The exhibition titled “No Rezervations” came out of many discussions that Josh and I have had about the show Reservation Dogs. The portraits you see here are of the characters from the show, which Josh and I agreed is an important turning point in how the indigenous people of North America are portrayed in American media. In the creation of the exhibition’s title we looked at the idea that the world would be a better place if there was no need for reservations. The misspelling of the word “reservation” derives from the slang of calling such places “the rez”, most liked based on the CBC show The Rez.

When questioning Josh why he chose to paint these characters, he responded,

“Sometimes I like to create without the restrictions of a concept, but just the joy to paint. I really enjoyed the authenticity of the show and felt it would be fun to paint the cast of indigenous peoples without much thought”.

That doesn’t end with the idea of he just paints portraits of actors from shows he likes, but the deeper meaning revolves around the idea that this show Is portraying characters that aren’t pigeonholed in the stereotypes of the past.  This exhibition starts with a portrait of Chief Hatcher conveying his importance to his people and continues with portraits of indigenous people who also create importance of changing the views of the American Indian cultures. Josh has documented the process of creating these portraits on his social media accounts and the praise he has received has been deafening, not only from his followers but the actors themselves, who have been made aware of these paintings.

I hope you enjoy this online exhibit, and I look forward to seeing Josh’s art in other future exhibits, as his work continues to get more notoriety.