America Meredith

Background

America Meredith was born in 1972 to Howard Meredith, a Cherokee author and American Indian Studies professor, and Mary Ellen Meredith, a Cherokee museum director and curator. Meredith's maternal grandfather was William Thomas Milam, a Cherokee photographer and aeronautical engineer from Oklahoma. W. T. Milam's uncle was J. B. Milam, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and his great-uncle was Will Rogers, a Cherokee humorist, actor, and movie producer. Meredith was named for Will Roger's mother, Mary America Schrimpsher Rogers.

During much of the 1990s, Meredith worked as a bike messenger in San Francisco, California, where she was active in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6's organizing campaign of the Bay Area urgent delivery industry.

Meredith earned her AA at City College of San Francisco; her BFA in painting from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma; and her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California in 1995. She also attended the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Artwork

Meredith paints with acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and egg tempera. One art series, The Cherokee Spokespeople Project, involved handmade paintings and drawings illustrating Cherokee words reproduced as spokecards, which were distributed to cycle couriers and cyclists worldwide.

Art career

Besides creating her own art, Meredith curates shows such as the 2006 Frybread and Roses: Art of Native American Labor and Freedom of Information: The FBI, Indian Country, and Surveillance, which she co-curated with Ishkoten Dougi (Jicarilla Apache) in 2010. At Ahalenia Studios in Santa Fe, Meredith and other Native American artists, such as Melissa Melero (Paiute) and Sam Haozous (Chiricahua Apache), curate shows "too edgy, too silly, or otherwise inappropriate for other local galleries."

Honors

In 2006, Meredith tied for SF Weekly's Best Painter award. She was award a Cultural Equity Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, and she participated in the National Museum of the American Indian visiting artist fellowship. She has won numerous awards in juried art shows at the Cherokee Heritage Center, SWAIA's Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum, and others, including the 2007 IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award - For Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts.

Personal

Meredith serves on the board of the Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council, a grassroots community organization based in northeastern Oklahoma. She is active in the movement to revitalization indigenous languages. Meredith says she sees indigenous tribal people as "the future, not the past, in our globalized world."

Notable exhibits

• 2014: Crossing Four Rivers, Allan Houser Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
• 2012-2013: Octopus Dreams: Works on Paper by Contemporary Native American Artists, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM; Samara Regional Art Museum, Samara, Russia; Novosibirsk Biennial of Contemporary Graphic Arts, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia; Togliatti Art Museum, Togliatti, Russia; Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
• 2010–2014: Indigenous Brilliance: Contemporary Native American Art Exhibition, Highgate Institute, London, England (2012); Palazzo Vecchio, Seborga, Italy; Casa de la Señoría, Olocau, Spain (2013); Amsterdam; curated by Elijah Vandenberg and Lyle Toledo Yazzie.
• 2012-3: Encoded: Traditional Patterns/A Contemporary Response, the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth.
• 2012: Reconquête par l'Art, Festival America de Vincennes 2012, La galerie Orenda, Vincennes, France
• 2012: Messengers, Rainmaker Art Gallery, Bristol, England, curated by Joanne Prince.
• 2012: Low-Rez: Native American Lowbrow Art, Santa Fe, NM
• 2009-2011 Intrigue and Novelty. Aurora University and Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Chicago, Illinois.
• 2010 The Cherokee Spokespeople Project. The Chapel at the Cherokee Heritage Center, Park Hill, Oklahoma.
• 2009 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Art Show. United Nations, New York, New York.
• 2007 At the Crossroads. Oklahoma State Capitol: East Gallery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
• 2006-7 Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith. Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• 2007 Do Not Park Bicycles: Aboriginal Cycling Culture. Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
• 2007 American Icons through Indigenous Eyes. District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC.
• 2005-7 Impacted Nations: Energy Development on Tribal Lands. Traveling exhibit.
• 2006 Native Pop. New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.