MSP Terminal 1, B Tunnel Projection Gallery
These animated vignettes are based upon the Ojibwe people’s narratives about this region of the continent; narratives that exist across time and space. Their persistence over time is purposeful as they help invoke an understanding of the water, the land, and the deep sky. Today, Ojibwe people of this region perceive the landscape with these stories in mind. It is through this perspective that you are invited to see and hear as well.
Artist, Jonathan Thunder, an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, was raised in the Twin Cities. He shares these contemporary adaptations of stories heard during his travels in northern Minnesota, where seven Ojibwe reservations are located, including Mille Lacs, Bois Forte, White Earth, Leech Lake, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage and the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe.
Minnesota is the ancestral and present-day home to both Ojibwe and Dakota tribes. In the central and southern Minnesota areas there are four federally recognized Dakota bands including: Lower Sioux, Prairie Island, Shakopee Mdewakanton and Upper Sioux Community. In addition, Minneapolis and St. Paul have the biggest tribal population in the United States, with over 32 different tribes registered in their public school systems.
ARTIST BIO
Jonathan Thunder infuses his personal lens with real-time world experiences using a wide range of media. He is known for his surrealistic paintings, as well as digitally-animated films and installations in which he addresses subject matter of personal experience and humorous social commentary. Jonathan is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, and makes his home and studio in Duluth, Minnesota.
He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico and studied Visual Effects and Motion Graphics in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Art Institutes International. His work has been featured in many states, regional, and national exhibitions, as well as in local and international publications. Thunder is the recipient of a 2020-21 Pollock – Krasner Foundation Award for his risk taking in painting. He has also won several awards for his short films in national and international competitions. His painting and digital work is in the permanent collections of multiple museums and universities.
To learn more about Manifest’o and Jonathan Thunder, visit Thunderfineart.com
