Arts, 1983-2000:
A Personal Narrative
Janeen Antoine

Four
A Critical Site: American Indian Art in California
Nicolas G. Rosenthal

Five
American Indian Art at the Crocker Art Museum
Scott A. Shields

Six
Identity Matters in Contemporary Art by Indigenous Women
Kristina Perea Gilmore

Seven
California's Community-Based American Indian Artists
Mark Dean Johnson

Timeline
Governmental Policies, Indian Activism, Community Cultural Development,
and Visual Art Milestones, 1950's-2018
Janeen Antoine and Mark Dean Johnson

Exhibition Checklist
Contributors
Index

Learn More

Visit the Crocker Art Museum exhibition page

Reviews

"From [Frank] LaPena’s lithograph “History of California Indians” to Linda Aguilar’s basket decorated with shells, bingo markers, and cut-up credit cards, the images challenge stereotypes in astonishing ways."
— Alta: The Journal of California

"When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California represents an important confluence of moments, a bridge across generations of artists, thinkers, and cultural practitioners who have been engaged in a conversation that is embodied, multiple, and always happening."
— Native American and Indigenous Studies

"This sumptuously illustrated catalog and the Crocker Art Museum’s glorious exhibition for which it stands are eminent introductions to the astonishing range of contemporary California Indian art and its makers, yet even more significantly, together they retrospectively reveal and announce a landmark event in the history of American art at large. . . .The book displays the magnificent and persuasive evidence of where American Indian art has most fully matured on its own terms."
— American Indian Culture and Research Journal

About the Book