Spencer Keeton Cunningham

This piece of original artwork comes ready to hang.

"I'm making new works available as a benefit to remaining displaced Water Protector refugees. Right now I'm attempting to raise funds for my good friend LEAD HORSE who, with others are still fighting strong. I have been helping get funds to Lead Horse that he then uses and shares with others in the movement to get from place to place.

Some water Protectors that left the Standing Rock camps are still in route to other pipelines including the Hudson pipeline. I just talked to Lead Horse and he told me after Hudson he is headed to the Diamond pipeline, a pipeline planned to go from Oklahoma to Tennessee. The Mekasi Camp Horinek of the Ponca said there “definitely” will be an encampment.

A 440-mile pipeline by Plains All American Pipeline & Valero Corp. would go from Oklahoma to Tennessee across Arkansas. The Arkansas River & other waterways are threatened. "Plains All American" has a bad environmental record & with recent, high-intensity earthquakes, the pipeline is a serious threat to drinking water.

Mike Casteel, of the American Indian Movement – Indian Territory, provided documentation showing that the Diamond Pipeline will cross the historic Trail of Tears. Hundreds of unmarked burial sites along the route will be disturbed.

I just got done talking to Lead Horse, he told me some of the "the young men and women are home now and honor songs and gifts are coming. We're making our way back east slowly. We will be heading for the Hudson pipeline and then to Oklahoma to meet head people for the Diamond pipeline. So looking to raise more money--still rolling to next stop." - Spencer Keeton Cunningham

#spencerkeetoncunningham #nodapl


ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Spencer Keeton Cunningham’s work is especially provocative. His work is at times frightening,images on the destruction of American Indian culture. It is like the art version of a Sherman Alexie poem, scathing and upsetting, but somehow with hope and a sense of humor. It’s impossible to capture the power of Cunningham’s stuff with one picture. The installations as a whole are what does it.

Find more by Spencer Keeton Cunningham at Instagram @spencerkeetoncunningham

“The most amusing work at "N.D.N.: Native Diaspora Now" is Spencer Keeton Cunningham's Chief Ramen Heart, which incorporates acrylic and spray paints, a pack of American Spirits, and, yes, ramen noodles to portray a cartoonish Native American. X-ray style, we see the figure has a hamburger in his brain, cigarettes by his throat, and ramen over his heart. With his spindly (almost monstrous) fingers, he appears to be plucking a black arrow that has pierced his head and the burger. It's gross and amusing. Cunningham and Castaneda are members of the Indigenous Arts Coalition, a Bay Area organization started in 2008 that advocates for Native American artists…" – Jonathan Curiel SF Weekly, August 29 2012

"In his multidisciplinary work Spencer Keeton Cunningham creates installations, paintings, drawings, films, and more often investigating topics that relate to his personal relationship to Native American rights and representation." – Justin Hoover Curator and Gallery Director SOMArts, San Francisco, California

"Spencer Keeton Cunningham’s work is especially provocative. His work is at times frightening,images on the destruction of American Indian culture. It is like the art version of a Sherman Alexie poem, scathing and upsetting, but somehow with hope and a sense of humor. It’s impossible to capture the power of Cunningham’s stuff with one picture. The installations as a whole are what does it." -America Singing

“The scale and color density of artist Spencer Keeton Cunningham‘s work makes it almost impossible to ignore—but it’s the poignant, painful subject matter that makes his work difficult to forget. By pushing around the overly romanticized notion of North American Indian culture as a series of icons--Cunningham is able to speak to the viewer through short, graphic strokes that hit hard. He’s interested in presenting his own take on the demonization of tribal people in American culture.” - Beautiful Decay Magazine