Indian Influences Expressed in Art

Darin Henry remembers well the day an artist visited his junior high school in Los Angeles. The artist had just returned from an Audubon Society assignment, sketching birds and animals deep in the jungle.

“That’s when I knew what I wanted to be,” Henry said. Nearly two decades later, Henry is among those exhibiting work in “Native American Perspectives: 500 Years of Survival,” a multimedia contemporary art exhibit on view through Dec. 6 at the Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro.

Like Henry, the 22 Southern California artists in the show have been influenced by American Indian culture; all but four are indigenous American, Mexican or Central American, show curator Will Hipps said.

Henry, who traces his heritage to two northern New Mexico tribes--the Picurise and the Jicarilla Apache--was born and raised in Culver City with little understanding of his ancestors’ traditions. As a fine-arts student at Cal State Long Beach, he began investigating what it means to be part of an indigenous culture that was nearly destroyed by invading Europeans.

Henry, 29, has four large acrylic paintings in the show. He describes them as “Expressionistic, abstract and figurative” self-portraits. “I find inspiration in my neighborhood, in the whole U.S., in the world, I guess,” he said.

Although in style his work tends toward the traditional, in subject matter Henry said he is heavily influenced by American Indian thought, especially “the values and the heart of the Native American people. I see all things as nature, manipulated, but still very sacred.”

Nature’s sacredness has influenced many pieces in the show, curator Hipps said. “The ecology movement, the concern for the inter-connectedness of all things rather than the Western tradition of conquering nature to dominate and abuse it is very alive in the show.”

Alejandro de la Loza, 38, has six bronze sculptures in the show with universal and Aztec themes. Motherhood, life, death, seasonal changes and the temporal aspect of life appear in his recreations of doors, funerary urns and stylized bronzes, he said.

“In my work I hope to show the history of a people, part of which is genocide,” De la Loza said. “It’s not to point the finger but to pay homage to those who are no longer with us.”

In a book of photographs on view, artist David Stock documents the stereotypes of cowboy and Indian culture. “There’s no basis in reality there,” Hipps said. “And yet we expose children to that stereotype. This show debunks that stereotype.

“Most of the work is positive, and some of it is angry, as you might expect, but most looks toward healing our culture, rather than just pointing out the problem.”

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday at the Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro. Admission is free. For more information, call (310) 519-0936.