Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky
September 28, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky is a career retrospective of nationally renowned artist Joe Feddersen (b. 1953, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation). This exhibition gathers four decades of the prolific artist’s prints, glass, weaving, and ceramics in the largest and most comprehensive showing of his career to date. From miniatures to wall-sized installations, the exhibition features more than 120 works.
The collective richness of his body of work is testament to Feddersen’s love for the land, water, and sky that have bounded his world, both physically and metaphorically. Moving fluidly between media, Feddersen cultivates a visual vernacular that draws upon recognizable signs, symbols, and forms. With poignancy and humor, he transforms the familiar into a world of juxtapositions that confront how we see, use, and treat the natural world. In everything he creates, Feddersen communicates his Plateau-Native viewpoint of the powerful American landscape and our interconnected relationship with it.
Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky is accompanied by a 200-page, fully illustrated exhibition catalogue published by the museum and distributed by University of Washington Press. Contributors include heather ahtone, Rachel C. Allen, Anya Montiel, and a selection of poetry composed by past collaborators of the artist.
After its premiere at the MAC, the exhibition will travel to the High Desert Museum in Bend, OR (September 27, 2025-January 18, 2026) and the Missoula Art Museum in Montana (September 2026- December 2026).
Organized by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, this exhibition is cocurated by Rachel C. Allen (Nimiipuu [Nez Perce]), Curator of Special Projects at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and heather ahtone (Choctaw/Chicakasaw Nation), Director of Curatorial Affairs at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. Award-winning graphic designer Kevin Coochwytewa (Isleta Pueblo/Hopi) designed the exhibition, which includes videos produced by Spokane-based, Native-owned production company, Counting Coup Media.
About the Artist
Joe Feddersen was a professor of art at The Evergreen State College from 1989 to 2009 and is Emeritus Faculty. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2001 he received an Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art award. He lives and works in his hometown of Omak, in Northeastern Washington. When not creating art or teaching, Feddersen also serves as a writer, curator, consultant and active member of the Colville Confederated Tribal Arts & Humanities Board.
Joe Feddersen,Gathering Under the Stars, 2010, waxed linen, wool, fabric, andthread,8½x 7½x 7½in. (21.6 x 19.1 x 19.1 cm).Collection of the artist; courtesy studio e gallery, Seattle,Washington. Photograph by Dean Davis. © Joe Feddersen
Joe Feddersen tells the story of the sky
Major support for Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky is provided by
