Exhibition Design
Smithsonian NMAI

Wonderful show that traveled from the Peabody Essex Museum to Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan. A show of one of the most influential, innovative and talented Native American artists of the 20th-century, T.C. Cannon. Cannon was an artist, poet, musician, veteran of Vietnam and died tragically young but left behind an amazing and bold body of work. Much of his work reflected his cultural heritage and experience during a turbulent social and political era. He used bold color combinations and mash-ups of Native and non-Native elements. Designed and laid out the large-scale graphics of his poems and song lyrics that accompanied some of his paintings. Also worked on selecting paint and silkscreened text colors, and designed elements throughout the show for various sections. Created a layering of color that served as transitions from one area of the exhibition to the next and also served as designs for the intro text. Poems accompanied some of the paintings and we wanted to render them as a nice complement to the pieces that didn’t overpower or compete with them.