User:KwapongKwesi/sandbox

Jackson Polys is a Tlingit Native visual artist and filmmaker whose work is based between in Alaska and New York. His work examines the constraints and viability of desires for Indigenous advancement. Through his work Jackson seeks to dissolve boundaries between perceptions of traditional Native culture. Polys primary works through carved sculptures incorporating materials such as abalone, glass, liquids, resins, silicone, as well as the ready-made.

Early life and education
Polys was born in the Tlingit territory located in the Pacific Northwest of the United-States near the border of British-Canada. At the early age of three, Polys began carving with his father Nathan Jackson (artist). He was adopted into the Dakl’aweidí Clan of the Jilkáat Kwáan and worked as a visual artist as Stephen Paul Jackson and Stron Softi. During this time of study and practice, Polys began to carve large-scale totemic sculptures. He had solo exhibitions at the Alaska State Museum and the Anchorage Museum. Polys received his BA in Art History and Visual Arts from Columbia University (2013), and holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University (2015). He is the recipient of a 2017 Native Arts and Culture Foundation (NACF) Mentor Artist Fellowship and Advisor to Indigenous New York.

Art
Polys work is primarily based in wood carving drawing from his traditional training with his father Nathan Jackson (artist). He works to integrate research with traditional native-american carving techniques. He also worked to abstract form line representations which departs from the more literal representation in traditional form lines. In one such work "Manifest X" Jackson Polys & Robert Mills to created “new activations of ceremonial items” as “Indigenous people negotiating the complexities of settler colonialism”. Through his work, he “seeks to dissolve artificial boundaries between perceptions of traditional Native art forms, practices, and contemporary life... [His] practice reflects an inquiry into the limits and viability of desires for indigenous growth.”

Jackson Polys taught at Columbia from 2016–17, and was advisor to Indigenous New York with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Polys received a 2017 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Mentor Artist Fellowship.

Selected exhibitions

 * Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Washington
 * Goldbelt Corporation, Alaska
 * Cities of Ketchikan and Saxman, Alaska
 * Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
 * Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska
 * the Overseas Museum, Bremen, Germany
 * Artists Space and Hercules Art/Studio Program, New York City
 * James Gallery, Pittsburgh
 * Ketchikan Museums, Alaska
 * Microscope Gallery, New York City
 * Sundance Film Festival
 * Whitney Museum of American Art.
 * Manifest X, Main Street Gallery
 * Soboleff House Posts, Walter Soboleff Building
 * 2018 Unholding, Artists Space in New York, NY