Silence in a Moment is Imagination

Selected Work by Donna R. Charging 

Public opening reception 2/17  from 2-4 PM

On view in the gallery and on our website February 17th-March 17th, 2024

Capacity Contemporary Exchange 

"I approach my oil paintings and works on paper with the understanding that I am generating individual visual representations of personal experiences from having lived on the Reservation.

 

It is not important for me to communicate either one literal personal narrative or identifiable political message to my audience because Native people do not exist in the mainstream of American consciousness in an open, direct way. My life continues to reveal the residual effects of various traditions, concepts, and memories of the Reservation. I address these ideas by layering select images throughout my paintings, prints, and drawings and through ongoing research. 

 

“America” is a makeshift construct. I keep this notion at hand and allow it to guide me as I expose the depths of Native absence and presence; the spare, mysterious quality of my work magnifies the weight of implicit desire and cultural voyeurism. These are themes that I persist in returning to."

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Donna R. Charging is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara). Her mother is Eastern Shoshone. Donna grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming and lives in Louisville, KY. She has a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago and will complete her MFA in Art and Design at the University of Louisville in 2024.