The World Stage:

Contemporary Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

March 6 – July 11, 2021

Featuring 90 contemporary artworks by 37 American artists of diverse backgrounds, The World Stage showcases prominent names from the 20th-century art canon alongside today’s global influencers. The exhibition title is borrowed from the name of a series of paintings by Kehinde Wiley, an artist best known for his presidential portrait of Barack Obama, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. The selected works comprise a variety of media, from painting to installation, with a special focus on original prints made in a wide range of techniques. The World Stage includes works by some of the most influential American artists from the past 50 years, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Vija Celmins, Willie Cole, Helen Frankenthaler, Joe Feddersen, Mildred Howard, Jeff Koons, Jacob Lawrence, Hung Liu, Wendy Red Star, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Kehinde Wiley. The artwork in this exhibition has particular relevance to the current conditions of our world, the major cultural shift in our nation prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the roles of museums and collectors in society during times like this. Each artwork represents the individual experience and perspective of its maker to engage with larger global issues.

Organized by the Nevada Museum of Art

Sponsored by Bev and George Harad

IMAGE | Kehinde Wiley, Marechal Floriano Peixoto II, from The World Stage: Brazil series, 2009, Oil on canvas, 107 x 83 inches. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of Roberts Projects.

The World Stage: BINGO
Many artists use common objects to explore big ideas in their artworks. Take a closer look at the artworks in The World Stage and see how many ordinary objects you can find.

Download one of these three BINGO cards for details about how to play and enter to win a prize.

Game runs through July 11, 2021.

The World Stage Virtual Artist Talks
In conjunction with this exhibition, BAM is producing three virtual talks. The programs make space for expanded community reflection and dialogue, about history, art history, equity, and our diverse heritage and traditions, during this critical time in our global society.

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Artist Spotlight

Artist Wendy Red Star works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American ideologies and colonialist structures, both historically and in contemporary society. Raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, Red Star’s work is informed both by her heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to incorporate and recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives in work that is at once inquisitive, witty and unsettling. Intergenerational collaborative work is integral to her practice, along with creating a wider forum for the expression of Native women’s voices in contemporary art.

Red Star has exhibited in the United States and abroad at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’ Art Contemporain, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Portland Art Museum, Hood Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, among others. She served as a visiting lecturer at institutions including Yale University, the Figge Art Museum, the Banff Centre, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Dartmouth College, CalArts, Flagler College, and I.D.E.A. Space in Colorado Springs. In 2017, Red Star was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and in 2018 she received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. In 2019 Red Star had her first career survey exhibition at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey.

Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from University of California, Los Angeles. She lives and works in Portland, OR.

Wendy Red Star, iilaalée = car (goes by itself) + ii = by means of which + dáanniili = we parade, 2016, lithograph with archival pigment ink photographs, 24 x 38 inches. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. © Wendy Red Star.

Videos

Wendy Red Star talks about the meaning behind her Four Seasons series (a work of art in BAM’s Permanent Collection) as well as drawing artistic inspiration from everyday life on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana.

“State of the Arts: Wendy Red Star at the Newark Museum”
PBS, March 2019

Wendy Red Star talks about the pageantry of Crow Fest, the inspiration behind two of her prints in The World Stage.

“Wendy Red Star on The World Stage”
Nevada Museum of Art, August 2020

HANDS-ON ACTIVITY
Create a colorful collage featuring someone important to you, inspired by the artwork of Wendy Red Star.

“HPL Craft: Glassell-on-the-Go – Section 2, Project 3: Wendy Red Star”
Houston Public Library, March 2021

Further Reading

Children & Parents | Learning for Justice, online resources for supporting children’s positive engagement with social justice and anti-bias

Young Adults | An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (author), Jean Mendoza, and Debbie Reese (adapters)

Adults | Reconnecting Objects with Their Homes, a social justice module curated by Wendy Red Star as part of the CARE SYLLABUS pilot program, a cross-institutional, multimodal public education resource of MCLA and MASS MoCA

Donate to BAM

BAM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your donations are tax-deductible.

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