Erica Lord: Simulacrum & Subversion

Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiaq) was born in Alaska, but abiding to her cultural tradition of nomadic living, has spent her years bouncing both physically and metaphorically between her home village in Alaska and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. An interdisciplinary artist, Lord explores the ideas and concepts that grow from the experience of living with a multi-faced identity. Lord explores race, ethnicity, gender, and memory, hoping that through generous doses of narcissism, she will find answers.

Lord has exhibited in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (New York), Alaka Native Arts Foundation Gallery (Anchorage), Institute of American Indian Arts Museum (Santa Fe), 10th Havana Bienal (Havana, Cuba), Carl N. Gorman Museum at the University of California Davis, Musee du Quai Branly (Paris), and Schopf Gallery on Lake (Chicago). She received a B.A. from Carleton College (2001) and an MFA in Sculpture/Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2006). She is currently teaching in the art department at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

The artist will lead a video storytelling workshop with Native American students in mid-January. The resulting video piece will be on display in the exhibition, and a catalogue about the workshop and exhibition will be published this spring.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by the Friends of the DeVos Art Museum.