Generations collide and powerful art emerges at Minneapolis’ All My Relations

For South Dakota-based artist Ray “Rock Boy” Janis, mentors have become his collaborators. Together, they’re central to Janis’ new exhibition at Minneapolis’ All My Relations Gallery, called “Sakowin Synergy.” 

The show’s title refers to  the people of the Seven Council Fires – the Oceti Sakowin – an historic alliance of Dakota, Lakota and Nakota nations. It explores cultural identity through Janis’ superhero motifs and fast cars while putting his work in conversation with his good friend Sheldon Starr and established artists and mentors like Dwayne “Chuck” Wilcox and Jim Yellowhawk. Yellowhawk comes from the Itazipco Band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe while Wilcox, Starr and Janis are Oglala Lakota.

Related: Exhibit at All My Relations explores the role of aunties in Indigenous culture

One piece in particular, “Rez Boys Boogie” (2026), highlights the collaboration. Like many of the works in the show, it employs the tradition of ledger art drawn or painted onto historical bookkeeping ledgers. It’s an evolution of hide painting, adapted by Native artists in the 19th century when traditional materials became scarce. 

The work, on a long rectangular canvas, depicts a pow wow circle from above. Both Yellowhawk and Wilcox are dancers, Janis said, so they each painted themselves as dancing figures on either side of the image. Janis created the central circle and the sky elements while Starr added bat imagery and dynamic geometric forms. Despite four distinct artistic voices, the composition feels unified, with the towering dancers framing the world as though preparing to enter the circle.

The painting also marks a new conversation between Yellowhawk and Wilcox. Though they’ve known each other for years, Janis said, “that’s the only time they ever did something on the same paper together.” 

All My Relations director Angela Two Stars said the gallery first worked with Janis and Starr in 2020, when they participated in an emerging artist cohort through a partnership with Hennepin Theatre Trust. The gallery later exhibited their work together in a 2022 group show.

Wilcox and Yellowhawk “have been like mentors to the younger artist generation,” Two Stars said. “They have the old-school style, whereas [Janis] and [Starr] are more contemporary and digital. So the show is kind of blending those together, and using their work to speak to the influences of each other.”

The opportunity to feature the four artists together first came together when Yellowhawk saw one of Janis’ paintings inspired by a character from “The Fantastic Four.” Yellowhawk invited Janis to contribute imagery to one of Yellowhawk’s paintings.

“I was like, ‘For real?’ It’s one of my heroes growing up in the art world.”

When I stopped by the exhibition opening on July 9, visitors were greeted with fry bread and other treats from Pow Wow Grounds, the coffee shop adjacent to All My Relations. Janis was inside the gallery with his family, including his young daughter, who bounded about with curious energy.

Related: Minnesota Anishinaabe artists well-represented at major new exhibition in Detroit

The festive atmosphere was a shift from earlier this year, when All My Relations became a hub for mutual aid in response to Operation Metro Surge. The exhibition, originally scheduled to open in January, was postponed accordingly. It is now on view through September 5.

Janis’ anti-ICE painting “Tatanka O’sni” is on display, as well. In it, he renders a bison in icy shades of blue. It charges through a field of diagonal lines as though breaking through ice, while angular blue streaks radiate outward like manifestations of its spirit. 

Janis’ exhibition is one of several strong shows by Native artists on view around the Twin Cities this summer and fall. Here are a few others worth seeking out: 

“Encounters”

• Where: Bockley Gallery, 2123 W 21st St., Minneapolis
• What: Maggie Thompson began making masks at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. After the murder of George Floyd, she began printing them with messages of uprising and liberation. Thompson’s work addresses not only Native identity but anti-Blackness. As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, the exhibition serves as a reminder that Native nations have lived on these lands since long before the country’s founding. Thompson, who is Ojibwe from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, creates work rooted in that history and place. Open through August 15.

“Queering Indigeneity”

• Where: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert St. N., St. Paul 
• What: A thoughtful exhibition celebrating Two-Spirit, queer, and gender-expansive Native artists. Open through August 16.

“Merciless: Indigenous Lands Since 1776”

• Where: Weisman Art Museum, 333 E. River Rd., Minneapolis
• What: A timely exhibition tracking land sovereignty, featuring local Native artists and a Native market on opening day. Opening September 26.

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