The Art of Tom Farris Exhibit

Tom Farris’ work speaks through the comforting forms of popular culture, but what he’s saying isn’t always reassuring. As he puts it, “My Trojan Horse of aesthetics interprets the contemporary First American experience using pop iconography of the dominant culture. It starts simply; you recognize something familiar in my artwork and then, before you know it, I have you thinking.” Farris’ art unsettles stereotypical ideas of Native people and culture, offering a complex and challenging representation of North American Indigeneity in Postmodernity.

Adding significance to this exhibit, The Art of Tom Farris represents a homecoming. While Nebraska takes its name from Ñíbrathge, the Otoe phrase for “flat water,” Otoe culture was otherwise erased from the region when settler colonialism dislocated the Otoe-Missouria Tribe in the Nineteenth Century. Farris, a member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, is showing his work for the first time in Nebraska, making this exhibit a moment of aesthetic reconciliation for both artist and audience.

The Art of Tom Farris will be on display in the Osborne Family Gallery inside Criss Library from March 27th to April 29th, 2022. The Osborne Family Gallery is open during the same hours that Criss Library is open. Join us on Friday, April 29th from 2:30pm to 4:30pm in the Osborne Family Gallery for a meet and greet with the artist Tom!

About the Artist

Tom Farris has been immersed in American Indian art his entire life. The child of passionate collectors, Farris spent a good deal of his formative years in various museums, galleries, and artists' homes. Having such intimate contact with the genre, Tom found inspiration for his own growing artistic aptitude. A member of the Cherokee Nation and Otoe-Missouria tribe, he draws from his culture and his life-long influence of American Indian art to create his works. You can find his artist website here.