Unwritten Histories

This February, Milk Moon is proud to present ‘Unwritten Histories,’ a group show featuring work by Kelly Tapia-Chuning, Scout Dunbar, Meghan Purcell, Vanessa Valero, and Adam Young. Through a diverse array of media, these four artists explore ideas of both personal and cultural histories using visual imagery and materiality in place of explicit verbal communication.

With her carefully dismantled vintage serapes (woven Mexican blankets), textile artist Kelly Tapia-Chuning explores both personal and cultural history through the lens of her mixed-Indigenous ancestry. Tapia-Chuning critically examines the complications inherent in exploring Indigenous histories within the confines of the very systems that sought to erase them, while simultaneously reclaiming the serapes themselves by re-centering their narrative around Indigenous healing.

Working in a mixed media art form synthesized from printmaking, drawing, and creative necessity, Tucson-based artist Scout Dunbar crafts compelling landscapes and tableaus of flora and fauna inspired by the Southwest. Even before making the move from New York to Arizona, Dunbar was inspired by the expansive landscapes of the desert. Since moving to the Southwest, the subtle palettes and historic textiles of the Sonoran desert have furthered infused themselves into her richly textured works on Mulberry paper.

A self-taught painter born and raised in the lowlands of Louisiana, Adam Young draws on themes of nature, folklore, history, and storytelling in stylized, narrative works that combine text, imagery, and symbolism. Intimately embodying his own personal ethic, Young's acrylic tableaus on Douglas Fir tell tales of personal mythology and a spirituality that views humans as merely part of nature, instead of its masters.

Carrying on the ancient tradition of wool felting, fiber artist Meghan Purcell creates large scale felted artworks that pay homage to both her home in the mountain west and the generations of women before her who have worked in harmony with the land around them. From her home in rural Montana, Purcell sources all of her Icelandic sheeps’ wool locally, including from her own small herd that she cares for and shears, from source to studio.