May Art Exhibition - All My Relations: Phillip Pursel and Sydney Pursel

May Art Exhibition – All My Relations, featuring father and daughter, Phillip J. Pursel and Sydney Jane Brooke Campbell Maybrier Pursel. Curated by Daniela Failla

Masks and social distancing required. See our Facebook Page for link to virtual event.

—–Phillip J. PurselPhillip J. Pursel was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri and is an enrolled member of The Ioway Tribe of Kansas & Nebraska – Bear Clan. Self taught, Pursel has explored many different mediums including painting, photography, printmaking, ceramics, traditional beadwork and moccasin making. He is well traveled and has explored the Southwest where he was introduced to the Pueblo & Hopi way of life. He takes imagery & inspiration from Native cultures. In addition to art, he is interested in traditional agriculture and dry farming focusing on the three sisters, corn, beans and squash. In the near future he hopes to live with and learn from the Hopi.   Most of his recent work is inspired by oral history and stories from indigenous cultures from North America.   “I found inspiration in my latest paintings from the Hopi people in Northern Arizona. Hopi means “peaceful people.” The Hopi are an ancient culture and have an oral history dating back about five thousand years. In one Hopi prophecy about guardianship, The Great Spirit makes an appearance on earth and gathers all the people on an island. He then sends four groups of people in four directions. The Great Spirit tells the people that over time I will turn you into four different colors and give you teachings. These will be known as the original teachings.” – Phillip J. Pursel
—– Sydney Jane Brooke Campbell Maybrier PurselSydney Pursel is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in interactive, socially engaged, and performance arts. Through art she explores personal identity drawing from her Indigenous and Irish Catholic roots. Some of Sydney’s projects are used to educate others about food politics, assimilation, language loss, appropriation, and history in addition to projects amongst her own community focusing on language acquisition, culture, and art.
Pursel’s work has been shown at public parks, universities, galleries, and alternative spaces in Columbia, MO; Fort Collins, CO; Fulton, MO; Harpers Ferry, IA; Iowa City, IA; Kansas City, MO; Laramie, WY; Lawrence, KS; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Santa Fe, NM; Seattle, WA; Sheridan, WY; Toronto, ON; Ucross, WY; Vermillion, SD; and White Cloud, KS. Sydney received her MFA in Expanded Media at the University of Kansas and her BFA in Painting from the University of Missouri. She was the first recipient of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists, received the Harpo Foundation Fellowship for Native American Artists at the Vermont Studio Center, and was selected for the Indigenous Arts Initiative Residency program through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and the University of Kansas.