Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is an enrolled Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, Montana. In a career spanning over 40 years, her paintings, drawings, and prints have taken on a number of social and political issues, often through abstract painted passages merged with found imagery. In this work from 2003, painted passages take on the geometry of the crossword puzzle at lower left, yet also mimic quilt patterns as well as the pixelated edges of the word “Oligarchy.” This layered work asks the viewer to piece together its various components by navigating a range of historical references and symbolic imagery. Smith has received numerous awards, such as the Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award, New York; the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters Grant; the Women’s Caucus for the Arts Lifetime Achievement; and the College Art Association Women’s Award. Smith’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Mankind, Vienna; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC; MoMA, New York; and the Whitney Museum, New York.
