First Major Retrospective for Award-Winning Ho-Chunk Photographer Tom Jones

Here We Stand opens July 23, 2022 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art

WEST BEND, Wis., June 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) presents Tom Jones: Here We Stand, the first major retrospective of the contemporary photographer. The exhibition will be on view July 23–October 9, 2022. An opening reception with the artist will be held on Saturday, July 23, 2:00–4:00. A robust schedule of programming accompanies the exhibition. Details at wisconsinart.org/tom-jones.

The exhibition features 120 photographs from sixteen bodies of work spanning twenty-five years. While each series is distinctly different in subject and photographic medium, Jones has remained consistent: Native American peoples are not vanishing, assimilating, or frozen in time. Native American communities are diverse, changing, and multidimensional with a commitment to family, land, and tribal community. Working as an "insider" member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Jones deploys the lens of contemporary photography to explore personal and deeply felt issues of race, identity, and cultural appropriation.

"Unlike the photographers of late 1800s such as Edward S. Curtis whose staged scenes captured a romanticized Indian culture, Jones's portraits are firmly anchored in present day," said Director of Exhibitions Graeme Reid. "His photography offers a counter-narrative to the traditional depictions of Indigenous culture."

The Madison-based artist has earned accolades for his powerful and insightful photographs, including a recent second-place prize at the National Portrait Gallery's 2022 Outwin Boochever competition. His work is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and many others. He has a BFA, MFA, and MA, and is a professor of photography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

An accompanying catalogue provides a thorough and sensitive examination of the photographer who is rapidly becoming the voice of his generation.

This exhibition is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Images provided upon request

A vital cultural center and educational institution, the Museum of Wisconsin Art collects and interprets American art through the lens of a single state. MOWA has two permanent venues—the West Bend "Mothership" and MOWA | DTN in Milwaukee's Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel—as well as two partnering community organizations that create access across the state.

SOURCE Museum of Wisconsin Art