Jay Laber
Amskapi Pikuni/Blackfeet
1961–2019
Exhibit Year: 2020-2021
About the Artist
Central to Laber’s work is the idea of resurrection. He saw his sculptures as fighting stereotypes of Native people by updating themes, traditions, and values with contemporary ideas and materials. His sculptures don’t erase the past, but point to the present and future to show the Blackfeet and Native people as resilient, present, active, engaged. There’s an incredible ingenuity in how Jay created his pieces, selecting just the right found part to make the exact expression he was going for. His sense of humor comes through in the details. He made a strong connection between the abandoned cars on the reservations—his source materials—and stereotypes about Native people. The materials Laber used are unglamorous, discarded, beaten on, and forgotten. The vehicles or ‘Rez Wrecks’ found scattered across both the Blackfeet and Flathead reservations sometimes get used as a stand-in, or stereotype, for poverty and a host of social ills in both the media and popular perception. Laber brilliantly took these cars as raw materials, as well as the attendant insensitivities, and turned them on their head to create haunting pieces of contemporary sculpture that celebrate Native people and traditions. He turns a negative perception into a point of pride, self-determination, and resilience. In his art, Laber asserts Native identity, determination, and sovereignty by referencing a long past and strong cultural traditions to talk about where Native people are now and where they’re going in the future. America presently finds itself involved in a conversation about racial justice. Sculpture, like all art, provides insight into humanity and operates in several spheres simultaneously. It is interpreted differently by different people in different contexts, which is why Jay’s work can be about the history of colonization, oppression, and racism that Native people experience, while simultaneously being about hope, resilience, humor, and continuation. Laber’s work celebrates a people who have had to deal with the devastating effects of genocide and colonization, the active disruption of their culture and language, and the prevailing evils of racism. He actively made his work about the continuation of the Blackfeet culture as a proud statement against the active erasure of indigenous people, language, and culture.
—Brandon Reintjes, Senior Curator