Upcoming Exhibition
Sean Chandler: The One Defined to be No One
May 26, 2023 through September 20, 2023
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art presents Sean Chandler: The One Defined To Be No One an exhibition supported via the auspices of the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association in partnership with the Missoula Art Museum.
Sean Chandler, a nationally and internationally celebrated artist, will give a lecture at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art on May 26, 2023 at 5:30pm. This event is Free and open to the public. The lecture coincides with the opening reception of the exhibition.
“Once in the mode to create, I like to just let the work take me where I’m supposed to go… But very often, parts of the painting that seemed to be the best expressions turn out to be better by covering them up. Maybe that is due in part to me, covering myself, layer by layer. More likely, however, it is a line formed by my own contemporary experiences in mainstream society connected to the years endured by ancestral experiences of dehumanization, racism, and cultural genocide.”
Sean Chandler is an Artist and enrolled member of the Aaniinen (Gros Ventre Nation). He is also the President of Aaniiih Nakoda College located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. In 2016, Dr. Chandler was appointed to the Montana Arts Council and in 2022, he was appointed to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. He acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Art in 1997, as well as a Master of Arts in Native American Studies in 2003 from Montana State University-Bozeman. He also attained a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from The University of Montana in 2014.
After a near 12-year hiatus, Chandler, who is originally from Glendive, returned to making art in 2018 when he joined the artist collective Paintallica. Chandler uses a variety of oil, acrylic, charcoal, paint stick and other media in the art featured in the exhibit. “Once in the mode to create, I like to just let the work take me where I’m supposed to go," said Chandler in a statement about the tour of the exhibit. He cited late Blackfeet artist Ernie Pepion, Salish Kootenai artist Corwin Clairmont and Bozeman-based artist Jay Schmidt as mentors.
Sean has always been involved in art, starting at an early age when his father taught him the traditional arts of his ancestors, including hide and tipi painting. Integrating those early teachings, Sean voices his own style to communicate the contemporary life he lives. Themes of racism, loneliness, depression, anger, humor, stereotypes, sovereignty, dependency, and cultural genocide reside within Sean’s work.
Chandler has received awards from and exhibited at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, and his work has been collected by the Museum of Natural History in Paris and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Museum in Minnesota.
For more information, contact Nicole Maria Evans, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, at nicole@the-square.org; (406)727-8255.
This exhibition originated at the Missoula Art Museum (MAM) and will travel to select locations throughout the state of Montana via the Montana Art Gallery Director’s Association, a statewide service organization for non-profit museums & galleries, and supported in part by grants from the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana; coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana's Cultural and Aesthetic Projects Trust Fund; and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) is north central Montana’s only contemporary art museum. Founded in 1977 and located in Great Falls, Montana, the museum resides in the original 1896 building of the historic Central High School. The Square is known for exhibitions that feature intriguing outsider and contemporary living artists, in conjunction with offering exciting exhibition programs and studio art classes to the community.
General Information
Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is located at 1400 1st Avenue North, Great Falls, Montana. Visitor hours: Tuesday 10am to 9pm, Wednesday through Friday 10am to 5pm, and Saturday from 10pm to 3pm, Sunday and Monday Closed. Closed on select holidays. Admission is FREE to the public, ask about Membership. Visit www.the-square.org, or call 406.727.8255 for further information.