American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Indigenous artists have been striving to expand the discursive categorization of their work beyond the inherent limitations of “Indian Art” for decades. Ever since the Red Power movement reawakened indigenous peoples culturally and politically, inspiring them to be heard in their own voices—as opposed to the stereotypes perpetrated by pop culture—artists from all tribes and walks of life have created an impressive body work, capturing the too often overlooked lives and realities of the contemporary indigenous world. Jim Denomie (b. 1955), Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, adds his unique Nanabozho-inspired images, charged with an irrepressible sense of humor and bold insights, to the visual discourse on indigenous culture and history, which he developed growing up in the Philips Neighborhood of Minneapolis, leading the life of a modern, not to mention educated (he has a BFA from the University of Minnesota), urban Indian.