Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Tough Skin, Soft Ribs
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Light Work presents "Tough Skin, Soft Ribs," a selection of photographs from our collection by Marcus Xavier Chormicle, Jeremy Dennis, Amy Elkins, Tarrah Krajnak, Shelley Niro, Wendy Red Star, Pamela Shields, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Kathy Vargas, and Cristina Velásquez. This exhibition is curated by Cali M. Banks, who manages communications and outreach at Light Work.

Resistant to 19th-century staged portraits of Indigenous people and the posed photographic work of Edward S. Curtis, the chosen artists confront colonial frameworks of Northern, Central, and Southern Indigeneity. This grouping of artists points back to the Four Directions, a cultural foundation that honors a holistic view of our interconnectedness; a place where borders do not exist, and we can join together as relatives. Through spectacles of Indigenous tropes, satire, religious testaments, diasporic histories, and fantasy, these artists are unpacking stereotypes, forcing a reclamation of personal and collective identities.