Artist Statement
Jamie John is a two-spirit trans and queer Anishinaabe and Korean-American multi-disciplinary artist and powwow dancer (he/him and they/themme) They are a dually enrolled tribal citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the United States of America. Jamie’s cultural and familial background gives a profound sense of kinship and belonging as well as what it means to connect to the land, to our ancestry, and to each other.
From early on, art has been a way of navigating and communicating the complexities of colonialism, Indigenous worldviews, gender variance, and the intergenerational capacity for trauma and joy. The responsibilities Jamie has to their community(ies), kin, and culture is a mindset that extends throughout their body of work. Jamie weaves a tapestry of Native life in the 21st century by drawing upon similarities between Indigenous nations, global steadfast fights for decolonization, and understandings of belonging to land, family, and non-human kin. The centering of lived experience allows for a palpable sense of intimacy and radical vulnerability to permeate throughout his body of work.
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CV/RESUME
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Exhibition history
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education
Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI
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2016
[ ], Phoenix Theatre, Interlochen, MI
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2017
North, Phoenix Theatre, Interlochen, MI
Eclectic, Phoenix Theatre, Interlochen, MI
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2018
Art in Ecology, Dow Center for Visual Arts, Interlochen, MI
Riley Woods, A Space For Art and Ecology, Interlochen, MI
Comparative Arts, Phoenix Theatre, Interlochen, MI
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2019
Us and Ours, Cowell Family Cancer Center, Traverse City, MI
Revolve, Sawdust Theatre, Brooklyn, New York
Interlochen Public Library, Interlochen, MI
When The Ashes Settle, Phoenix Theatre, Interlochen, MI (solo)
Michigan Made, Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center, Lansing MI
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2021
Home Away From Home: American Indian Boarding Schools, Dennos Museum, Traverse City, MI
Ofrenda: Celebrating el Día de Muertos, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, MI
First Americans, The Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts, Manistee, MI
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2022
Outcropping: Indigenous Art Now, Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY
Ma’s House Alumni Show, Ma’s House Shinnecock Indian Nation reservation, Southampton, NY
Indigenous Art Show, Stones Throw Theater, Lapeer MI
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2023
Vitality and Continuity: Art in the experiences of Anishinaabe, Inuit, and Pueblo Women, Dennos Museum Store, MI
See What You Feel, Pines of Arcadia, MI
Family Ties, The Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY
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2024
Kina n’da-nowendaaganag/All My Relations, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Botanic, The Alluvion, Traverse City, MI
Praire Rhonde Gallery Show (joint show with Karen Hampton), Vicksburg, MI
Land Is Body By Another Name, (solo show) Cedar North Classroom Gallery, Cedar, MI
The Long Memory Project, The Alluvion, Traverse City, MI
Waterways, Schingoethe Center of Aurora University, Aurora, IL
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RESIDENCIES
Ailleurs Arts Museum, Shenyang China 2020
Ma’s House, Shinnecock Territory, Long Island, NY 2022
The Long Memory Project, Crosshatch, Cedar, MI 2024
Prairie Ronde Residency, The Mill at Vicksburg, MI, 2024
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OTHER WORKS AND PUBLICATIONS
Publication, Prairie Light Review, Volume 42, no.1 2019
Muralist, Megan Hildebrant & Patty Smith, Interlochen, MI 2017-2019
Featured speaker and guest educator, Decolonizing STEM, Interlochen, MI 2020
Written and artistic publication, Prairie Light Review, Volume 43, no.1 2020
Junior camp instructor, Visual Arts Exploration, Interlochen, MI 2021
Guest Lecture, Interdisciplinary Arts, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI 2021-2022
Featured Artist, Millersville University, Ford Atrium, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Awareness Gathering 2022
Great Lakes Children’s Museum, Muralist and commissioned artist, Leelanau, Michigan 2022
Junior camp instructor, Visual Arts Exploration, Interlochen, MI, 2022
A Kernel Of Truth, Frankfort 48 Film Challenge, credited screenwriter, 2022
Guest studio artist, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI 2022-2023
Guest Educator, Leelanau Montessori Public School, Leelanau, MI 2023
Mural assistant for Hadassah Greensky, part of City Walls Detroit, Detroit, MI 2023
Designed and painted cover for Shaun Phuah’s poetry book, The Year of Hunger, 2024
Muralist, Alluvion, Traverse City, MI, July 2024
Muralist at the Pleasant Peninsula Festival, Grand Rapids, MI, August 2024
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ACCOLADES & FELLOWSHIPS
Presidents Young Artists Award, Intelochen, MI 2019
Elizabeth Charles Emerging Artists Award, Lansing, MI 2020
Sundance Institute Full Circle Fellow, Salt Lake City, UT 2021-2022
Cousin Collective grant recipient, Cycle II, 2022
Trans Possibilities Initiative Sundance Fellow 2023